Laudator Temporis Acti

Homer, Iliad 12.243 (tr. Peter Green):

One omen is best, to fight in defense of your country!

εἷς οἰωνὸς ἄριστος, ἀμύνεσθαι περὶ πάτρης.

Bryan Hainsworth ad loc.:

This famous verse is ejected by Lohmann, Reden 219, as upsetting the parallelism of Pouludamas' speech and Hektor's response. ἀμύνεσθαι περὶ πάτρης is formular, cf. 15.496, 24.500. At 15.497-8 defending the πάτρη is justified as defending ἄλοχος, παῖδες, οἶκος, and κλῆρος [wife, children, house, and estate], but that is Hektor exhorting lesser Trojans, and generals must appeal to the self-interest of their men not only to an altruistic sense of social obligation. Effectively Hektor's οἶκος is Troy. The well-rounded heroic character, pace Finley, World 116, acknowledges the claims of the community (cf. 310-28), but even in Hektor's own case those claims rank lower than his sense of honour and shame (cf. 22.99-130).

Testimonialapparat in M.L. West's Teubner edition:

243 Metagenes fr. 19 K.-A. (parod.); Arist. Rh. 1395al3; Diod. 15.52.4 (Epaminondas loqu.); Cic. Att. 2.3.3; Plin. Ep. 1.18.4; Plut. Pyrrh. 29.4; [Plut.] Hom. 2.39.2,186.1; Alex. in Top. CAG ii(2).225.21; w5; Apthon. Progymn. 4; Nicol. Progymn. p.28.6 F.; Stob. 3.39.18; Zon. Fig. iii.167.7Sp.; sch Eur. Pho. 781; Choer. in Thd. ii.2.19, 8.35, 256.13; (-ἀμύν.) sch Aesch. Sept. 1011; 243a Plut. Mor. 333c; [Luc.] Dial. 58.5; sch Eur. Pho. 902