454

Eupolis

temporary set-back; and this might in any case be mockery of different sort,
like Philocleon’s abusive treatment of the Breadseller and an anonymous
Complainant at Ar. V. 1399-1411, 1427-40.
The actual κατάστασις was “establishment (money)”, i. e. a loan made by
the Athenian state to an individual cavalryman to help him buy a horse. As
Harpocration and the material quoted there makes clear, the κατάστασις had
to be repaid when a man left the cavalry and was replaced by someone else;
depreciation in the animal’s value was apparently treated as the owner’s prob-
lem, not the state’s. This is the earliest known reference to the institution; see
in general Sauppe 1896. 238-44; Anderson 1961. 136-9; Fornara 1973 (arguing
that the hostility of the knights toward the Paphlagonian mentioned at Ar. Eq.
225-6 is to be understand as a response to the historical Cleon’s attempt to
interfere with grants of κατάστασις); Kroll 1977. 97-100 (discussing a number
of 4l'-century BCE lead tablets found in a well in the Agora, most likely near
the site of the Hipparcheion, that seem to represent valuations of cavalry
horses intended to ensure that only the appropriate amount was returned to
anyone who had his mount killed or disabled in combat); Bugh 1982. 308-11;
Bugh 1988. 53, 56-8, 66-7; Spence 1993. 272-86, esp. 279-80; Worley 1994.
70-2, 74; and cf. fr. 343 n. (on the inspection of cavalry horses to determine
their eligibility for σίτος, the state fodder grant).
1 ούκ έσωφρόνησας For σωφροσύνη (“self-control, temperance, pru-
dent self-interest”), cf. Ar. Eq. 545 (σωφρονικώς opposed to άνοήτως, “sense-
lessly”); Nu. 962 (a supposed hallmark of Athenian society in the time of the
Just Argument); V. 1405 σωφρονεΐν αν μοι δοκεϊς (“you would seem to me to
be acting sophron”; of prudent, sensible behavior); Lys. 1093 (self-protection
in a potentially dangerous situation); Men. fr. 818 (a quality a man wants to
see in his son); and see in general North 1966; Rademaker 2005.
ώ πρεσβύτα need not be pejorative (e. g. Ar. fr. 148.1; see in general
Dickey 1996. 82-4), but here the sense appears to be “old (and as a consequence
mentally defective)”, as at Ar. Nu. 493; V. 1309. Tragedy uses πρέσβυ instead,
generally in a respectful manner (e.g. A. Supp. 602; S. OT1013; E. Med. 1013;
in comedy only at Ar. Ach. 1228 (in a passage that echoes Archilochus); Th.
146 (paratragic; see Austin-Olson 2004 ad loc.\, Strato Com. fr. 1.38 (parody
of elevated style)).
2 άφνω Late 5th-/4Lh-century Attic vocabulary (e.g. Amphis fr. 37.2; A.
fr. *195.4; E. Med. 1205; Th. 2.90.4; D. 21.41; etymology uncertain), έξαίφνης
(perhaps cognate) is more common in all periods and genres (e. g. Cratin. fr.
171.41; Ar. Nu. 387; II. 17.738; Pi. O. 9.52; E. Hipp. 434; [A.] PV1077; Th. 8.102.1;
X. An. 6.5.7).