I’m having trouble with this section. I need somebody to “sort me out” here. Below is a brute-force translation that might show what I’m confused about. I don’t understand how αὐτούς works in this passage. I may be missing something to do with indirect speech.
πλὴν ὅταν ἐνθυμηθῶ : except when I consider
ὅτι : that
τῶν αὐτῶν ἐστιν: he [i.e. Eratosthenes ] is one of those men
αὐτούς τε : the same ones both
πάντα τὰ κακὰ ἐργάζεσθαι : do every kind of bad thing
καὶ: and also
τοὺς τοιούτους ἐπαινεῖν: praise that kind of men
Hi Hugh,
αὐτούς is not “the same ones." That would have the article, τοὺς αὐτοὺς, as with the preceding τῶν αὐτῶν (“of the same people”). Rather it’s the intensive “themselves.”
“… that it’s (characteristic) of the same people both (τε) to do every kind of bad thing themselves (αυτοὺς) and to praise people of that sort.”
It’s the normal position for πάντα, preceding the article—all the bad things in the world, as it were, or every bad thing. I find it quite hard to imagine τὰ πάντα κακά, which would mean “the complete bad things” (if that makes sense), with πάντα qualifying just the adjective—but there πάντα could be taken adverbially, “the altogether bad things.” τὰ πάντα in itself would be unremarkable, the whole lot, everything.