[Niall_Livingstone]_A_Commentary_on_Isocrates'_Busiris

26 INTRODUCTION5101520These three sentences put the casev for Isocrates' presentationof Busiris as the founder of Egypt. The first (lines 1-6) issimple in structure, but still carefully balanced: the main clause (line3) is framed by two conditional clauses (the first modifying the mainverb, the second dependent on it as part of the indirect statementintroduced by 6 each conditional clause contains a relativeclause correlated with a demonstrative pronoun (and the ordering is chiastic: in the first case thedemonstrative precedes the relative, in the second it follows it. Thesecond sentence (lines 7-17) is more elaborate. The interrogativeanced participle phrases (with homoeoteleutori) in lines 8-9; suspense isthen maintained by delayingwhich leads to thestatement of Busiris' claims in lines 14-17: two antitheses (one joinedby the other just by both with homoeoteleuton and a closemetrical equivalence between the parts. The third sentence (lines18-22), answering the rhetorical question, is scarcely an independentperiod. There is a metrical balance between . (19) andthe infinitive is kept to the end to achieve a satisfactoryclosure by completing the sense. In this passage, as in the Defencein general, there is a greater interdependence between periods thanis typically the case in the Prologue and Encomium; the argumentruns on from one sentence to the next.