¹ Οὐδὲν ἡγοῦμαι πλέον ἢ τὰ τοῦ πολέμου κεκινῆσθαι κἀπιδεδωκέναι. Among the numerous innovations were the introduction of new units and weapons, such as peltasts (Best, J. G. P., Thracian Peltasts and their Influence on Greek Warfare [Groningen, 1969]Google Scholar) and the Macedonian phalanx (Bosworth, A. B., The Argeads and the Phalanx [Oxford, 2010]Google Scholar), and artillery (Keyser, P. T., ‘The Use of Artillery by Philip II and Alexander the Great’, AncW 25 [1994], 27–59Google Scholar). Military treatises, such as Xenophon's On the Cavalry Commander (Petrocelli, C., Ipparchico. Manuale per il comandante di cavalleria [Bari, 2001]Google Scholar; Delebecque, É., Le commandant de la cavalerie [Paris, 1973]Google Scholar) and Aeneas Tacticus’ How to Survive Under Siege (see below, n. 7), demonstrate not only the increased complexity of warfare, but also the interest in military theory. On the evolution of warfare, cf. Ducrey, P., Warfare in Ancient Greece, transl. by J. Lloyd (New York, 1986), 79–112Google Scholar; Anderson, J. K., Military Theory and Practice in the Age of Xenophon (Berkeley, CA, 1970)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

² General works on Greek mercenaries: P. Ducrey, Polemica. Études sur la guerre et les armées dans la Grèce ancienne (Paris, 2019), 283–300, 311–28; M. Bettalli, Mercenari. Il mestiere delle armi nel mondo greco antico (Rome, 2013); M. Trundle, Greek Mercenaries: From the Late Archaic Period to Alexander (London, 2004); S. Yalichev, Mercenaries of the Ancient World (London, 1997); G. Tagliamonte, I figli di Marte. Mobilità, mercenari e mercenariato Italici in Magna Grecia e Sicilia (Roma, 1994); G. F. Seibt, Griechische Söldner im Achaimenidenreich (Bonn, 1977); A. Aymard, Études d'histoire ancienne (Paris, 1967), 487–98; G. T. Griffith, The Mercenaries of the Hellenistic World (Cambridge, 1935); H. W. Parke, Greek Mercenary Soldiers from the Earliest Times to the Battle of Ipsus (Oxford, 1933). Specifically on the fourth century: Bettalli, 71–146 (Athens), 147–95 (rest of continental Greece), 303–16 (Persian empire), 331–64 (Sicily); M. Trundle, ‘The Business of War’, in B. Campbell and L. A. Tritle (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Warfare in the Classical World (Oxford, 2013), 335–6; D. Gómez-Castro, Relaciones internacionales y mercenariado griego (Barcelona, 2012); A. M. Prestianni Giallombardo, ‘Il ruolo dei mercenari nelle dinamiche di guerra e di pace in Sicilia tra fine V e metà del III sec. a.C.’, in M. A. Vaggioli (ed.), Guerra e pace in Sicilia e nel Mediterraneo antico. Arte, prassi e teoria della pace e della guerra (Pisa, 2006), 107–29 (on Sicily); L. A. Burckhardt, Bürger und Soldaten: Aspekte der politischen und militärischen Rolle athenischer Bürger im Kriegswesen des 4. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. (Stuttgart, 1996) (cf. A. S. Chankowski, ‘Review of Burckhardt 1996’, Topoi [Dordrecht] 7 [1997], 331–48); P. L. Marinovic, Le mercenariat grec au IV^e s. av. n.è. et la crise de la polis, transl. by J. and Y. Garlan (Paris, 1988). On the ‘mercenary explosion’ during this period, see Trundle 2004, 40–79 and esp. 44–46; H. F. Miller, ‘The Practical and Economic Background to the Greek Mercenary Explosion’, G&R 31 (1984), 153–60.

