Page:History of Greece Vol VIII.djvu/467

 EFFECT OF IS TALKING. 445 which he made choice ; the string of interrogatories each advanc- ing towards a result, yet a result not foreseen by any one ; the indirect and circuitous manner whereby the subject was turned round, and at last approached and laid open by a totally different face, all this constituted a sort of prerogative in Sokrates, which no one else seems to have approached. Its effect was enhanced by a voice and manner highly plausible and captivating, and to a certain extent by the very eccentricity of his silenic physiogno- my. 1 What is termed "his irony," or assumption of the charac- ter of an ignorant learner, asking information from one who knew better than himself, while it was essential 2 as an excuse for his practice as a questioner, contributed also to add zest and novelty to his conversation ; and totally banished from it both didactic pedantry and seeming bias as an advocate ; which, to one who talked so much, was of no small advantage. After he had ac- quired celebrity, this uniform profession of ignorance in debate was usually construed as mere affectation ; and those who merely heard him occasionally, without penetrating into his intimacy, often suspected that he was amusing himself with ingenious paradox. 3 Timon the Satirist, and Zeno the Epicurean, accordingly described him as a buffoon, who turned every one into ridicule, especially men of eminence. 4 1 This is an interesting testimony preserved by Aristoxenus, on the tea timony of his father Spintharus, who heard Sokrates (Aristox. Frag. 28, cir. Didot). Spinthnnis said, respecting Sokrates : OTI ov irohhoif avrof -ye iri&avurepoif tvrerv^ijKUf eirj Toiavrrjv dvai rrjv re uv7/v Kal rb aropa Kal rd t^i^aivofinov fy&oc, KOI irpbf iruai re roif etprjpevoif TT)V TOV eldovf I6i- It seems evident also, from the remarkable passage in Plato's Symposion, c. 39, p. 215, A, that he too must have been much affected by the singular physiognomy of Sokrates: compare Xenoph. Sympos. iv. 19. Quoest. Platonic, p. 999, E. Te>j> ovv ifayicriKdv Aoyov uaTrep Kadapriitbv t%uv QupfiaKov, 6 SuKpuTTjf ut-ioTnaroc }/v irfpov^ Wey^oi', ru ftr]6ev urco^ai- Kal puM.ov IJXTSTO, dwuv t^rjTelv KOII>TJ r?/v tilr/d-iav, OVK avrd 3 Xenoph. Mem. iv, 4, 9. Plato, Gorgias, c. 81, p. 481, B. o-ovdufrt ravra Suxpar^f f/ naifri; Re- public, i, c. 11, p. 337, A. avr^ itce'ivr} ff flu&vta tipuveia Zwjtparorf, etc (Apol. Sok. c. 28, p. 38, A.) 4 Diosr. Laiirt. ii, 16; Cicero, De Na'. Deor. i, 34, 93 Cicero (Brute*
 * Aristot. de Sophist. Elench. c. 32, p. 183, b. 6. Compare also Plutarch,