Page:Odes of Pindar with Several Other Pieces (West, 1749).pdf/526



This piece of Plato, though entitled a Dialogue, conſiſts chiefly of an

Oration, to which the Dialogue was intended to ſerve only for an In troduction or Vehicle ; and is accordingly very ſhort. The Subject of this Oration is the Commemoration of all thoſe Athenians, who, from

the Beginning of the Commonwealth to the Time of Plato, had died in the Service of their Country ; a Subject that takes in fo conſiderable a

Portion of the Hiſtory of Athens, that I rather chuſe to refer the Reader to thoſe Authors who have treated at large of the Tranſactions of that State, than to ſet down theſeveral Events bere alluded to, in Notes, which wouldfoon (well to a bulk much larger than the Oration itſelf. It may not bowever be improper to premiſe aſhort Account of the

Cuſtom, which gave birth to this and many other Orations, Spoken byſome of the greateſt Orators of Athens ; as ſuch an Account may tend to put the Reader into a proper Situation of Mind tojudge of the Beauties and Blemiſhes ofthisfamous Panegyrick, by leading him as it

were to Athens,and making him one of the Audience. Take it therefore in the Words of Thucydides thus tranſlated.

« In the ſame Winter ( namely, in the firſt Year of the Peloponneſian War] the Athenians, in obedience to the Laws of theirCountry,

performed, at the publick Expence, the Obſèquies of thoſe Citizens, Np 2

«

who