Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/346

 JJS4 HISTORY OF GKEECfc Anaxagoras, Sokrates, and Prodikus ; J iii Inth, the familiarity with that wide-spread popularity of speech, and real, serious de- bate of politicians and competitors before the dikastery, which both had ever before their eyes, but which the genius of Sophoklea knew how to keep in due subordination to his grand poetical pur- pose. The transformation of the tragic muse from ^Eschylus to Eu- ripides is the more deserving of notice, as it shows us how Attic tragedy served as the natural prelude and encouragement to the rhetorical and dialectical age which was approaching. But the democracy, which thus insensibly modified the tragic drama, im- parted a new life and ampler proportions to the comic ; both the one and the other being stimulated by the increasing prosperity and power of Athens during the half century following 480 B.C. Not only was the affluence of strangers and visitors to Athens continually augmenting, but wealthy men were easily found to incur the expense of training the chorus and actors. There was no manner of employing wealth which seemed so appropriate to procure influence and popularity to its possessors, as that of con- tributing to enhance the magnificence of the national and religious festivals. 2 This was the general sentiment both among rich and preferring a brother either to husband or child, that she might find an- other husband and hare another child, but could not possibly hare another brother, is certainly not a little far-fetched. 1 See Valckenaer, Diatribe in Eurip. Frag. c. 23. Quintilian, who had before him many more tragedies than those which we now possess, remarks how much more useful was the study of Euripides, than that of JEschylus or Sophokles, to a young man preparing himself for forensic oratory : " Hind quidem nemo non fateatur, iis qni se ad agendum comparayerint, utiliorem longe Euripidem fore. Namque is et vi et sermone (quo ipsum reprehendunt quibus gravitas et cothurnus et sonus Sophoclis videtur essa sublimior) magis accedit oratorio generi : et sententiis densus, et rebus ip- sis; et in iis quae a sapientibus tradita sunt, paene ipsis par; et in dicendo ot respondendo cuilibet eorum, qui fuerunt in foro diserti, comparandus. In affcctibus vero turn omnibus mirns, turn in iis qui miseratione constant, iacile precipuus." (Qnintil. Inst. Orat. x, 1.) n?.o>r<j) yap earl TOVTO avfifopuTaTov, Tloielv uyuvac -yvfiviKoiif Kal ftovaiKovf. Compare the speech of Alkibiad is, Thuc. vi, 16, and Theophrastus ap. Cic de Officiis.ii, 16.
 * Aristophan. Plutns, 1 160 :