Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/482

460 460 HISTORY OF TIIF. The primary characteristic of the oratory of Pericles, and those who most resembled him is, that their speeches are full of thoughts concisely expressed. Unaccustomed to continued abstraction, and unwilling to indulge in trivial reasonings, their powers of reflection seized on all the circumstances of the world around them with fresh and unimpaired vigour, and, assisted by abundant experience and acute observations, brought the light of their clear general conceptions to bear upon every subject which they took up. Cicero characterizes Pericles, Alcibiades, and TJiucydides, (for he rightly reckons the two latter among the orators,) by the epithets " subtle, acute, and concise,"' and distinguishes between them and the somewhat younger generation of Critias, Theramenes, and Lysias, who had also, he says, retained some of the sap and life-blood of Pericles,f but had spun the thread of their discourse rather more liberally. J With regard to the opinions of Pericles, we know that they were remarkable for the comprehensive views of public affairs on which they were based. The majesty for which Pericles was so distinguished, and which gained for him the appellation of " the Olympian," consisted mostly in the skill and ability with which he refen - ed all common occur- rences to the general principles and bold ideas, which he had derived from his noble and exalted view of the destiny of Athens. Accordingly, Plato says of Pericles, that in addition to his natural abilities, he had acquired an elevation of mind and a habit of striving after definite objects. § It was on this account, too, that his opinions took such a firm hold of his hearers ; according to the metaphor of Eupolis — they remained fixed in the mind, like the sting of the bee. § 5. It was because the thoughts of Pericles were so striking, so entirely to the purpose, and at the same time so grand, and we may add it was on this account alone, that his speeches produced so deep and lasting an impression. The sole object of the oratory of Pericles was to produce conviction, to give a permanent bias to the mind of the people. It was alien from his intentions to excite any sudden and tran- sient burst of passion by working on the emotions of the heart. The whole history of Attic oratory teaches us that there could not be in the means, " skilful in the choice of words, and in the distinct expression of every thought" (subfiles), " refined in their ideas" (acuti), " concise" (breves), " and with more thoughts than words." ■f Reiinebaut ilium Periclis succum. J l)e Orator. II. 22. In the Brutus, c. VII., he gives a rather different classifi- cation of the old orators. In the latter work he classes Alcibiades along with Critias and Theramenes, and says the style of their oratory may be gathered from Tlvucydides ; he calls them gramles verbis, crebri sententiis, compressione rerum breves, et ob earn causam subobscuri. Ciitias is described by Philostratus, Sophist. I. 16, and still better by Hermogenes, v.t) lltoZi, (in Walz, Rhet. Grceci. L. III., p. 38S) : and we may infer that he stood, in regard to style, between Antiphon and Lysias. 6 Plato, Plicrilrus, p. 270 : ro i/^nXovouv tvuto xal -ravTri TiXuriougyov. . . i U'.oixXn; ■raos to tbpuris titm ix.twu.to. The yh denotes, according to the context, the striving after a great fixed object.
 * He says subfiles, arnti, breves, se/itentiis magis quam verbis abundant es, by which lie