³ On Cyrus’ mercenaries in the Anabasis, see Bettalli (n. 2), 261–95; J. W. I. Lee, A Greek Army on the March. Soldiers and Survival in Xenophon's ‘Anabasis’ (Cambridge, 2007); R. J. Lane Fox, The Long March. Xenophon and the Ten Thousand (New Haven, 2004) (esp. the contributions by Hornblower, Ma, Roy, and Whitby); A. Dalby, ‘Greeks Abroad: Social Organization and Food Among the Ten Thousand’, JHS 112 (1992), 16–30; S. Perlman, ‘The Ten Thousand: A Chapter in the Military, Social, and Economic History of the Fourth Century’, RSA 6–7 (1977), 241–84; G. B. Nussbaum, The Ten Thousand. A Study in Social Organization and Action in Xenophon's Anabasis (Leiden, 1967); ‘The Captains in the Army of the Ten Thousand: A Study in Political Organisation’, C&M 20 (1959), 16–29; J. Roy, ‘The Mercenaries of Cyrus’, Historia 16 (1967), 287–323; Parke (n. 2), 23–42. On Dionysios’ use of mercenaries, see Bettalli (n. 2), 338–45; S. Péré-Noguès, ‘Mercenaires et mercenariat d'occident: réflexions sur le développement du mercenariat en Sicile’, Pallas 51 (1999), 111–17; J. A. Krasilnikoff, ‘The Power Base of Sicilian Tyrants’, ActaHyp 6 (1995), 171–84; A. Mele, ‘Arché e basileía: la politica economica di Dionisio I’, in A. Stazio, M. Taliercio Mensitieri, and S. Ceccoli (eds.), La monetazione dell'età dionigiana (Rome, 1993), 3–38; Parke (n. 2), 63–72. Our main ancient source is Diod. Sic. 13–14. On Jason's mercenary army, see Xen. Hell. 6.1.5–6, cf. Bettalli (n. 2), 180–1; Parke (n. 2), 100–4. On Jason, see S. Sprawski, Jason of Pherae. A Study of History of Thessaly in Years 431–370 BC (Krakow, 1999); J. Mandel, ‘Jason: The Tyrant of Pherae, Tagus of Thessaly as Reflected in Ancient Sources and Modern Literature’, RSA 10 (1980), 47–77.

⁴ On Athenian condottieri, see Bettalli (n. 2), 89–103; W. K. Pritchett, The Greek State at War, vol. 2 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1974), 59–116. A good overview of the Sacred War is J. Buckler, Philip II and the Sacred War (Leiden, 1989); on the recruitment of mercenaries by the Phokians, see Bettalli (n. 2), 186–95; R. T. Williams, The Silver Coinage of the Phokians (London, 1972), 54; Parke (n. 2), 133–43.

⁵ On mercenaries serving under Philip and Alexander, see Bettalli (n. 2), 377–99; Griffith (n. 2), 8–32; Parke (n. 2), 186–98. On Hellenistic mercenaries, see A. Chaniotis, War in the Hellenistic World. A Social and Cultural History (Oxford, 2005), 78–101; J. -C. Couvenhes, ‘Les cités grecques d'Asie Mineure et le mercenariat à l’époque hellénistique’, in J. -C. Couvenhes, H. -L. Fernoux, and P. Ducrey (eds.), Les cités grecques et la guerre en Asie Mineure à l’époque hellénistique (Tours, 2004), 77–113; É. Foulon, ‘Μισθοφόροι et Ξένοι Hellénistiques’, REG 108 (1995), 211–18; M. Launey, Recherches sur les armées hellénistiques (Paris, 1949–50), esp. 794–812; Griffith (n. 2). With the creation of semi-professional armies in the Hellenistic period, the distinction between different categories of soldiers becomes less clear, see Trundle 2013 (n. 2), 331; Parke (n. 2), 208–9.

⁶ M. Bettalli, ‘L’ immagine del mercenario nella Grecia del IV secolo a.C.’, in M. A. Vaggioli (ed.), Guerra e pace in Sicilia e nel Mediterraneo antico. Arte, prassi e teoria della pace e della guerra (Pisa, 2006), briefly addresses this issue, but without any reference to New Comedy.

⁷ Aen. Tact. 12–13 on the need to mistrust mercenaries; 10.18–19 on tough discipline; 18.13, 23.7–11, and 28.5 are examples of mercenaries sneaking into a city. Overall, Aeneas shows a ‘constant apprehensiveness about mercenaries,’ see D. Whitehead, How to Survive under Siege (London, 2002), 136. On mercenaries in Aeneas’ work, see also J. Roy, ‘Mercenaries in Aineias Tacticus’, in M. Pretzler and N. Barley (eds.), Brill's Companion to Aineias Tacticus (Leiden, 2018), 206–13; J. Boëldieu-Trevet and K. Mataranga, ‘Étrangers et citoyens: le maintien de l'ordre dans une cité assiégée selon Énée le Tacticien’, in M. Molin (ed.), Les régulations sociales dans l'Antiquité (Rennes, 2006), 257. On Aeneas and his work, see Pretzler and Barley (eds.), Brill's Companion to Aineias Tacticus (Leiden 2018); for translation and commentary, see Whitehead; M. Bettalli, La difesa di una città assediata (Poliorketika) (Pisa, 1990).

⁸ However, see C. Bouchet, ‘Isocrate et la question des mercenaires’, Studia Humaniora Tartuensia 11 (2010), 1–25, on how Isocrates’ views on mercenaries are actually more nuanced.

