holmes: a study of ihf. tVpe of the creek, epitaphios. 231 



If we were to try to conceive what sort of a speech Thucydides 

 himself would have written for his history, keeping in view the 

 spirit and style of the historian as seen in the other portions of his 

 writings, no speech could fit the conception better than this funeral 

 oration. True, it is also a fact that if we were to try to conceive 

 what sort of a speech Pericles would have written, from a study of 

 his life and policy, no speech would fit that conception better than 

 this speech so far as its style is concerned; but, Thucydides was 

 writing for his history, not so Pericles. Thucydides had ample 

 excuse for deviating from the beaten track of the Epitaphios, not 

 so Pericles. No one of the epitaphioi is so far from the set type 

 of the Epitaphios in point of view of subject-matter as the funeral 

 speech of Thucydides. And this in my judgment is conclusive as 

 against the verbatim theory. Again, Thucydides' business was 

 not to imitate the style of the masters of oratory for the benefit of 

 posterity. His work was not that of a rhetorician, but he was to 

 represent the motives which were at work in shaping the destinies 

 of Greece and the policies of her foremost statesmen. The fact 

 that Thucydides was in very close personal contact with affairs in 

 Athens at that time argues well for his historical accuracy in his 

 facts and philosophy, but. if it proves anything beyond this, it 

 proves what is too much — that he gives the actual words of Peri- 

 cles, for it is untenable that Thucydides would stop to imitate 

 Pericles when he could get his very words. The verbatim theory 

 is, as I have said, refuted by the extreme lack of harmony of the 

 subject-matter of the speech with the unyielding requirements of 

 the type. I find after having written the above that to Dahlman 

 belongs the credit of the argument from non-conformity, though I 

 have the consolation of knowing that 1 am not alone in my opinion. 

 It is futile to urge that the absence of mythical embellishment is 

 rather a proof of the fidelity with which Thucydides has reported a 

 speaker who regardless of the vulgar taste w^as resolved to treat a 

 well-worn theme in a new and higher strain. Such, however, is 

 the insinuating statement of Jebb. But this will not hold, because: 

 ( I ) It is not characteristic of Thucydides to report a speaker with 

 such fidelity, as he. Thucydides, himself admits. (2) The taste 

 which made the Epitaphios what it was, is not vulgar when looked 

 at from a historical point of view. (3) The theme was not at that 

 time so well-worn as to have become tiresome, since this is the first 

 extant speech of the kind that has come down to us. The type 

 had not been set long enough to have become tiresome. And (4) 

 so great departures from the norm were not made in later times 

 when the theme was worn even to being threadbare. 



