of Plutarch[1] and Lucian[2]. They demand that the speech shall be appropriate to the speaker and to the occasion, but the same conditions are equally binding on an epic poet. Among the Roman historians of the first rank, Livy is the one who has made the largest use of this freedom. He once says, in reference to a speech of Cato's, that, as the real text is extant in Cato's Origines, he will not give the reader a pale copy of that rich eloquence[3]. It might have been inferred that Livy was careful in his speeches to represent individual character and manner[4]. But the inference is scarcely supported by the extant portion of his work, though it is possible that his portraits may have become more accurate in this respect as he came to later times and ampler materials. The speeches are sometimes of great power and beauty, but the rhetorical colour is uniform, and there is sometimes an absolute
- ↑ Plut., praecept. ger. Reipubl. 6, where he objects to long speeches before battles as out of place. The speeches, often happily dramatic, in his own biographies are the best comment on his remark (de glor. Athen. p. 346), τῶν ἱστορικῶν κράτιστος ὁ τὴν διήγησιν ὥσπερ γραφὴν πάθεσι καὶ προσώποις εἰδωλοποιήσας.
- ↑ Lucian, de conscrib. hist. 58, ἢν δέ ποτε . . . δεινότητα: "And if it should ever be necessary to introduce a person speaking, first of all let the speech be suitable to the person and the matter; next let it be as clear as possible: then, however, you are at liberty to declaim (ῥητορεῦσαι) and to show your oratorical power."
- ↑ "Simulacrum viri copiosi," Liv, xlv. 25.
- ↑ As Quintilian says of Livy, "ita dicuntur omnia, cum rebus tum personis accommodata," x. 1.
