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 other. Thus the normal Spartan character is exhibited in its merits and its defects. The political character of the Athenians is arraigned and defended ; their intellectual character is illustrated in its strength and its weakness. And Thucydides shows a desire to comprehend these conceptions of national character in formulas, which he gives as epigrams to his speakers. The Spartan disposition, says an Athenian, might be described as one which regards everything that is pleasant as honourable, and everything that is expedient as just. The Athenians, says a Corinthian, are, in brief, men who will neither rest nor allow others to rest. Athens, says Pericles, might be described as the school of Greece, and the Athenian nature as the most gracefully versatile in the world.

§ 9. Those cases in which Thucydides gives merely a brief summary of a speech or debate suggest how slight the materials may often have