Ταξίαρχοι (fr. 274)

411

Both ώς ούκέτ’ άν φάγοιμι and στιβάδας έξ ότου ’φύγον scan as iambic trim-
eter, and both can accommodate an appropriate caesura, but something is
patently missing in between. The division of words adopted by Meineke and
Kock (ώς ούκέτ’ άν / φάγοιμι <— *> | στιβάδας κτλ) makes the lacuna as short
as possible, but at the price of putting άν in an unusual position (although cf.
e.g. Ar. V. 510-11 άλλ’ ήδιον άν / δικίδιον σμικρόν φάγοιμ’ άν). Kassel-Austin
simply print the words with an obel between φάγοιμι and στιβάδας, which
understates the difficulties posed by the text.234 If φάγοιμι is the main verb,
one would expect not aorist έφυγον but a present or perfect (as at e. g. S. Ant.
1092-3 (pres.); Tr. 326-7 (perf.); E. Or. 39-40 (perf.)), since the main action
has to do with the present and the future rather than the past. A lacuna of
the length posited here, however, makes that less of a consideration than it
might otherwise be.
Discussion Meineke 1830. 55-6; Bergk 1838. 361; Meineke 1839 1.143-4,
11.526—8; Meineke 1847 1.203; Cobet 1858. 154-5; Kock 1880 1.327-8; Schiassi
1944. 48-9; Storey 2003. 252; Storey 2011. 209
Citation context A gloss on Ar. Pax 346-7b πολλά γάρ άνεσχόμην /
πράγματά τε και στιβάδας, / άς έλαχε Φορμίων (“for I put up with both
troubles and camp-beds, which Phormio got as his lot”), also preserved at
Suda φ 604 as part of a biographical note on Phormio that includes in addition
Theopomp. Hist. FGrH 115 F 392.
Kassel-Austin include ZRV Ar. Pax 348 άγαθός έγένετο στρατηγός, καί
έν τοΐς Ταξιάρχοις δέ φέρεται ώς έπίπονος (“(Phormio) was a good general.
And also in the Taxiarchoi it is reported that he was hard-working”; likewise
incorporated into Suda φ 604) in the citation context for this fragment. But the
note makes no contribution to the establishment of the text of Eupolis and is
here treated instead as test, i to the play as a whole.
Text φάγοιμι/φύγοιμι and φύγον/φάγον (i. e. ’φυγον/’φάγον) were likely
variants in whatever source the Suda and the scholion drew upon, with one
reading preserved in the text and the other noted by means of a superlinear
alpha or upsilon. στιβάδας έξ ότου ’φύγον/’φάγον is best treated as a unit, and
as one does not eat στιβάδας (unless one is a goat), a form of φεύγω is wanted
there. Whether φάγοιμι (Suda) or φύγοιμι (Σ Ar.) should be printed in the first
half of the line is more difficult to say. But the witnesses agree on varying the

234 Kassel-Austin collect a number of conjectures designed to mend the lines, many of
them dependent on Dindorf’s false report that Σ offers στιβάδας (gen. sing.) rather
than στιβάδας (acc. pl.). Add φύγοιμι /ταύτας) στιβάδας.