perfectissimos non tantum magistri et præpositi sui sed etiam idiotæ et supervacue (-cui?) quique adhortantur de longinquo, ut sæpe de ipso populo dictata suggesta profuerint. In a cognate passage of Longinus (de sublim. § 14.), quoted by Wetstein, the ‘witnesses’ are regarded as those who will bear testimony of what they see in the trial: τῷ γὰρ ἄντι μέγα τὸ ἀγώνισμα … ἐν τηλικούτοις ἥρωσι κριταῖς τε καὶ μάρτυσι ὑπέχειν τῶν γραφομένων εὐθύνας. The true idea of the ‘witnesses’