⁹ Dem. 4.16–46, on the need for Athenians and mercenaries to fight side by side. Dem. 23.139, against mercenary commanders. Dem. 6 and 9 contain several references to Philip's large use of mercenaries.

¹⁰ On soldiers and military elements in Menander's comedies, see W. E. Major, ‘The Pre-History of the Miles Gloriosus in Greek Drama’, in H. and C. W. Marshall (eds.), Greek Drama V. Studies in the Theatre of the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BCE (London; New York, 2020), 215–24; N. W. Slater, ‘Stratophanes the Ephebe? The Hero's Journeys in Menander's Sikyonioi’, in H. and C. W. Marshall (eds.), Greek Drama V. Studies in the Theatre of the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BCE (London; New York, 2020), 205–14; M. Lamagna, ‘Military Culture and Menander’, in A. H. Sommerstein (ed.), Menander in Contexts (New York, 2014), 58–72; P. G. McC. Brown, ‘Soldiers in New Comedy: Insiders and Outsiders’, LICS 3.8 (2004); W. T. MacCary, ‘Menander's Soldiers: Their Names, Roles, and Masks’, AJPh 93 (1972), 279–98. A. Blanchard, La comédie de Ménandre. Politique, éthique, esthétique (Paris, 2007); S. Lape, Reproducing Athens: Menander's Comedy, Democratic Culture, and the Hellenistic City (Princeton, 2004); and W. E. Major, ‘Menander in a Macedonian World’, GRBS 38 (1997), 41–73 use soldiers, along with other evidence, to discuss Menander's political sympathies; cf. below, n. 68.

¹¹ The two main studies on the topic are Brown (n. 10) and MacCary (n. 10). Other scholars see soldiers as a reversal of a traditional stock character: see I. M. Konstantakos, ‘On the Early History of the Braggart Soldier: 1, Archilochus and Epicharmus’, Logeion  5 (2015), 1 n. 1; A. K. Petrides, Menander, New Comedy, and the Visual (Cambridge, 2014), 213–16; N. Zagagi, The Comedy of Menander. Convention, Variation, and Originality (London, 1994), 29–35, 38–40; P. G. McC. Brown, ‘Masks, Names, and Characters in the New Comedy’, Hermes 115 (1987), 188–90; R. L. Hunter, The New Comedy of Greece and Rome (Cambridge, 1985), 66–69; S. M. Goldberg, The Making of Menander's Comedy (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1980), 45–53; W. Hoffmann and G. Wartenberg, Der Bramarbas in der antiken Komödie (Berlin, 1973), 32–39, 43–45, 49–50. On Menander's innovative handling of traditional characters, see Zagagi, esp. 15–45; on Menander's ‘good hetairai’, see M. M. Henry, Menander's Courtesans and the Greek Comic Tradition (Frankfurt, 1985) (but now cf. A. E. Traill, Women and the Comic Plot in Menander [Cambridge, 2008], 3–9, who questions the traditional view). For a different interpretation, see Lape (n. 10), 171–201, who interprets the soldiers of the Misoumenos and Perikeiromene as symbols of the military power of the Hellenistic kingdoms. In both plays, before the soldier can marry his beloved and enter the civic community, he has to go through a ‘reform or civic education’ (p. 173), in a triumph of civic virtues over martial values (cf. Major 2020 [n. 10]; and Slater [n. 10]). However, as I will show, in all plays soldiers display positive civic virtues from the very beginning (cf. Brown [n. 10], 14, n. 66). They are no threat to the polis and need no education. Moreover, since the publication of Lape's book, scholars have shown that poleis kept waging war with both civic and mercenary contingents and paid attention to the military sphere (J. L. Friend, The Athenian Ephebeia in the Fourth Century BCE [Leiden, 2019]; Chaniotis [n. 5], esp. 18–26; Couvenhes [n. 5]; J. T. Ma, ‘Une culture militaire en Asie Mineure hellénistique?’, in J. -C. Couvenhes, H. -L. Fernoux, and P. Ducrey [eds.], Les cités grecques et la guerre en Asie Mineure à l’époque hellénistique [Tours, 2004], 199–220; ‘Fighting Poleis of the Hellenistic World’, in H. van Wees [ed.], War and Violence in Ancient Greece [Swansea, 2000], 337–76). Despite the gap in power, Hellenistic kings did not have a monopoly on violence.

¹² On the challenges of using comedy as a historical source, see C. Pelling, Literary Texts and the Greek Historian (London, 2000), 123–40. I follow the methodology of D. Pritchard, Athenian Democracy at War (Cambridge, 2019), 109–37, who takes Aristophanes’ positive portrayal of sailors as an accurate depiction of their place in Athenian popular culture.

