Incertarum fabularum fragmenta (fr. 66)

303

Here the city (i. e. the demos?) is implicitly compared to a promiscuous
woman, presumably as it gives in to the demands of demagogues or the like.
The line suggests political satire, but whether this was a passing jibe or a larger
element of the play to which the fragment belonged is unclear; it is neverthe-
less an important piece of evidence for political criticism in fourth-century
comedy. For politics in the plays of Anaxandrides and his mocking of contem-
porary political figures, see on Poleis, Prdtesilaos and Introduction.151
Koraes 1822 on Arist. EN7.1152a suggested that this fragment belonged to
Poleis, apparently relying only on the content and merely noting τό δέ έπος
[i. e. the fragment] ’ίσως έκ τού δράματος τού έπιγραφομένου, Πόλεις. Support
for the suggestion might be found in the scholia to Ov. Ib. 523 (= Anaxandr.
test. 2a; see ad loc.\ which reports that Anaxandrides quom Athenienses
bonas leges habere diceret, sed malis uti eos praedicaret, enumeraretque ceteras
nationes quae aut sine lege essent aut non in condendis legibus tantum salis
habuissent, usui venirent tamen melius, coniectus in carcerem est, etc. The claim
that Anaxandrides said that the Athenians have good laws but use bad ones
might be drawn from this fragment (but see on dub. fr. 83), confounded to
some extent with its Aristotelian context, but the claim that Anaxandrides also
enumerated and criticized other states cannot be inferred from this passage,
Aristotle, or Ovid. The only known play of Anaxandrides that seems to offer a
context for such a list is Poleis (see ad loc.\ But the question remains whether
the scholia can be taken seriously (i. e. whether its ultimate source had access
to more information about the content of Anaxandrides’ plays), whether it
represents a deduction from piecing together the same bits of evidence we
have, or whether it is jumble of misunderstanding and misinformation (even
if honestly meant).
ή πόλις Presumably Athens is meant, which seems to be how Aristotle
understood the word, although there is no explicit statement to that effect;
for ή πόλις used of a city other than Athens, e. g. Alex. fr. 255.1; Diph. fr. 31.22
(both referring to Corinth).
έβούλετ(ο) Whether the object was a general situation or a specific ac-
tion, or even whether it was expressed or unexpressed, is unknowable without
context. But whatever it was, it almost certainly was not νόμους or νόμους

151 Early commentators, e.g. Gataker 1659. 77, whence Barnes 1694 on E. Ph. 392 (-
396 Barnes), connected the fragment with test. 2a and claimed that the criticism of
Athens here led to Anaxandrides being put to death; see on test. 2a. Koraes 1822
understood it as symptomatic of Anaxandrides’ anger with the Athenians as the
result of a failure to take the prize in a dramatic competition and connected it with
test. 2 (see ad loo).