Tlic Rhctorica of Philodemus. 



299 



It is strange then if we are to avoid metaphors, wholly, or 

 in part, while the sophists use them constantly. 



Col. XXIII is the beginning of a discussion of allegory, dividing it into 

 three parts, atviyfia, irapoiixia, eipdveia, disregarding for the present such 

 subdivisions as ypi(pos and aaTeCcfibs. 



The first five columns of this section are disconnected fragments. The 

 subject is the avoidance of faults of style. In column IV^ the thought is, 

 "But the avoidance of these faults is not the result of technical training in 

 rhetoric." Various faults to be avoided are mentioned in column III^"; 

 viz. the use of rhythm in prose, obscure use of metonomy, and omission of 

 the second of two correlating particles. The continuous section begins 

 with column IV'^ 1. 5a. 



The sophistical training does not prevent faulty speech. Those 

 who compose these technical treatises would have us believe that 

 nobody observed these errors in speech before they wrote, and 

 that they speak more correctly than other people. 



How can he (i. e. some rhetorician whose statement of the 

 above tenor has just been quoted) say'^that these faults were not 

 observed by the famous statesmen and philosophers who pre- 

 ceded Zopyrus and Antiphon, who avoided most if not all of 

 them? He did not allow himself any loophole for escape, such 

 as allowing" "rhetoric" in his statement to be interpreted as 

 meaning such instruction as Phoenix is reputed to have given 

 Achilles, for he will not allow natural ability in speaking to be 

 called rhetoric. And he made his statement more emphatic by 

 saying, "before the study of rhetoric became firmly established." 

 Consequently both Thucydides the son of Stephanus^° and 

 Thucydides the son of Olorus were guilty of these faults of 

 style. For the systematic study of rhetoric began in their day, 

 but can hardly be said to have been firmly established. And yet 

 the introduction of these studies has made no difference in the 

 way people speak. I hesitate to say that no one except a ditch 

 digger and Maison talks in the way which he criticizes, but I 

 think that such language as he condemns is characteristic not of 

 an uneducated man, but of one lacking in common sense. 

 Therefore let us not wonder at his statement that the technical 



I, 180. col. 

 XXII. 



I. 181, col. 

 XXIII. 



I. 182, col. 



1=^—1. 186, 



col. V^. 



I. 186, col. 

 V'\ 1. 8. 



I, 18^ 

 VIK 



I. 189, col. 



Villa. 



° It is probable that col. IV^ should precede col. III-'^. Then col. IIP and 

 col. V^ are continuous reading; h'^ fJ-^" tovtuv noWa Kdyada wewoi-nK , 

 avrb's fj.01 x'lP"' "^^ dnoSedwKev, thus illustrating the omission of 5e after /j-^v. 

 This is the suggestion of Sandys, Class. Rev. IX, p. 359. 



^^ Apparently a slip for Melesias. 