¹³ Daos’ statement that Kleostratos had left to get money for his sister (lines 5–9) reveals the mercenary nature of the expedition. This is later confirmed when Kleostratos’ tent-mate is called a ξένος (foreigner/mercenary; 102). Cf. P. Ingrosso, Menandro. Lo scudo (Lecce, 2010), 30; S. Ireland, Menander. The Shield (Aspis) and Arbitration (Epitrepontes) (Oxford, 2010), 74; D. C. Beroutsos, A Commentary on the ‘Aspis’ of Menander 1: Lines 1–298 (Göttingen, 2005), 14, 24, 27; C. Cusset, Ménandre ou La comédie tragique (Paris, 2003), 128; J. -M. Jacques, Ménandre. Le bouclier (Paris, 1998), XVIII.

¹⁴ For precise references to the many tragic parallels, see Ingrosso (n. 13), 123–70; Ireland (n. 13), 73–79; Beroutsos (n. 13), 21–41; Cusset (n. 13), 54–66. The first nineteen lines of the speech have a tragic metre (Cusset, 128–32), as there is no resolution of a short element into two shorts or any resolution of the second or third anceps. The passage also shows consistently the tragic caesura after the fifth or seventh element, and it observes Porson's bridge. On the Aspis as Menander's most metatheatrical play, see K. J. Gutzwiller, ‘The Tragic Mask of Comedy: Metatheatricality in Menander’, ClAnt 19 (2000), 122–34.

¹⁵ Ingrosso (n. 13), 123: ‘La rhesis di Davo, il cui tono luttuoso priva di qualsiasi connotazione comica l’incipit del dramma, si caratterizza per la fitta presenza di elementi tragici’; Ireland (n. 13), 73: ‘This [unexpected tragic beginning] was clearly designed to arrest the audience's attention’; Beroutsos (n. 13), 11: ‘Unlike in Old Comedy, tragic language and meter in New Comedy may enhance a mood of genuine sadness and heighten the serious emotional impact of a scene’; Goldberg (n. 11), 23: ‘The suggestion of tragedy works…like the opening of the Aspis with its own solemn messenger, as a signal to the audience that these events have a serious side’; 33: Daos’ ‘mournful report…opens the play with a combination of exposition and spectacle calculated to evoke the image and response of genuine tragedy’.

¹⁶ Beroutsos (n. 13), 13 and n. 7: ‘the most dutiful clever slave (servuus callidus) who appears in the extant specimens of the genre.’ In particular, see lines 189–204, where he refuses to help Smikrines in his plot, and 238–45, where another slave makes fun of him for not running away after the Lycian campaign. On this last episode for Daos’ positive characterization, see S. Lape and A. Moreno, ‘Comedy and the Social Historian’, in M. Revermann (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Greek Comedy (Cambridge, 2104), 366–7; R. K. Sherk, ‘Daos and Spinther in Menander's Aspis’, AJPh 91 (1970), 341–43.

¹⁷ Lines 4–10, ὤιμην γὰρ εὐδο[ξο]ῦντα καὶ σωθέντα σε ἀπὸ στρατείας ἐν βίωι τ' εὐσχήμονι ἤδη τὸ λοιπὸν καταβιώσεσθαί τινι, στρατηγὸν ἢ σύμβουλον ὠνομασμένον, καὶ τὴν ἀδελφήν, ἧσπερ ἐξώρμας τότε ἕνεκα, σεαυτοῦ νυμφίωι καταξίωι συνοικιεῖν ποθεινὸν ἥκοντ' οἴκαδε (transl. Ireland [n. 13]). The Greek text of the plays is based on F. H. Sandbach, Menandri. Reliquiae Selectae (Oxford, 1972).

¹⁸ For a kurios to provide a dowry was somewhat expected, but not a legal obligation, see A. Groton, A Commentary on Menander's Aspis 1–163 (Ann Arbor, 1982), 46; A. R. W. Harrison, The Law of Athens, I: The Family and Property (Oxford, 1968), 48. On dowries, see C. A. Cox, Household Interests: Property, Marriage Strategies, and Family Dynamics in Ancient Athens (Princeton, 1998), esp. 116–20.

¹⁹ Daos was followed on stage by a group of Lykian captives with pack animals carrying the booty (lines 88–9; cf. W. G. Arnott, Menander I [Cambridge, MA, 1979], 12–13). This immediately showed the audience that Kleostratos’ adventure had been a financial success.

²⁰ Lape (n. 10), 13–17; N. J. Lowe, Comedy (Cambridge, 2008), 71–2.

