Note 270 — Chapter XLVIII · FROM THE BLOCKADE OF POTIDÆA DOWN TO THE END OF THE FIRST YEAR OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. (continued 2)

The remarks of Dionysius Halikarnassus, tending to show that the number of dead buried on this occasion was so small, and the actions in which they had been slain so insignificant, as to be unworthy of so elaborate an harangue as this of Periklês,—and finding fault with Thucydidês on that ground,—are by no means well-founded or justifiable. He treats Thucydidês like a dramatic writer putting a speech into the mouth of one of his characters, and he considers that the occasion chosen for this speech was unworthy. But though this assumption would be correct with regard to many ancient historians, and to Dionysius himself in his Roman history,—it is not correct with reference to Thucydidês. The speech of Periklês was a real speech, heard, reproduced, and doubtless dressed up, by Thucydidês: if therefore more is said than the number of the dead or the magnitude of the occasion warranted, this is the fault of Periklês, and not of Thucydidês. Dionysius says that there were many other occasions throughout the war much more worthy of an elaborate funeral harangue,—especially the disastrous loss of the Sicilian army. But Thucydidês could not have heard any of them, after his exile in the eighth year of the war: and we may well presume that none of them would bear any comparison with this of Periklês. Nor does Dionysius at all appreciate the full circumstances of this first year of the war,—which, when completely felt, will be found to render the splendid and copious harangue of the great statesman eminently seasonable. See Dionys. H. de Thucyd. Judic. pp. 849-851.