On the Sublime
the absence of antithesis to +houtos men+, point in this direction. The
original reading may have been something of this sort: +plên houtos men
hupo philoneikias _parêgeto_; all' oude ta themata tithêsin
homologoumena+, the sense being that, though we may allow something to
the partiality of Caecilius, yet this does not excuse him from arguing
on premises which are unsound.
XXXIV. 4. 10. +ho de enthen helôn, k.t.l.+ Probably the darkest place in
the whole treatise. Toup cites a remarkable passage from Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, from which we may perhaps conclude that Longinus is
referring here to Thucydides, the traditional master of Demosthenes. _De
Thucyd._ § 53, +Rhêtorôn de Dêmosthenês monos Thoukudidou zêlôtos
egeneto kata polla, kai prosethêke tois politikois logois, par' ekeinou
labôn, has oute Antiphôn, oute Lusias, oute Isokratês, hoi prôteusantes
tôn tote rhêtorôn, eschon aretas, ta tachê legô, kai tas sustrophas, kai
tous tonous, kai to struphnon, kai tên exegeirousan ta pathê deinotêta.+
So close a parallel can hardly be accidental.
XXXV. 4. 5. Longinus probably had his eye on the splendid lines in
Pindar's _First Pythian_:
+tas [Aitnas] ereugontai men aplatou puros hagnotatai
ek muchôn pagai, potamoi d'
hameraisin men procheonti rhoon kapnou--
aithôn'; all' en orphnaisin petras
phoinissa kulindomena phlox es bathei-
an pherei pontou plaka sun patagô+,
which I find has also been pointed out by Toup, who remarks that
+hagnotatai+ confirms the reading +autou monou+ here, which has been
suspected without reason.
XXXVIII. 2. 7. Comp. Plato, _Phaedrus_, 267, A: +Tisian de Gorgian te
easomen heudein, hoi pro tôn alêthôn ta eikota eidon hôs timêtea mallon,
ta te au smikra megala kai ta megala smikra poiousi phainesthai dia
rhômên logou, kaina te archaiôs ta t' enantia kainôs, suntomian te logôn
kai apeira mêkê peri pantôn aneuron.+
APPENDIX
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LESS KNOWN WRITERS
MENTIONED IN THE TREATISE ON THE SUBLIME
AMMONIUS.--Alexandrian grammarian, carried on the school of Aristarchus
previously to the reign of Augustus. The allusion here is to a work on
the passages in which Plato has imitated Homer. (Suidas, _s.v._; Schol.
on Hom. Il. ix. 540, quoted by Jahn.)
AMPHIKRATES.--Author of a book _On Famous Men_, referred to by
Athenaeus, xiii. 576, G, and Diog. Laert. ii. 101. C. Muller, _Hist. Gr.
Fragm._ iv. p. 300, considers him to be the Athenian rhetorician who,
according to Plutarch (_Lucullus_, c. 22), retired to Seleucia, and
closed his life at the Court of Kleopatra, daughter of Mithridates and
wife of Tigranes (Pauly, _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen
Alterthumswissenschaft_). Plutarch tells a story illustrative of his
arrogance. Being asked by the Seleucians to open a school of rhetoric,
he replied, "A dish is not large enough for a dolphin" (+hôs oude lekanê
delphina chôroiê+), v. _Luculli_, c. 22, quoted by Pearce.
ARISTEAS.--A name involved in a mist of fable. According to Suidas he
was a contemporary of Kroesus, though Herodotus assigns to him a much
remoter antiquity. The latter authority describes him as visiting the
northern peoples of Europe and recording his travels in an epic poem, a
fragment of which is given here by Longinus. The passage before us
appears to be intended as the words of some Arimaspian, who, as
belonging to a remote inland race, expresses his astonishment that any
men could be found bold enough to commit themselves to the mercy of the
sea, and tries to describe the terror of human beings placed in such a
situation (Pearce ad. l.; Abicht on Hdt. iv. 12; Suidas, _s.v._)
BAKCHYLIDES, nephew and pupil of the great Simonides, flourished about
460 B.C. He followed his uncle to the Court of Hiero at Syracuse, and
enjoyed the patronage of that despot. After Hiero's death he returned to
his home in Keos; but finding himself discontented with the mode of life
pursued in a free Greek community, for which his experiences at Hiero's
Court may well have disqualified him, he retired to Peloponnesus, where
he died. His works comprise specimens of almost every kind of lyric
composition, as practised by the Greeks of his time. Horace is said to
have imitated him in his _Prophecy of Nereus_, c. I. xv. (Pauly, as
above). So far as we can judge from what remains of his works, he was
distinguished rather by elegance than by force. A considerable fragment
on the Blessings of Peace has been translated by Mr. J. A. Symonds in
his work on the Greek poets. He is made the subject of a very bitter
allusion by Pindar (Ol. ii. s. fin. c. Schol.) We may suppose that the
stern and lofty spirit of Pindar had little sympathy with the "tearful"
(Catullus, xxxviii.) strains of Simonides or his imitators.
