Page:Philological Museum v2.djvu/415

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405
HEADERTEXT.
405

071 the Birth-Year of Demosthenes, 405 apyia Kai papooi kql KaKwv ajueTptat' kcu 7ras 6 tov /ueLpa- KLdKOV y^povo^ ecFTiv VTTO acoCppovLO'Ta^ Kal Trjv eirl tov9 vgov^ dipecrtv tyj^ e^ 'Apeiov irayov /^ofXiys. Boeckh indeed applies this description to the later, legal ephebia^^, supposing cy- ypa(prj to allude to the Xrj^tap'^LKov ypaiujuaTelov^ which he thinks is confirmed by the numerous Attic inscriptions of the gymnastic class (see his Corpus Inscr. P. ii. CI. v. n. 265) containing lists of ephebi with the names of their denies annexed. But Platner (Beitraege zur Kenntniss des Attis- ehen Rechts) objects, that it is scarcely credible that youths who were already entrusted with the use of arms, with the defense of their country, and the management of their estates, who might be fathers of families, should have been still subject to such a rigorous and degrading discipline, which is similarly described by Teles in Stobaeus (Flor. T. 98. 72) : €(j)rjjjo^ yeyovev e/mirakLv tov KOcrfXT^Tj^v (pojSelTai^ tov TratSo- rpiprjVj TOV OTrXo^ayov^ tov yv/uvaaiap'^ov. 'Ytto ttclvtcov TOVTcov /jLaaTiyovTaL^ TrapaTrjpelTat, TpayrfKi^eTai. This au- thor indeed adds : e^ ecp^ficov eaTi Kal rj^ri eiKoai €twv, €ti (popeLTaij Kal TrapaTrjpel Kal yv/uvaaiap'^ov Kal (jTpaTi]yov* But, as Boeckh observes. Teles, who appears to have drawn his description from the Axiochus, is of no greater authority as to the time than Harpocratio or Suidas : so that perhaps it is not necessary, in order to save his credit, to read with Valckenoer Ta^iapyov for yvfivaaiap'^^ov. The context of the passage in the Axiochus seems strongly to confirm Platner'^s opinion: for the author, in describing the miseries to be en- countered in the next stage of life, uses expressions which may be very aptly referred to the new condition of the young man who at the end of his gymnastic education was ad- mitted to his estate, and within a few months afterward sent ^ He observes (comment. 1. de ephebis) : ephebi conditio (to e<pi]P€veLv) duo maxime munera complexa est^ gymnasiorum laborem et militiae rudimenta; et in gymnasiis quidem paruere gymnasiarchis, sophronistis, cosmetis, anticosmetis, gym- nastis, sive paedotribis, toti gregi magistrorum : and hence he is inclined (though Terence's imperfect acquaintance with Athenian usages renders it unsafe to attach any definite value to his expressions on these subjects) to explain Andr. i. I. 24 is post- quam excessit ex ephebis, Liberius vivendi fuit potestas : nam antea Qui scire posses aut ingenium noscere Dum aetas metus magister prohibebant. In the Eunuch, as Boeckh observes, there is a manifest confusion of ideas, or want of information : there, V. 1. 8, Chffirea is described as ephehiis : iv. 4. 25 annos natus sedecim : yet he is (ir. 2. 59) custos publice in Piraeus.