Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
This passage has been very frequently discussed, but the deductions drawn from it have been so various and the exact meaning of the Greek has often been left so vague that it seemed to merit one more attempt at analysis.
1 I suggest very tentatively that the word 
in § 12 a to be taken concessively and that the point is this; litigants from such a distance as Macedon were likely to suffer much more severely owing to delays in the Athenian courts than those from, say, Aegina or Euboea. States at a distance therefore were more likely than neighbouring states to arrange for smooth and speedy litigation in each other&s courts by means of a treaty; but at Athens the institution of 
by providing for this smooth and speedy litigation, rendered treaties unnecessary even with the most distant states.
2 Naturally I have not attempted to exhaust the possibilities. I only suggest those which either have been or might be plausibly connected with this passage.
