156

Eupolis

scholion includes a number of other comic fragments, including fr. 195 (n.),
and must be drawn from a catalogue of komoidoumenoi. ΣΚΓ Ar. Lys. 490 and
Σκχ Ar. Pax 395 ήν δέ δειλός καί μέγας, καί εκαλείτο όνοκίνδιος (“he was a
coward and physically large, and was called onokindios”, also in reference to
Peisander) are heavily condensed versions of the same material.
Text If Πακτωλόν in 1 is sound, this must be a joke we cannot fully un-
derstand (see Interpretation), and Hanow conjectured Σπάρτωλον (better
accented Σπάρτωλον), which would convert the lines into a reference to a
disastrous Athenian expedition to the north-east in summer 429 BCE that
resulted in a rout outside the walls of Spartolos (IACP #612)79 and the loss of
330 men, including all the generals present (Th. 2.79). Kassel-Austin compare
Πάκτωλον written in error for Σπάρτωλον in the manuscripts at D.S. 12.47.3
(a condensed version of Thucydides’ version of the fighting there, meaning
that the emendation is certain), but nonetheless decline to adopt the conjecture
here, which improves the text at the price of rendering it less interesting.
At the end of 1, Blay des proposed aorist έστρατεύσατο in place of the
metrically indifferent paradosis έστρατεύετο (TRtExl : έστράτευε Σχ). But 2
makes it clear that the emphasis is not on the simple fact of Peisander’s par-
ticipation in the expedition but on the nature of his conduct during it, making
the imperfect better.
In 2, the paradosis (τής στρατείας ΣΚλ : τής σής στρατείας ΣΓΕ : vers. om.
Σλ|) is unmetrical, and στρατεία appears to be the wrong word; see fr. 402 n.
Porson emended to τής στρατιάς, which yields medial caesura but is nonethe-
less adopted faute de mieux by all editors. The supplements of d’Arnaud and
Toup are designed to make sense of the presence of the possessive adjective in
Σεε, which offers τής σής στρατείας. Both similarly yield medial caesura, and
άνήρ is weak in enjambed position at the beginning of the next line, hence
Cobet’s proposal that the latter word be deleted.
In the second half of 2, Müller-Strübing’s άριστος (“best”) for the paradosis
κάκιστος (TREE) converts this into praise of Peisander rather than a typical
comic attack, which seems inherently unlikely, κάκλιστος (Σν) probably rep-
resents a superlinear lambda (signaling a proposed variant reading κάλλιστος
(unmetrical)) that has been brought down into the text and is an older version
of the same editorial impulse.
Interpretation For the Athenian politician Peisander (PA 11770; PAA 771270),
see frr. 99.1-4; [101.7]; 195 with n. Peisander is also attacked as a coward at

79 For the location of Spartolos, see Meritt 1923. The place remained hostile to Athens
until at least 421 BCE (Th. 5.18.5; cf. Meritt 1925).