Ταξίαρχοι (fr. 268)

387

Context POxy. 2740 fr. 2 col. 1.23-6 = fr. 268.40-4 K.-A.
40 γουσι ]ς έγώ κλαίειν
]ονι τούτου μνη-
μονεύει] καί Τηλεκλεί-
[δης (fr. 73)] ώς λωπο-
δύτου]211
suppl. Lobel
40 say ]ς I to wail
] to(? dat. sing.): Telecleides (fr. 73)
also mentions this
man as a clothes-
mugger
Interpretation That a personal name is concealed somewhere in the line from
Eupolis is apparent from the commentary in 41-4. The mention of the man,
whoever he was, by two comic poets either shows that he was in the public
eye and could be amusingly accused of being a common criminal (perhaps
via a glancing allusion to some notorious personal fact or event twisted in
a malicious direction, e. g. that the individual in question had several times
left parties late at night wearing someone else’s robe) or suggests that the
reference was to a generic villain like Aristophanes’ Orestes (Ach. 1166-8 with
Olson 2002 ad loc.; Av. 712). For the λωποδύτης, a mugger who specialized
in stripping his victims of their clothing, see Dunbar 1995 on Ar. Av. 497;
Austin-Olson 2004 on Ar. Ph. 816-18.
έγώ is emphatic, distinguishing the speaker’s attitude from that of some-
one else.
The use of forms of κλαίειν (literally “to wail”, but by extension often ~ “to
go to hell”) in imprecations is typical of colloquial Attic (e. g. frr. 99.110 with
n.; 222.1 κλαύσεται with n.; Ar. Ach. 1131 κλάειν κελεύων Λάμαχον; Eq. 433
κλάειν σε μακρά κελεύων; V. 584 (quoted below) with Biles-Olson 2015 ad
loc.·, Pax 255 κλαύσει μακρά; Th. 211-12 τούτον μέν μακρά / κλαίειν κέλευ’; fr.
212 κλαέτω). There is room for 8-9 letters between κλαίειν and ]ovi, and as ]
ovi is most easily taken to be the end of a third-declension noun in the dative
singular, this might be the name of the person for whom the speaker wishes
the worst (hence the supplements of Luppe and Handley); cf. Ar. V. 584 κλαίειν

211 The Kassel-Austin text is somewhat misleading: [δύτου] is a supplement by Lobel
and must be placed within square brackets, and this passage represents a “fr.
novum” of Telecleides rather than of POxy. 2740.