Luc. Nigr. 1.23

Specific Text Questions
1

Nigrinus is giving his views on attention-seekers and their sycophants:

ἐγὼ μέντοι γε πολὺ τῶν κολακευομένων ἐξωλεστέρους τοὺς κόλακας ὑπείληφα, καὶ σχεδὸν αὐτοὺς ἐκείνοις καθίστασθαι τῆς ὑπερηφανίας αἰτίους

The second half of the sentence I take as

αὐτοὺς - acc. subject (dependant on ὑπείληφα). The sycophants.
αἰτίους - predicate
τῆς ὑπερηφανίας - dependant on αἰτίους

I’m struggling with ἐκείνοις καθίστασθαι. Is ἐκείνοις (the attention-seekers) dative of interest and what is the middle infinitive καθίστασθαι doing here? Is it epexagetical (explaining why they are αἰτίους)? i.e. ‘in that they establish themselves for them”? If I’ve understood the use of the epexagetical infinitive correctly here, could an equivalent participle do the same work here, and is there any reason why one is selected over the other?

Help and thoughts as always most appreciated.

2

ἐγὼ μέντοι γε πολὺ τῶν κολακευομένων ἐξωλεστέρους τοὺς κόλακας ὑπείληφα, καὶ σχεδὸν αὐτοὺς ἐκείνοις καθίστασθαι τῆς ὑπερηφανίας αἰτίους
I, however, assume that the flatterers are much more pernicious than the flattered and that they are rather the cause of the arrogance of the latter.
καθίστασθαι is like a copula here.

3

Ah yes, makes more sense as a copula ‘establish themselves as’ or more naturally ‘come to be’

Thanks!