²¹ The office of strategos would make perfect sense for someone with actual military experience. The only mention of σύμβουλοι in Athens is in Dem. 58.27; they seem to have had a more legislative function. This second office may just be meant to generally point to a respectable magistracy.

²² Lines 491–8, ὦ φιλτάτη γῆ, χαῖρ[ε προσεύχομαι σοι…πόλλ' ὃν σεσωκὼς…πάρειμι τὴν σωτηρ[ίαν] ὁρῶ δεομένην τὴν…εἰ δ' αὖ διαπεφευγ…ὁ Δᾶος εὐτυχῶς…νομίσαιμ' ἐμαυτό[ν.] (transl. Ireland [n. 13]).

²³ On the salutation as recurring in theatre, see Ingrosso (n. 13), 383.

²⁴ On this play, see A. Blanchard, Ménandre 4. Les Sicyoniens (Paris, 2009); Traill (n. 11), 16–25; W. G. Arnott, Menander III (Cambridge, MA, 2000), 193–321; A. M. Belardinelli, Sicioni (Bari, 1994).

²⁵ On the Euripidean parallels in this scene, see Cusset (n. 13), 201–10; A. M. Belardinelli, ‘L'Oreste di Euripide e i Sicioni di Menandro’, Orpheus 5 (1984), 396–402. The fullest study of Menander's use of Euripides is A. G. Katsouris, Tragic Patterns in Menander (Athens, 1975). Cf. G. Zanetto, ‘La Tragedia in Menandro: dalla paratragedia alla citazione’, in A. Casanova (ed.), Menandro e l'evoluzione della commedia greca (Firenze, 2014), 83–103; Cusset (n. 13); L. Leurini, ‘Echi Euripidei in Menandro’, Lexis 12 (1994), 87–95; M. Poole, ‘Menander's Comic Use of Euripides’ Tragedies’, CB 54 (1978), 56–62.

²⁶ Cusset (n. 13), 201–10; F. H. Sandbach, ‘Menander's Manipulation of Language for Dramatic Purposes’, in E. G. Turner (ed.), Ménandre. Sept exposés suivis de discussions (Vandœuvres-Genève, 1970), 129: there is ‘no attempt to make fun of Euripides’.

²⁷ [κοὐ] παντελῶς ἦν βδελυρός, οὐ σφόδρ' ἤρεσεν [ἡ]μ̣ῖν δέ, μοιχώδης δὲ μᾶλλον κατεφάνη.

²⁸ μειράκιον…λευχόχρω[ν] ὑπόλειον ἀγένειόν τι.

²⁹ For this type, see Poll. 4.147. On Moschion, see Blanchard (n. 24), lxxxviii–xc, with further references to these traits as effeminate; Belardinelli (n. 24), 169–71.

³⁰ ὄ]ψει τις ἀνδρικὸς πάνυ. For a study of the opposition between the manly Stratophanes and the effeminate Moschion, see Petrides (n. 11), 203–7; Lape (n. 10), 223–7.

³¹ ὡς δ' ἐνέβλεψ' ἐγγύθεν [τὴν πα]ῖ̣δ', ἐξαπίνης ποταμόν τινα [ἀφίης' ο]ὗτος, ἐμπαθῶς τε τῶν [τριχῶν ἑαυτοῦ λαμ]βάνεται βρυχώμενος…ἔλαβε τοὺς ἑστηκότας (transl. Arnott [n. 24]).

³² [ἔπειτα δ’ οἶκτος] ἔλαβε τοὺς ἑστηκότας (transl. Arnott [n. 24]); B. Marzullo, ‘Annotazioni critiche al Sicionio di Menandro’, Quaderni dell'Istituto di Filologia greca 2 (1967), 15–92; K. F. Kumaniecki, ‘Bemerkungen zu den neuentdeckten Fragmenten des Σικυώνιος von Menandros’, Athenaeum 43 (1965), 154–66.

³³ Lines 239–45, “ἀκούσατε καὶ τἀμὰ δ', ἄνδρες. ὄντες αὐτοὶ κύριοι ταύτης – ἀφεῖται τοῦ φόβου γὰρ ὑπό γ' ἐμοῦ – πρὸς τὴν ἱέρειαν θέσθε καὶ τηρησάτω ὑμῖν ἐκείνη τὴν κόρην. “πολλήν τινα τοῦθ', ὡς προσῆκ', εὔνοιαν εἵλκυσ'⋅ ἀνέκραγον “ὀρθῶς γε” πάντες, εἶτα “λέγε” πάντες πάλιν (transl. Arnott [n. 24]).

