Laudator Temporis Acti

[Demosthenes] 25 (Against Aristogeiton, I), § 16 (tr. J.H. Vince):

The law is that which all men ought to obey for many reasons, but above all because every law is an invention and gift of the gods, a tenet of wise men, a corrective of errors voluntary and involuntary, and a general covenant of the whole State, in accordance with which all men in that State ought to regulate their lives.

ᾧ [sc. νόμῷ] πάντας πείθεσθαι προσήκει διὰ πολλά, καὶ μάλισθ᾿ ὅτι πᾶς ἐστι νόμος εὕρημα μὲν καὶ δῶρον θεῶν, δόγμα δ᾿ ἀνθρώπων φρονίμων, ἐπανόρθωμα δὲ τῶν ἑκουσίων καὶ ἀκουσίων ἁμαρτημάτων, πόλεως δὲ συνθήκη κοινή, καθ᾿ ἣν πᾶσι προσήκει ζῆν τοῖς ἐν τῇ πόλει.

Id., § 24:

All the noble and reverend qualities that adorn and preserve our city,—sobriety, orderliness, the respect of your younger men for parents and elders—hold their own, backed by the laws, against the base qualities of indecency, audacity, and shamelessness.

πάντα γὰρ τὰ σεμνὰ καὶ καλὰ καὶ δι᾿ ὧν ἡ πόλις κοσμεῖται καὶ σῴζεται, ἡ σωφροσύνη, πρὸς τοὺς γονέας καὶ τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους ὑμῶν ἡ παρὰ τῶν νέων αἰσχύνη, ἡ εὐταξία, τῇ τῶν νόμων προσθήκῃ τῶν αἰσχρῶν περίεστι, τῆς ἀναισχυντίας, τῆς θρασύτητος, τῆς ἀναιδείας.

In the latter passage, I noticed an error in the Digital Loeb Classical Library version, which has an extra καὶ between σεμνὰ and καλὰ. Here is a screen capture showing the error:


In my copy of the physical book (1935; rpt. 1956 = Loeb Classical Library, 299), p. 528, the text is sound.

Labels: typographical and other errors