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Αγχίσης (fr·4)

discussion of swings of fate is equally appropriate to a plot revolving around
e. g. a child sold into slavery or something far more trivial.
1 δούλων ... πόλις The city of slaves is a proverbial location, best inter-
preted here as a utopia where slaves rule or at least enjoy complete freedom.
It appears in two proverbs. CPG App. Prov. 2.84 έστι και δούλων πόλις (cf.
Cratin. fr. 223.2; Eup. fr. 212; CPG App. Prov. 3.91 μή ένι δούλων πόλις) is
explained as referring to those who are governed badly. CPG Plu. 1.22 ούκ έστι
δούλων πόλις (cf. the anonymous trimeter ap. CPG App. Prov. 3.91 ούκ έστι
δούλων ούδ’ ελευθέρων πόλις [Crusius 1888. 611 attributed the line, probably
incorrectly, to Anaxandrides; later, at 1910. 80-1 (= Latte 1961 5.80-1), he
left it anonymous]) is apparently said in regard to rarity. For discussion of
both proverbs, see Crusius 1910. 79-82 (= Latte 1961 5.79-82); cf. Newman
1887-1902 on Arist. Pol. 1280a32-4. For the use of proverbial expressions in
comedy, see Tzifopoulos 1995.
Δούλων πόλις or Δουλόπολις was often considered a real city and various-
ly located in Libya (e. g. Hecat. FGrHist 1 F 345; Ephor. FGrHist 70 F 50), Crete
(e. g. Sosicr. FGrHist 461 F 2), Egypt (Olympianus ap. St. Byz. δ 117 [Gutschmid
1855. 530 = 1889. 46 equates this city with the one in Libya]) or Caria (Plin.
NH 5.104 [where it is given as another name for Acanthus]); cf. Cousin 1904.
79-80. Newman 1887-1902 on Arist. Pol. 3.1280a32-4 reaches the obvious,
and surely correct conclusion that these are all merely attempts to place a
proverbial site; cf. Crusius 1892. 72-3 (in the context of the place where the
mice eat iron [Herod. 3.76; cf. Sen. Apoc. 7.1 with Eden 1984 ad loc.]).
Arist. Pol. 3.1280a32-4 και γάρ αν δούλων και των άλλων ζώων ήν πόλις
(‘For there would be a city of slaves and of other animals’), often cited in
connection with the ‘city of slaves’, is of doubtful relevance. Aristotle is using
‘slave’ not in its ordinary meaning but in his specialized sense, i. e. φύσει
δούλος (cf. 1.1254bl4—23). Similarly irrelevant is 4.1295b21-2 γίνεται ούν
δούλων καί δεσποτών πόλις (‘it becomes a city of slaves and masters’), where
the philosopher is describing in quasi-metaphorical terms what happens when
a state is composed of only the extremely rich and the extremely poor.
ώγαθ(έ) In comedy at least, ώ is always present with αγαθέ, a seemingly
neutral form of address, neither especially friendly nor unfriendly (cf. Dickey
1996.119-20), although Dickey 139 claims that in Menander, as often in Plato,
the speaker is in a position of dominance. This form of address, very common
in Plato and found occasionally in other prose authors (e. g. PL Ap. 24d; R. 344e;
X. Mem. 1.4.17), occurs in poetry only in comedy and is therefore probably
colloquial (cf. Wendel 1929. 106).
2 The earliest occurrence of the sentiment expressed here, a commonplace
in Greek thought, is Archil, fr. 16 πάντα Τύχη καί Μοίρα, Περίκλεες, άνδρί