³⁴ Lines 251–7, τὴν ἐλπίδα μήπω μ' ἀφέλησθ', ἀλλ' ἂν φανῶ τῆς παρθένου κἀγὼ πολίτης, ἣν ἔσωισα τῶι πατρί,

ἐάσατ' αἰτῆσαί με τοῦτον καὶ λαβεῖν⋅ τῶν ἀντιπραττόντων δ' ἐμοὶ τῆς παρθένου μηθεὶς γενέσθω κύριος πρὶν ἂν φανῆι ἐκεῖνος.” “ὀρθῶς καὶ δίκαι', ὀρθῶς” (transl. Arnott [n. 24]).

³⁵ On the priestess of Demeter, see K. Clinton, The Sacred Officials of the Eleusinian Mysteries (Philadelphia, 1974), 68–76. On the economic importance of the sanctuary and Eleusinian coinage, see J. H. Kroll and A. S. Walker, The Athenian Agora XXVI. The Greek Coins (Princeton, 1993), 27–30.

³⁶ Line 13, ἡγεμὼν χρηστὸς σφόδρα. For the identification of Stratophanes as this ἡγεμὼν, see Belardinelli (n. 24), 113–15 (with further bibliography); Contra Slater (n. 10); Arnott (n. 24), 211, n. 4; T. B. L. Webster, An Introduction to Menander (Manchester, 1974), 183. Blanchard (n. 24), l–lii is non-committal.

³⁷ The upbringing of a free woman, fr. 1. The girl's virginity, a crucial issue in Athenian society, is mentioned at several points, lines 236–43, 253, and esp. 370–3, where her father explicitly asks Dromon about it; see Henry (n. 11), 86, n. 142; Belardinelli (n. 24), 182–3, 212–13.

³⁸ Blanchard (n. 24), cli: ‘Stratophanès est présenté sous un jour très favorable’; Hoffmann and Wartenberg (n. 11), 43.

³⁹ Webster (n. 36), 164; W. G. Arnott, Menander II (Cambridge, MA, 1996), 289.

⁴⁰ ὑπὸ τῆς αἰχμαλώτου⋅ πριάμενος [αὐτήν, πε]ριθεὶς ἐλευθερίαν, τῆς οἰκίας [δέσποιν]αν ἀποδείξας, θεραπαίνας, χρυσία ἱμάτια δούς, γυναῖκα νομίϲας (transl. Arnott [n. 39]).

⁴¹ Lines 660–4, πατὴρ Κρατείας, φήις, ἐλήλυθ’ νῦν ἢ μακάριον ἢ τρισαθλιώτατον δείξεις με τῶν ζώντων ἁπάντων γεγονότα. εἰ μὴ γὰρ οὗτος δοκιμάσει με, κυρίως δώσει τε ταύτην, οἴχεται Θρασωνίδης (transl. Arnott [n. 39]). Cf. lines 699–700.

⁴² See lines 692–712, and his monologue at 757–808.

⁴³ See above, n. 18.

⁴⁴ παίδ[ων ἐπ’ ἀρότωι γνησίων] δίδωμι τὴν ἐμὴν θυγ[ατέρα] καὶ δύο τάλαντα προῖκα (transl. Arnott [n. 39]). This official Athenian formula appears, almost word for word, in at least three other Menandrian plays (Dys. 842–4; Pk. 1013–14; Sam. 726–7) and several fragments.

⁴⁵ As also suggested by Brown (n. 10), 11. Even if the play is probably set in Corinth and the characters were not to be Athenian in the dramatic fiction, the overall atmosphere is Athenian, just like the betrothal formula and the implied legal statuses.

⁴⁶ On the popularity of this scene and its many citations, see F. Sisti, ‘Il soldato Trasonide ovvero la comicità del rovescio’, Sandalion 5 (1982), 98 and n. 4; F. Bornmann, ‘Il prologo del Misoumenos di Menandro’, A&R 25 (1980), 157.

⁴⁷ On the play on paraklausithyron, see Sisti (n. 46), 9–10; Bornmann (n. 46), 157; E. G. Turner, ‘Menander and the New Society, I’, in J. Harmatta (ed.), Actes du VII^e Congrès de la Fédération Internationale des Associations d’Études classiques (Budapest, 1984), 245.

⁴⁸ παρ᾿ ἐμοὶ γάρ ἐστιν ἔνδον, ἔξεστίν τέ μοι καὶ βούλομαι τοῦθ᾿ ὡς ἂν ἐμμανέστατα ἐρῶν τις, οὐ ποιῶ δ'. ὑπαιθρίωι δέ μοι χειμῶνος ὄντος ἐστὶν αἱρετώτερον ἑστηκέναι τρέμοντι (transl. Arnott [n. 39]).

