Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/210

 1 86 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE Sometimes the speakers are vaguely given in the plural — ^ the Cot'inthians said' — that is, the political situation is put in the form of a speech or speeches showing vividly the way in which different parties conceived it. A notable instance is the imaginary dialogue between the Athenians and the Melians, showing dramatically and with a deep, though perhaps over-coloured, char- acterisation the attitude of mind in which the war-party at Athens then faced their problems. This is at first sight an odd innovation to be intro- duced by the great realist in history. He warns us frankly, however. It was hard for him or his informants to remember exactly what the various speakers had said. He has therefore given the speeches which he thought the situation demanded, keeping as close as might be to the actual words used (i. 22). It is a hazy description. He himself would not have liked it in Herodotus ; and the practice was a fatal legacy to two thousand years of history- writing after him. But in his own case we have seen why he did it, and there is little doubt that he has done it with extraordinary effect. There is perhaps nothing in literature like his power of half personifying a nation and lighting up the big lines of its character. The most obvious cases are actual de- scriptions, such as the contrast between Athens and Sparta drawn by the Corinthians in I., or the picture of Athens by Pericles in II.; but there is dramatic personation as well, and one feels the nationality of various anonymous speakers as one feels the personal character of Nikias or Sthenelaidas or Alcibiades. It would be hard to find a clearer or more convincing account of conflicting policies than that given in the speeches at the beginning of the war.