Hipparchus

Editorial Note

The Greek text. The Greek is John Burnet’s, from the second volume of his Oxford Classical Text of Plato (1901; second edition, 1910), in which the Hipparchus follows the Alcibiades II. The copy reproduced is the one used for the two Alcibiades of this series: an undated later impression of the second edition, printed at Oxford by John Johnson as Printer to the University and published by Humphrey Milford, and so printed between 1925 and 1945. The title page does not name the edition, but a list of the Oxford Classical Texts dated January 1935, bound in after the last page of the text, offers this volume as “Ed. 2”, and the copy was therefore issued no earlier than January 1935. It carries Burnet’s preface of March 1901 and the short addendum of April 1910 that marks the second edition; it concerns the Symposium and Phaedrus and names no change in the other dialogues. The text is reproduced page for page and line for line: each left-hand page of this edition is one page of Burnet, with his line-ends, his marginal section letters and line numbers, and his apparatus criticus at the foot. In the margin, “St. II p. 225” at the head of the dialogue gives the volume and page of Stephanus’ edition at which it begins; where each later page of Stephanus begins, its number (226 to 232) stands in place of the letter a; and within each section every fifth line is numbered. Burnet sets these in the outer margin of his page, this edition in the right-hand margin; his running heads, and the printer’s signature at the foot of the tenth page of the dialogue (230e–231c), are not reproduced. The words were taken from the Perseus Digital Library’s digital transcription of Burnet, and every line was then checked against the photographs of this copy; where the two differ, this edition prints what Burnet printed. Burnet’s title, ΙΠΠΑΡΧΟΣ ἢ ΦΙΛΟΚΕΡΔΗΣ, “Hipparchus, or The Lover of Gain”, his list of the persons beneath it (ΣΩΚΡΑΤΗΣ ΕΤΑΙΡΟΣ, Socrates and a companion), his paragraphing (a new, indented paragraph at each change of speaker), his abbreviations of the speakers’ names (ΣΩ. for Socrates, ΕΤ. for the companion, hetairos), his capitals at the openings of speeches, and the capitals and quotation marks of the two Delphic sayings at 228e (“Γνῶθι σαυτόν”, “Μηδὲν ἄγαν”) are kept. A few letters damaged in this copy are read as the type intended, among them the second ο of πεντηκόντορον at 228c1. Square brackets [ ] enclose a word Burnet believed spurious: ἃ at 230e1, which Schleiermacher deletes. Angle brackets ⟨ ⟩ enclose a word that the manuscripts lack and that Burnet supplies by a scholar’s conjecture (Apelt’s ἀλλ’ at 226d3). The two verses of Hipparchus quoted at 229a4 and 229b1 are set as verse.

Reading the apparatus. The notes at the foot of each Greek page are Burnet’s, unaltered. Entries are keyed by section letter and line as numbered in the margin, so that “a 4” is the fourth line of section a. The section letters begin again with each Stephanus page, so that on page 2, which runs from 225c to 226c, “a 2” after “d 5” belongs to 226a. A further entry on the same line follows after a wider space without repeating the key. Usually the reading printed in the text comes first, followed by the witnesses that have it; a colon separates it from the alternatives, each followed by its witnesses. Where the text’s reading is followed by a square bracket, the witnesses for the text are not listed and only the alternative is given (227a6, 227c9, 227d2, 229b5, 230d6). Most entries with no colon report a single proposal without listing the witnesses for the text: an alternative (Cobet’s κερδανεῖν at 226a4, his διαφθερεῖ at 226a8, Schanz’s ἄστεως at 228d3), an addition (226d3) or a deletion (230e1). An entry may also give only a reading of some manuscripts, without the text’s words: ἐπαριστερᾷ and ἐπιδεξιᾷ BT at 229a1 and a3, each written as one word and in the dative, where the text prints ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ and ἐπὶ δεξιά. Words in angle brackets inside an entry are a scholar’s supplement that Burnet does not adopt (Stephanus’ ⟨ὁ⟩ at 230c12). Asterisks stand for letters erased in a manuscript, one for each letter: B’s ἐ**μὲ at 229e1, where two letters are erased. Three spaced points stand for the words between the first and last of a passage: at 225d2 “τὸ . . . ἀξιοῦν” is τὸ οὖν ἀξιοῦν, at 227d5 “εἶναι . . . d 7 προσωμολογήσαμεν” runs from εἶναι in d5 to προσωμολογήσαμεν in d7, and at 230d3 “οὔτε . . . οὔτε” is οὔτε τὸ μᾶλλον οὔτε. The apparatus reports each witness’s own spelling, which may differ from the text’s: B and W’s ἠμφισβήτησας at 232a8, where the text prints ἠμφεσβήτησας. It reproduces the faults of the witnesses, as T’s γεῖ for ἡγεῖ at 229d9; in the same entry B’s ἠ lacks the grave that the ἢ on either side of it has, whether by a fault of the manuscript or of the printing, and is kept as printed.

