Laudator Temporis Acti

Plutarch, Life of Pericles 13.16 (tr. Ian Scott-Kilvert):

The fact is that men who know nothing of decency in their own lives are only too ready to launch foul slanders against their betters and to offer them up as victims to the evil deity of popular envy.

καὶ τί ἄν τις ἀνθρώπους σατυρικοὺς τοῖς βίοις καὶ τὰς κατὰ τῶν κρειττόνων βλασφημίας ὥσπερ δαίμονι κακῷ τῷ φθόνῳ τῶν πολλῶν ἀποθύοντας ἑκάστοτε θαυμάσειεν...;

A bit more literally:

Why should anyone be surprised that men, etc.

Philip A. Stadter, A Commentary on Plutarch's Pericles (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989), pp. 179-180:

καὶ τί ἄν...θαυμάσειεν: an indignant rhetorical question. The initial καὶ expresses emotion; cf. Denniston, 310-11.

σατυρικούς: given to debauchery, like satyrs; cf. Galb. 16.3, of actors and wrestlers: ἐφημέριοι καὶ σατυρικοὶ τοῖς βίοις ἄνθρωποι.

τὰς...ἀποθύοντας: "always offering their slanders against their betters in sacrifice to the envy of the multitude, as if to an evil spirit." The attacks on Pericles, according to P., arose chiefly from envy for his influence and achievements.

ἑκάστοτε: with ἀποθύοντας.