1. Those who studied the heavenly bodies from the standpoint of physical science were liable to be thought atheistic (cf. p. 18). This would have been particularly the case in a conservative society such as Sparta.

2. Spartan education was notoriously geared towards military rather than cultural expertise.

3. It is unclear whether the subject is music or rhetoric.

4. Each year in Athens nine archontes (‘leaders’) were elected by lot, with mainly administrative duties. One of them, the eponymous archōn, gave his name to the year: Socrates is referring to a list of these eponymous archontes. The office had been in existence before Solon (archōn 594/3), but his reforms lessened its power, so Socrates takes him as the founder of the democratic office.

5. Socrates seems to think such antiquarianism consists in mechanical memorizing and, as he says shortly, in weaving stories. As a matter of fact, it was often embryonic historiography and also led some fifth-century thinkers (perhaps including Hippias) to fascinating views on human progress and the origins of civilization: see Guthrie, III, pp. 63–84; Kerferd, Chapter 12.

6. Hippias’ mnemonic technique is also referred to at Hippias Minor 368d and Xenophon, Symposium 4.62. Mnemonic techniques were part of an orator’s training. On the whole subject, in classical and medieval times, see Yates.