Μηλόβοτος χώρα
sheep-pasturage territory
Translated by David Whitehead7 Apr 2008Vetting: high4 revisions
Translation
[Meaning territory] denuded of its inhabitants by the enemy, and occupied by farm-animals. The word [mhlo/botos ]1 also occurs in Lycurgus, in the [speech] Against Autokles: "[...] but also he gave up Attica to sheep-pasturage".2 When it was being deliberated how to treat the city, the Athenians were collectively advising giving it up to sheep-pasturage, but the Phocians' rejoinder was to save it.3
Greek original · Adler’s text
Μηλόβοτος χώρα· ὑπὸ πολεμίων ἐξερημωθεῖσα, ἣν κατανέμεται τὰ τετράποδα. κεῖται δὲ τοὔνομα καὶ παρὰ τῷ Λυκούργῳ ἐν τῷ κατ' Αὐτοκλέους· ἀλλὰ καὶ μηλόβοτον τὴν Ἀττικὴν ἀνῆκε. βουλευομένου δὲ ὅπως τῇ πόλει χρήσηται Ἀθηναῖοι μὲν μηλόβοτον ἀνεῖναι συνεβούλευον, Φωκεῖς δὲ ἀντεῖπον σῶσαι.
Betacode
*mhlo/botos xw/ra: u(po\ polemi/wn e)cerhmwqei=sa, h(\n katane/metai ta\ tetra/poda. kei=tai de\ tou)/noma kai\ para\ tw=| *lukou/rgw| e)n tw=| kat' *au)tokle/ous: a)lla\ kai\ mhlo/boton th\n *)attikh\n a)nh=ke. bouleuome/nou de\ o(/pws th=| po/lei xrh/shtai *)aqhnai=oi me\n mhlo/boton a)nei=nai sunebou/leuon, *fwkei=s de\ a)ntei=pon sw=sai.
Notes (3)
- cf. generally mu 929, mu 930. The present entry is one of the ones attributed by Wenzel to an unidentifiable rhetorical source. For the major problems and inaccuracies it presents, see notes 2-3 below.
- 1See also under kappa 2341. ↩
- 2No such speech by Lycurgus is otherwise attested. The title transmitted has probably strayed in from mu 928 (q.v.), but what title has it replaced? Orthodox suggestions, first made in the 1820s, are the Against Autolykos (= lost speech III) or the Against Lysikles (= lost speech XII). For speculation that the present phrase is actually a version of a surviving passage of Lycurgus -- Against Leocrates 145 (
a)lla\ kai\ o( mhlo/boton th\n *)attikh\n a)nei=nai ) -- see Whitehead 150 n.42. ↩ - 3This second part of the entry lurches back from the 330s to 405/4, when the Spartans and their allies were discussing the appropriate fate for Athens as the loser of the Peloponnesian War; so 'Athenians' should be, as Küster realised, Thebans (cf. Isocrates 14.31, using this word; more generally Plutarch, Lysander 15.3). ↩
References
David Whitehead, "Absentee Athenians: Lysias Against Philon and Lycurgus Against Leocrates," Museum Helveticum 63 (2006): 132-151
Linked from2 entries
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Revision history4 revisions · last 21 May 2013
- Revised — David Whitehead
- betacode cosmeticule — Catharine Roth
- another x-ref; another keyword; cosmetics — David Whitehead
- added keyword, set status — Catharine Roth
- Translated — David Whitehead