.Lysias 24.23 wrote:πῶς οὖν οὐκ ἂν δειλαιότατος1 εἴην, εἰ τῶν μὲν καλλίστων καὶ μεγίστων διὰ τὴν συμφορὰν ἀπεστερημένος εἴην, ἃ δ᾽ ἡ πόλις ἔδωκε προνοηθεῖσα τῶν οὕτως διακειμένων, διὰ τὸν κατήγορον ἀφαιρεθείην; μηδαμῶς, ὦ βουλή, ταύτῃ θῆσθε τὴν ψῆφον. διὰ τί γὰρ ἂν καὶ τύχοιμι τοιούτων ὑμῶν;
1 δειλαιότατος Markland: δικαιότατος MSS.
Hints for §23: (I'm sure you're getting better at this, but these few things may be hurdles that you could be helped over.)
- δειλαιότατος - "most wretched". I prefer δικαιότατος "most justified" (yo this pension).
- ἀπεστερημένος - in a state of being deprived + gen. of the thing of which one is deprived.
- προνοηθεῖσα - provided for, cf. 1 Timothy 5:8 Εἰ δέ τις τῶν ἰδίων καὶ μάλιστα τῶν οἰκείων οὐ προνοεῖ, τὴν πίστιν ἤρνηται, καὶ ἔστιν ἀπίστου χείρων. .
- τῶν οὕτως διακειμένων - this is a genitive absolute, and while syntactically aloof from the sentence, it does imply an ὑμῖν with the verb "to give"
- μηδαμῶς - "certainly not", cf. Acts 10:14 (&~11:8) Ὁ δὲ Πέτρος εἶπεν, Μηδαμῶς, κύριε· ὅτι οὐδέποτε ἔφαγον πᾶν κοινὸν ἢ ἀκάθαρτον.
- ἂν ... τύχοιμι τοιούτων ὑμῶν - optative. "Why would I find you being such?", but the "I" is not so strong as it seems in English.