Book II - Wilbourhall.org

xlviii INTRODUCTION. [iii.And thus, if we can settle what position Thucydidesoccupies in relation to the art of his owntimes, we shall have no difficulty in determiningwhat is his position in relation to the classical art ofall time.In his age there were plenty of works producedwhich are not properly speaking classical at allfor example, the speeches of Andocides and thetreatise On the Athenian Constitution, which was writtenabout 424 B.C., are not classical literature ; they aremerely ancient, and their value is historical ratherthan artistic.In the second half of the fifth century B.C., whilesculpture and poetry reached their highest development,philosophy, oratory, and, above all, history, hadstill a great advance to make. They were not indeedentirely new to the Greek world. Philosophy hadexisted for at least a century and a half; oratory,spoken but not written, was considerably older.history had for a century occupied a serieschroniclers in the trading centres of Ionia.Evenof humblePreviousto those modest attempts to make literature out ofgenealogies and catalogues, the Greeks had nohistorians but their epic poets. The dialect of epicpoetry was based on Ionic, but was a literary and nota spoken dialect, having been gradually formed by theballad-minstrels who wandered from house to houseamong the princes of Greece singing songs of heroesfor their living. At least as early as the eighthcentury B.C., it had become customary to preserverecords of great personages and important events inthe temples and public buildings. In such lists localpriests and magistrates, acts and treaties, and the