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years 421—411 B.C.[1] The warmth of the terms in which Thucydides describes him as "a master of device and of expression[2],"—a phase identical with that which is ascribed, as a definition of statesmanlike ability, to Pericles—testifies at least to an intellectual sympathy. There is, however, no evidence for the ancient tradition that the historian was the pupil of the orator[3]. Thucydides and Antiphon belong to the same rhetorical school, and represent the same early stage in the development of Attic prose. Both writers admit words of an antique or a decidedly poetical cast[4]. Both delight in verbal contrasts, pointed by insisting on the precise difference between terms of similar import[5]. Both use

  1. Of his extant works, Or. v., περὶ τοῦ Ἡρώδου φόνου, may be referred to about 417 B.C., and Or. vi., περὶ τοῦ χορευτοῦ, to about 412 B.C. Cp. Attic Orators, i. 34, 58, 63.
  2. viii. 68, κράτιστος ἐνθυμηθῆναι . . . καὶ ἃ γνοίη εἰπεῖν. Cf. ii. 60, ὃς οὐδενὸς οἴομαι ἥσσων εἶναι γνῶναί τε τὰ δέοντα καὶ ἑρμηνεῦσαι ταῦτα.
  3. Caecilius of Calacte, in the Augustan age, conjectured that Thucydides had been the pupil of Antiphon (Vitt. x. Oratt.); Hermogenes (περὶ ἰδ. ii. 497) notices the belief as current, but rejects it. It seems to have been a mere guess, resting on resemblance of style. See Attic Orators, i. p. 4.
  4. E.g. Antiphon: ἀλιτήροις—ποινή—προστρόπαιος—ἐνθύμιος—ἀσπαίρω (ii. δ. 5)—ἀνθρώπινον φῦλον (iv. α. 2)—εὐδία (ii. β. i)—χωροφιλεῖν (v. 78)—φιλοθύτης (ii. β. 12). Thucydides: περιωπή (= σκοπία, iv. 86)—ἀχθηδών (ii. 37)—ναυβάτης (i. 121; cf Pollux i. 95, τὸ ναυβάτας ὀνομάζειν (τοὺς ναύτας) τραγικώτερονἐσθήματα (iii. 58)—ἑσσαμένων (= ἱδρυσαμένων, ib.)—κεκμηῶτες (iii. 59)—περίρρυτος (iv. 64)—φυλοκρινεῖν (vi. 18)—ἐπηλυγάζεσθαι (vi. 36), and many more.
  5. E.g. Antiphon: γνωρισταί—δικασταί—δοξασταί—κριταί (v. 94): the πράκτορες τῶν ἀκουσίων distinguished from the αἴτιοι τῶν παθημάτων (ii. β. § 6): τὰ παρῳχημένα σημείοις πιστῶσαι, τὰ δὲ μέλλοντα τεκμηρίοις (ap. Ammon. 127). Thucydides: αἰτία—κατηγορία (i. 68): φρόνημα—καταφρόνημα—αὔχημα—καταφρόνησις (ii. 62): ἐπανέστησαν—ἀπέστησαν (iii. 39)—οὐκ ἀξυνετωτέρου, κακοξυνετωτέρου δέ (vi. 76): κατοικίσαι—ἐξοικίσαι (ib.)—παραίνεσις—ἀξίωσις (i. 41)—δοκοῦσα—φαινομένη (i. 32)—προεπιβουλεύειν—ἀντεπιβουλεύειν (i. 33): δικασταί . . . σωφρονισταί (vi. 87).