Names and abbreviations. Stephanus is Henri Estienne, whose edition of 1578 supplies the page numbers by which Plato is cited; the Hipparchus fills pages 225–232 of his second volume. A scholar’s name standing alone after a reading marks that scholar’s reading, from his edition or a study: at 226a4 φυτεύει is the reading of Stephanus’ edition. The names are of editors and critics: Stephanus; William Etwall, whose Oxford edition of 1771 (ed. Oxon.) contains the two Alcibiades and the Hipparchus; the editors Bekker, Ast and Schanz; Schleiermacher, Plato’s German translator; and Boeckh, Cobet, Hirschig, Naber and Apelt. Ficinus is the Latin form of the name of Marsilio Ficino, whose Latin translation of Plato (Florence, 1484) Burnet cites at 226a2, by its words responde . . . an, “answer . . . whether”, as support for Boeckh’s correction. add., “added”, marks a scholar’s addition (Apelt’s ἀλλ’ at 226d3, which Burnet prints in angle brackets), and del., “deleted”, a scholar’s deletion (Schleiermacher’s of ἃ at 230e1, which Burnet brackets). et mox, “and soon after”, extends a proposal to a later place: to the one named (Cobet would write κερδανεῖν at 226a4 and again at 226b1) or, where none is named, to the next place where the word recurs (Schanz’s ἄστεως at 228d3 and again at 229a2). om. means that a witness leaves the words out. ut videtur, “as it seems”, marks a reading that is hard to make out (B at 227e1; B’s first hand at 231b9). sed ἀ ex emend. T, “but the α from a correction in T”, says that the first letter of T’s ἀπεδείξατο at 228b7 was written in by correction.

The witnesses. Burnet’s apparatus to this dialogue rests on three manuscripts: B, the Bodleian Plato (MS. E. D. Clarke 39, written in 895); T, the Venice manuscript (Marcianus, Append. Class. 4, cod. 1); and W, the Vienna manuscript (Vindobonensis 54, suppl. phil. Gr. 7). W is named in only nine entries; where it is not named, the apparatus does not report its reading. Later hands are marked by the small letter: b for B (225c6, 227d7, 229d9, 231a5, and in “Tb” at 227d5, 227e1 and 231b9, T together with a later hand in B), and t for T (231c7); w, which Burnet’s list gives for later hands in W, does not occur here. pr. B is B’s first hand, before correction (227d5, 231b9). Letters written together share a reading, so that “BT” is B and T. recc. (recentiores) are later manuscripts in general (225c7), and vulg. (vulgata) the text of the early printed editions (225d2, 226e8, 232c1). Coisl. (228b7) is the Coislinianus 155 in Paris, a later manuscript. Burnet’s preface says that the men who corrected it and the Venetus 189 were learned readers after the revival of letters who anticipated many emendations of Heindorf and others, and that such readings rest on conjecture, not on tradition; the entry at 228b7 does not say whether ὑπεδείξατο is the scribe’s reading or a corrector’s.

The English. The translation is new. It aims to be exact, with every clause answering to a clause of the Greek, and to keep Socrates’ manner: his irony, his patience with a companion who answers in a huff, and the timing of the short exchanges. Nothing is added to make it livelier; where a joke depends on the Greek, a note explains it, and at 225c the English rhymes where the Greek rhymes. Each speech opens with the speaker’s name in small capitals. Words that Burnet prints in angle brackets are translated, without the brackets; the word he prints in square brackets (ἃ at 230e1) is not translated. The reading Burnet prints is translated, including his conjectures; where his choice changes the sense, a note says so.

Each right-hand page translates the Greek page opposite. When a sentence runs over the turn of Burnet’s page, the English breaks at the nearest point English word order allows. The Stephanus section letters in the margin of the English mark where each section begins.

Key terms. The words on which the argument turns have one rendering each throughout. Kerdos and kerdainein are “gain”, philokerdēs “lover of gain” and to philokerdes “the love of gain”; kerdaleos is “gainful” and akerdēs “without gain”; zēmia is “loss” and zēmiousthai “suffer loss”. Axios is “worth”, and axioun, as in the Alcibiades I, “think fit”. Chrēstos is “decent” and ponēros “base”, kept apart from agathos, “good”, and kakos, “bad”, never “evil”. As elsewhere in the series, agnoein is “be ignorant”, anoētos “senseless”, ōpheleisthai “be benefited”, exapatan “deceive” and euphēmein “speak auspiciously”; peithesthai is “obey”, as in the Charmides. The Key Words of the Dialogue explain the chief of these, and the Glossary lists them all with their places.

The notes. The notes identify persons, places and quotations, explain what the English cannot carry, and mark the places where Burnet’s choice of reading changes the sense or the words. Interpretations are labelled as such. They are numbered afresh on each page.