⁴⁹ According to Turner (n. 47), 250–2, and Sisti (n. 46), 102, Thrasonides freed the girl. Even if that is the case, she was still a woman without a kyrios, and therefore in a somewhat precarious position.

⁵⁰ Turner (n. 47), 246: ‘But his character is rather that of a nervous, anxious, scrupulous, and introverted man than a boaster. He calls out of sympathy.’

⁵¹ Sisti (n. 46), 9–10, 101; Turner (n. 47), 246; Bornmann (n. 46), 157.

⁵² Arnott (n. 39), T I (fr. 1 Sandbach): ὑπέρογκόν τι καὶ σοβαρὸν καὶ πολλή τις ἀλαζονεία στρατιώτης ἀνήρ.

⁵³ So Turner (n. 47), 246, and Sisti (n. 46), 103, describes this as ‘inesatta generalizzazione’.

⁵⁴ On whether the shearing happened on stage, see W. D. Furley, Menander. Perikeiromene or The Shorn Head (London, 2015), 13; K. J. Gutzwiller and Ö. Çelik, ‘New Menander Mosaics from Antioch’, AJA 116 (2012), 589. The latter article also discusses the evidence provided by the mosaics from Antioch depicting scene from the plays.

⁵⁵ Both τετρώβολος and τετράδραχμος are insults based on what was apparently the lowest possible pay for mercenaries and officers. The other two are weapons that became widely used in the fourth century bce (Best [n. 1], 79–119; N. G. L. Hammond, ‘Training in the Use of the Sarissa and Its Effect in Battle 359–333 BC’, Antichthon 14 [1980], 53–63; M. M. Markle, ‘Use of the Sarissa by Philip and Alexander of Macedon’, AJA 82 [1978], 483–97).

⁵⁶ Lines 482–4, καὶ γάρ, Ἁβρότονον, ἔχεις τι πρὸσ πολιορκίαν σὺ χρήσιμον δύνασαί τ' ἀναβαίνειν, περικαθῆσθαι, ‘Look Habrotonon, you come in handy for a siege. You can mount and embrace’. This is the first attestation of the noun πολιορκία in poetry. Menander is playing on the two meanings of the verbs ἀναβαίνειν (to scale the enemy wall, but also to sexually mount) and περικαθῆσθαι (to encircle a city and to embrace a lover). On these jokes, see Furley (n. 54), 136–7; Lamagna (n. 10), 59–60; M. D. Dixon, ‘Menander's “Perikeiromene” and Demetrios Poliorketes’, CB 81 (2005), 131–43; A. W. Gomme and F. H. Sandbach, Menander. A Commentary (Oxford, 1973), 505. Dixon tries, I believe unconvincingly, to make this a reference to Demetrios Poliorketes’ siege of Corinth in the years 304–3 bce.

⁵⁷ On Polemon as a positive figure, see Goldberg (n. 11), 50; MacCary (n. 10), 282–4.

⁵⁸ Lines 162–7, πάντα δ' ἐξεκάετο ταῦθ' ἕνεκα τοῦ μέλλοντος, εἰς ὀργήν θ' ἵνα οὗτος ἀφίκητ' – ἐγὼ γὰρ ἦγον οὐ φύσει τοιοῦτον ὄντα τοῦτον, ἀρχὴν δ' ἵνα λάβηι μηνύσεως τὰ λοιπά (transl. Furley [n. 54]).

⁵⁹ νῦν μὲν γὰρ ἡμῖν γέγονεν ἀρχὴ [πραγμάτων] ἀγαθῶν τὸ σὸν πάροινον (transl. Furley [n. 54]). On these lines recalling Agnoia's words, cf. Furley (n. 54), 180.

⁶⁰ Lines 185–7, δυστυχής, ἥτις στρατιώτην ἔλαβεν ἄνδρα. παράνομοι ἅπαντες, οὐδὲν πιστόν, ‘It's an unfortunate girl who's married to a soldier. Ruffians, all of them, unpredictable’ (transl. Furley [n. 54]).

⁶¹ Lines 172–4, 188–9, Polemon crying; 358–60, him in a wretched state; 967–8, how he cannot live without Glykera.

⁶² Lape (n. 10), 173. For a discussion of her thesis, see above, n. 11.

⁶³ One only needs to think of Lamachos in Aristophanes’ Acharnians; on this figure, see I. M. Konstantakos, ‘On the Early History of the Braggart Soldier. 2, Aristophanes’ Lamachus and the Politicization of the Comic Type’, Logeion 6 (2016), 112–63, who sees a continuity between Lamachos and the soldiers of Middle, New, and Roman comedy.

