[Meaning] that which is simple,[1] easy. And Euripides in Likymnios [writes]: "slight, plain, good in the greatest [respects]".[2] [He is] saying simple and without wickedness. But sometimes it is used also in reference to what is bad and random. Plato in On the Soul [writes]: "o Cebes, you are seeking an insignificant matter."[3] It might be applied also to what has happened. For instance, "what has happened will be a trivial matter."[4] And it might be applied to something simply [sc. happening] in regard to how it happens. Plato [writes]: "it will be a matter not insignificant and requiring not a little virtue."[5] It might be applied also to what is wretched, when it is contrasted with what is good. As Plato [writes]: "slaves would never become friends with masters, nor wretched and serious [persons] living in equal honor."[6] It might be applied also to what is great. Sophocles in Captive Women [writes]: "if being small I have been victorious in small [matters]."[7] Also in reference to what is easy. In the fourth [book] of Republic "'and perhaps,' he said, 'we will give a trivial assignment to them.' 'And I [will give] an even more trivial [assignment] than this.'"[8] It is applied also to what is small and easily despised. As Demosthenes in [the speech] Against Konon [writes]: "that [I] having received no moderate and slight blows ..."[9]
[Note] that what is bad is called fau=lon by practically all the orators, applied thus both to a matter and to a man. As Demosthenes [writes] in the [speech] Against Timokrates: "and will you not punish him for attempting to harm you and to fill [you] with a bad reputation?"[10] And Isocrates [writes]: "he who has a bad judgment in his own affairs will never plan well for the affairs of others."[11] And Lysias in a letter [writes]: "saying that I do not love you, you charge me with the greatest pettiness. For if such a character and manner and soul and good will so inexcusably, and in addition the commonality of association and the fellowship of speech I do not embrace in excess, who would become more miserable than I, who am indifferent to good sense?"[12] It is applied also to that which is small and easily despised. "Receiving not slight blows." Demosthenes says [this].[13]