Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/479

457 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT CREECH. 457 were transmitted through a series of statesmen,* from Solon to Themis- tocles and Pericles, and were from time to time further developed and extended; and though an opposite party in politics (that of Aristides and Cimon) endeavoured to set bounds to this cjevelopemcnt, the point for which they contended did not affect any one of the leading principles which guided the other party ; they only wished to. moderate the sudden- ness and violence of the movement. This deep reflection on and clear perception of what was needful for Athens, t imparted to the speeches of men like Themistocles and Pericles a power and solidity which made a far deeper impression on the people of Athens than any particular proposal or counsel could have done. Public speaking had been common in Greece from the earliest times ; long before popular assemblies had gained the sovereign power by the establishment of democracy, the ancient kings had been in the habit of addressing their people, sometimes with that natural eloquence which Homer ascribes to Ulysses, at other times, like Menelaus, with concise but persuasive diction : Nesiod assigns to kings a muse of their own, — Calliope — by whose aid they were enabled to speak convincingly and persuasively in the popular assembly and from the seat of judgment. With the further developement of republican constitutions after the age of Homer and Hesiod, public officers and demagogues without number had spoken in the public meetings, or in the deliberative councils and legislative committees of the numerous independent states, and no doubt they often spoke eloquently and wisely ; but these speeches did not sur- vive the particular occasion which called them forth : they were wasted on the air without leaving behind them a more lasting effect than would have been produced by a discourse of common life; and in this whole period it seems never to have been imagined that oratory coidd produce, effects more lasting than the particular occurrence which gave occasion for a display of it, or that it was capable of exerting a ruling influence over all the actions and inclinations of a people. Even the lively and ingenious lonians were distinguished at the flourishing epoch of their literature, for an amusing style, adapted to such narratives as might be communicated in private society, rather than for the more powerful eloquence of the public assembly : at least Herodotus, whose history may be considered as belonging to Ionian literature, though he is fond of introducing dialogues and short speeches, never incorporates with his history the popular harangues which are so remarkable in Thucy- siphilus, -who makes such a distinguished appearance in Herod; YIII. 57, and who had devoted himself to the so called «^/«, which, according to Plutarch, consisted in political capacity and practical understanding, and which had descended from Solon. f Tou ilairat, an expression which was very common at Athens in the time of Pericles, and denoted whatever was expedient under tlie existing circumstances of the state.
 * Soe Plutarch, Themis/. 2. Themistocles studied as a young man under Mnc-