Ταξίαρχοι (fr. 273)

409

54, where the order is actually issued by the Assembly herald; Ec. 143, 258;
Pl. Prt. 319c) and the Council (Ar. Eq. 665) or to enforce their will or that of
other public decision-making bodies elsewhere in the city (Ar. Th. 923, 930-1;
cf. Lys. 433, 441, 445, 449, where in the scrambled political situation of 412/11
BCE a troop of bowmen is controlled by the Proboulos; IG I3 45.14-17).233
That bowmen also assisted the Eleven (who were certainly accompanied and
assisted by public slaves: e.g. X. HG 2.3.54-5; D.S. 13.102.1) in making arrests
is often taken for granted, although there is no specific evidence to that effect.
But there is no indication elsewhere that generals too controlled bowmen, so
the speaker here is unlikely to be Phormio (pace Kock, followed by Norwood).
1-2 ού ... I... άποκηρύξεί; ού + interrogative future indicative is equiv-
alent to an imperative and appears to be an Attic colloquialism (see fr. 334.1
n., and cf. frr. 171.2; 268.50-1, 53-4; 269.1); θάττον adds a note of urgency,
as at e.g. II. 4.64; hMerc. 212; Ar. V. 180; Pax 727. The specific combination is
confined to comedy (also Cratin. fr. 129; Ar. Nu. 1253; Pax 1126; Av. 1324; Men.
Pk. 526; Sam. 677-8, 719-20), but (1) cf. the use of similar adverbial expressions
at e.g. fr. 334 ού πάνυ ταχύ /... τοΰτ’ άναβαλεΐ;; S. Ai. 985-6 ούχ δσον τάχος
/ δήτ’ αύτόν άξεις δεύρο;; Ε. Cyc. 241-2 οϋκουν κοπίδας ώς τάχιστ’ Ιών /
θήξεις;; Hipp. 1065 ούκ εί πατρώας έκτος ώς τάχιστα γης;; Andr. 1067-8 ούχ
δσον τάχος / χωρήσεταί τις;, and (2) note that the point is that all three actions
the speaker envisions (“Get over here!”, “Take her!” and “Put her up for sale!”)
are to be done rapidly, not just the last one.
δεύρο has quasi-verbal force (“[Get over] here!”), as at e. g. E. Heracl. 48;
[E.] Rh. 680; see Fraenkel 1950 on A. Ag. 22; Olson 2002 on Ar. Ach. 239-40.
μοι is an ethical dative, indicating the speaker’s interest in the action
(~ “please!”); cf. fr. 1.2; Kuhner-Gerth 1898 i.423.
των τοξοτών Supposedly sometime around 450 BCE, the Athenian state
purchased 300 Scythian archers (And. 3.5; Aeschin. 2.173; replacements must
have been obtained on a regular basis thereafter), who carried not just their
native bows but whips for crowd-control purposes (Ar. Th. 933 with Austin-
Olson 2004 ad loc.), and who served as something like a limited-purpose se-
curity force. See in general Hall 1989. 44-5; Hunter 1994. 145-7; MacDowell
1995. 270-3; Babler 2005; Braund 2006.
2 For τις + imperative or the equivalent used in orders to slaves or similar
figures (insignificant enough as persons that no individual name is required),
e.g. Cratin. fr. 271.2; Ar. Ach. 805, 1096; Nu. 1490; Pax 1149; Pl. Com. frr. 10;
177; Chrysipp. Com. fr. 1.1; cf. fr. 99.42-3 with n.; Svennung 1958. 220-1.

233

Poll. 8.131-2 adds that bowmen maintained order in the lawcourts as well.