Page:History of Greece Vol VI.djvu/165

 BEGINNING OF THE FELOPONNESIAN WAR. 143 deserves, in comparison with the funeral discourses remaining ru us from Plato, and the pseudo-Demosthenes, and even Lysias, the honorable distinction which Thucydides claims for his own history, an ever-living possession, and not a mere show-piece for the moment. In the outset of his speech, Perikles distinguishes himself from those who had preceded him in the same function of public orator, by dissenting from the encomiums which it had been customary to bestow on the law enjoining these funeral haran- gues : he thinks that the publicity of the funeral itself, and the general demonstrations of respect and grief by the great body of citizens, tell more emphatically in token of gratitude to the brave dead, when the scene passes in silence, than when it is translated into the words of a speaker, who may easily offend, either by incompetency or by apparent feebleness, or perhaps even by unseasonable exaggeration. Nevertheless, the custom having been embodied in law, and elected as he has been by the citizens, he comes forward to discharge the duty imposed upon him in the best manner he can. 1 One of the remarkable features in this discourse is, its busi ness-like, impersonal character : it is Athens herself who under- takes to commend and decorate her departed sons, as well as tc hearten up and admonish the living. After a few words on the magnitude of the empire, and on the glorious efforts as well as endurance whereby their forefathers and they had acquired it, Perikles proceeds to sketch the plan of life, the constitution, and the manners, under which such achievements were brought about. 2 allusions and stories out of the antiquities of Athens, such as we now find in the other funeral orations above alluded to ; but that Thucydides himself deliberately left them out in his report. But there seems no foundation for ihis suspicion. It is much more consonant to the superior tone of dignity which reigns throughout all this oration, to suppose that the mythical narra- tives, and even the previous historical glories of Athens, never found any special notice in the speech of Perikles, nothing more than a general recognition, with an intimation that he does not dwell upon them at length because they were well known to his audience, fianprj-yopeiv kv el66aiv oi (3ovh6pevof kaau (ii, 36). * Thucyd. ii, 35. ilaf TroMreiae, Kal rpoTruv otuv jj.eyaha lyevero, Tavra drj^uoag irpurot tlpi, etc.
 * Thucyd. ii, 36. 'ATrd 6e ouzf TC iniTtjdevaeuf ?/Ai9o//ev TT' aiira, nai ji&