Book II - Wilbourhall.org

III.] STYLE OF THUCYDIDES. Ixian orator: that is to say, the literary and philosophicalelements are somewhat stronger in the historian thanin the orator. It is for this reason that the sjwechesin Thucydides could not have been delivered. Theywere written for readers, and every point that wasactually made by the speaker is idealised and raisedto the level of a philosophioal argument To thisstriving after sublimity are due also the majesticwords and sounding phrases that he uses so often.Hermogenes objects to the use of these that they arenot suited to the oratory of the ecclesia. But in thefirst place the old school of orators probably did usethem to some extent, and in the second place thecritic confounds speeches written for a work that wasto be lasting with the oratory of the hour. Amongthe means which Thucydides uses— chiefly in thespeeches— for this end are the article with infinitive,the neuter participle used as an abstract noun of thewidest and vaguest character, and