Book 2
23.19
Another topic is derived from the fact that the same men do not always choose the same thing before and after, but the contrary. The following enthymeme is an example: If, when in exile, we fought to return to our country [it would be monstrous] if, now that we have returned, we were to return to exile to avoid fighting!Lys. 34.11. This amounts to saying that at one time they preferred to hold their ground at the price of fighting; at another, not to fight at the price of not remaining.i.e., after their return, they preferred to leave the city rather than fight. This is Cope's explanation, but the meaning of the clause ὁτὲ μὲν . . . ᾑροῦντο is then somewhat obscure. A more suitable interpretation would be: At one time they preferred to return from exile at the price of fighting; at another, not to fight at the price of being exiled a second time (St. Hilaire), but one does not see how this can be got out of the Greek.
23.20
Another topic consists in maintaining that the cause of something which is or has been is something which would generally, or possibly might, be the cause of it; for example, if one were to make a present of something to another, in order to cause him pain by depriving him of it. Whence it has been said: It is not from benevolence that the deity bestows great blessings upon many, but in order that they may suffer more striking calamities.The author is unknown. And these verses from the Meleager of Antiphon: Not in order to slay the monster, but that they may be witnesses to Greece of the valor of Meleager.Frag. 2 (T.G.F. p. 792). And the following remark from the Ajax of Theodectes, that Diomedes chose Odysseus before all others,Hom. Il. 10.218; cp. T.G.F. p. 801. not to do him honor, but that his companion might be his inferior; for this may have been the reason.
