Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/510

488 48S HISTORY OF THE § 8. The most decided and the boldest proof which Thucydides has given of his intention to set forth the events of the Avar in all their secret workings, is manifested in that part of his history -which is most pecu- liarly his own — the speeches. It is true that these speeches, given in the words of the speakers, are much more natural to an ancient historian than they would be to one at the present day. Speeches delivered in the public assembly, in federal meetings, or before the army, were often, by virtue of the consequences springing from them, important events, and at the same time so public, that nothing but the infirmities of human memory could prevent them from being preserved and communicated to others. Hence it came to pass, that the Greeks, who in the greater liveliness of their disposition were accustomed to look to the form as well as to the substance of every public communication, in relating the circum- stance were not content with giving an abstract of the subject of the speech, or the opinions of the speaker in their own words, but introduced the orator himself as speaking. As in such a case, the narrator supplied a good deal from his own head, when his memory could not make good the deficiency ; so Thucydides does not give us an exact report of the speeches which he introduces, because he could not have recollected per- fectly even those which he heard himself. He explains his own inten- tion in this matter, by telling us that he endeavoured to keep as closely as possible to the true report of what was actually said ; but, AYhen this was unattainable, he had made the parties speak what was most to the purpose in reference to the matter in hand* We must, however, go a step further than Thucydides, and concede to him greater freedom from literal tradition than he was perhaps conscious of himself. The speeches in Thucydides contain a sum of the motives and causes which led to the principal transactions ; namely, the opinions of individuals and of tho different parties in a state, from which these transactions sprung. Speeches are introduced whenever he thinks it necessary to introduce such a developement of causes : when there is no such necessity, the speeches are omitted ; though perhaps just as many were actually deli- vered in the one case as in the other. Accordingly the speeches which he has given contain, in a summary form, much that was really spoken on various occasions ; as, for instance, in the second debate in the Athenian assembly about the mode of treating the con- quered Mitylenaeans, in which the decree that was really acted on was passed by the people ; in this the opinions of the opposing parties — the violently tyrannical, and the milder and more humane party — are pour- trayed in the speeches of Cleon and Diodotus, though Cleon had, the day before, carried the first inhuman decree against the Mitylenseans,t and in so doing had doubtless said much in support of his motion which
 * rk Yiivrcc p&Xurra, Thucyd. I. 22. t Thucyd. III. 3C.