⁶⁴ Although the few surviving lines describe Bias as a stereotypical violent braggart, one should note that these are the words of other characters. In the fragment, the soldier himself never actually appears on stage. On this play, see Arnott (n. 39), 153–61; Webster (n. 36), 158–60.

⁶⁵ Pritchard (n. 12), 110–17, 136–7 on advancing old debates; M. Heath, Political Comedy in Aristophanes (Göttingen, 1987), 8, on its value as an ‘external control’ for comedy; K. J. Dover, Greek Popular Morality in the Time of Plato and Aristotle (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1974). On drama and legal speeches providing a similar depiction of Athenian politicians and politics, see D. Pritchard, ‘Aristophanes and de Ste. Croix: The Value of Old Comedy as Evidence for Athenian Popular Culture’, Antichthon 46 (2012), 31–9; J. Ober and B. S. Strauss, ‘Drama, Political Rhetoric, and the Discourse of Athenian Democracy’, in J. J. Winkler and F. Zeitlin (eds.), Nothing to Do with Dionysos? Athenian Drama in Its Social Context (Princeton, 1990), 237–70; for a similar depiction of social classes, see D. Pritchard, Sport, Democracy, and War in Classical Athens (Cambridge, 2013), 2–9; V. J. Rosivach, ‘Some Athenian Presuppositions about the Poor’, G&R 38 (1991), 189–98.

⁶⁶ On the social status of jurors and assembly-goers, see e.g. M. Canevaro, ‘The Popular Culture of the Athenian Institutions: “Authorized” Popular Culture and “Unauthorized” Elite Culture in Classical Athens’, in L. Grig (ed.), Popular Culture in the Ancient World (Cambridge, 2017), 42–57; S. C. Todd, ‘Lady Chatterley's Lover and the Attic Orators: The Social Composition of the Athenian Jury’, in E. Carawan (ed.), Oxford Readings in the Attic Orators (Oxford, 2007), 312–58; M. H. Hansen, The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes, transl. by J. A. Crook (Oxford, 1991), 125–78, 183–6; J. Ober, Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens (Princeton, 1989), 132–8, 141–7; M. M. Markle, ‘Jury Pay and Assembly Pay’, in P. Cartledge and F. D. Harvey (eds.), Crux. Essays Presented to G. E. M. de Ste. Croix on His 75th Birthday (Exeter, 1985), 281–91. On New Comedy as mass entertainment, see V. J. Rosivach, ‘The Audiences of New Comedy’, G&R 47 (2000), 169–71.

⁶⁷ On the need to please the audience, see Arist. Rh. 1.9.30–1, 2.21.15, 2.22.3. On theatre-goers influencing the choice of the winner with their noise, Dem. 18.265, 21.226; Pl. Leg. 659b–c, 700c–d, Resp. 492b; cf. R. W. Wallace, ‘Poet, Public, and “theatrocracy”: Audience Performance in Classical Athens’, in E. Lowell, R. W. Wallace, and M. Bettini (eds.), Poet, Public, and Performance in Ancient Greece (Baltimore, 1997), 97–111.

⁶⁸ Much has been written on whether Aristophanes’ works reflect contemporary Athenian views. For a recent and comprehensive review of the scholarship on this topic, see Pritchard (n. 12), 111–14. On Menander's political views, scholars have offered opposing theories, see W. M. Owens, ‘The Political Topicality of Menander's “Dyskolos”’, AJPh 132.3 (2011), 349–78; Major (n. 10) (pro-Macedonian); Lape (n. 10) (democratic); Blanchard (n. 10); and D. Wiles, ‘Menander's Dyskolos and Demetrius of Phaleron's Dilemma’, G&R 31 (1984), 170–9 (focus on social aspects).

⁶⁹ Isaeus’ works are dated around the second quarter of the fourth century bce, see Edwards, M. J., Isaeus (Austin, TX, 2007)Google Scholar; Wevers, R. F., Isaeus. Chronology, Prosopography, and Social History (Den Haag, 1969), 9–33Google Scholar.

⁷⁰ Isae. 2 and 9 have speakers who admit serving as mercenaries. Isae. 4 and 9 are about the inheritance of former mercenaries. Other mentions of ‘irregular’ military activity are at 4.29 and 11.47–8. The most important oration is Isae. 9, in which the deceased's long mercenary career is well described; on it, see Rosivach, V. J., ‘Astyphilos the Mercenary’, G&R 52 (2005), 195–204Google Scholar. Griffith-Williams, B., A Commentary on Selected Speeches of Isaios (Leiden, 2013), 151CrossRefGoogle Scholar and n. 11, dates this speech to 366 bce.