CAECILIUS, a native of Kale Akte in Sicily, and hence known as Caecilius
Kalaktinus, lived in Rome at the time of Augustus. He is mentioned with
distinction as a learned Greek rhetorician and grammarian, and was the
author of numerous works, frequently referred to by Plutarch and other
later writers. He may be regarded as one of the most distinguished Greek
rhetoricians of his time. His works, all of which have perished,
comprised, among many others, commentaries on Antipho and Lysias;
several treatises on Demosthenes, among which is a dissertation on the
genuine and spurious speeches, and another comparing that orator with
Cicero; "On the Distinction between Athenian and Asiatic Eloquence"; and
the work on the Sublime, referred to by Longinus (Pauly). The criticism
of Longinus on the above work may be thus summed up: Caecilius is
censured (1) as failing to rise to the dignity of his subject; (2) as
missing the cardinal points; and (3) as failing in practical utility. He
wastes his energy in tedious attempts to define the Sublime, but does
not tell us how it is to be attained (I. i.) He is further blamed for
omitting to deal with the Pathetic (VIII. i. _sqq._) He allows only two
metaphors to be employed together in the same passage (XXXII. ii.) He
extols Lysias as a far greater writer than Plato (_ib._ viii.), and is a
bitter assailant of Plato's style (_ib._) On the whole, he seems to have
been a cold and uninspired critic, finding his chief pleasure in minute
verbal details, and incapable of rising to an elevated and extensive
view of his subject.
ERATOSTHENES, a native of Cyrene, born in 275 B.C.; appointed by Ptolemy
III. Euergetes as the successor of Kallimachus in the post of librarian
in the great library of Alexandria. He was the teacher of Aristophanes
of Byzantium, and his fame as a man of learning is testified by the
various fanciful titles which were conferred on him, such as "The
Pentathlete," "The second Plato," etc. His great work was a treatise on
geography (Lübker).
GORGIAS of Leontini, according to some authorities a pupil of
Empedokles, came, when already advanced in years, as ambassador from his
native city to ask help against Syracuse (427 B.C.) Here he attracted
notice by a novel style of eloquence. Some time after he settled
permanently in Greece, wandering from city to city, and acquiring wealth
and fame by practising and teaching rhetoric. We find him last in
Larissa, where he died at the age of a hundred in 375 B.C. As a teacher
of eloquence Gorgias belongs to what is known as the Sicilian school, in
which he followed the steps of his predecessors, Korax and Tisias. At
the time when this school arose the Greek ear was still accustomed to
the rhythm and beat of poetry, and the whole rhetorical system of the
Gorgian school (compare the phrases +gorgieia schêmata+, +gorgiazein+)
is built on a poetical plan (Lübker, _Reallexikon des classischen
Alterthums_). Hermogenes, as quoted by Jahn, appears to classify him
among the "hollow pedants" (+hupoxuloi sophistai+), "who," he says,
"talk of vultures as 'living tombs,' to which they themselves would best
be committed, and indulge in many other such frigid conceits." (With the
metaphor censured by Longinus compare Achilles Tatius, III. v. 50, ed.
Didot.) See also Plato, _Phaedrus_, 267, A.
HEGESIAS of Magnesia, rhetorician and historian, contemporary of Timaeus
(300 B.C.) He belongs to the period of the decline of Greek learning,
and Cicero treats him as the representative of the decline of taste. His
style was harsh and broken in character, and a parody on the Old Attic.
He wrote a life of Alexander the Great, of which Plutarch (_Alexander_,
c. 3) gives the following specimen: "On the day of Alexander's birth the
temple of Artemis in Ephesus was burnt down, a coincidence which
occasions Hegesias to utter a conceit frigid enough to extinguish the
conflagration. 'It was natural,' he says, 'that the temple should be
burnt down, as Artemis was engaged with bringing Alexander into the
world'" (Pauly, with the references).
HEKATAEUS of Miletus, the logographer; born in 549 B.C., died soon after
the battle of Plataea. He was the author of two works--(1) +periodos
gês+; and (2) +geneêlogiai+. The _Periodos_ deals in two books, first
with Europe, then with Asia and Libya. The quotation in the text is from
his genealogies (Lübker).
ION of Chios, poet, historian, and philosopher, highly distinguished
among his contemporaries, and mentioned by Strabo among the celebrated
men of the island. He won the tragic prize at Athens in 452 B.C., and
Aristophanes (_Peace_, 421 B.C.) speaks of him as already dead. He was
not less celebrated as an elegiac poet, and we still possess some
specimens of his elegies, which are characterised by an Anacreontic
spirit, a cheerful, joyous tone, and even by a certain degree of
inspiration. He wrote also Skolia, Hymns, and Epigrams, and was a pretty
voluminous writer in prose (Pauly). Compare the Scholiast on Ar.
_Peace_, 801.
KALLISTHENES of Olynthus, a near relative of Aristotle; born in 360, and
educated by the philosopher as fellow-pupil with Alexander, afterwards
the Great. He subsequently visited Athens, where he enjoyed the
friendship of Theophrastus, and devoted himself to history and natural
philosophy. He afterwards accompanied Alexander on his Asiatic
expedition, but soon became obnoxious to the tyrant on account of his
independent and manly bearing, which he carried even to the extreme of
rudeness and arrogance. He at last excited the enmity of Alexander to
such a degree that the latter took the opportunity afforded by the
conspiracy of Hermolaus, in which Kallisthenes was accused of
participating, to rid himself of his former school companion, whom he
caused to be put to death. He was the author of various historical and
scientific works. Of the latter two are mentioned--(1) _On the Nature of
the Eye_; (2) _On the Nature of Plants_. Among his historical works are
mentioned (1) the _Phocian War_ (read "Phocicum" for v. l. "Troikum" in
Cic. _Epp. ad Div._ v. 12); (2) a _History of Greece_ in ten books; (3)
+ta Persika+, apparently identical with the description of Alexander's
march, of which we still possess fragments. As an historian he seems to
have displayed an undue love of recording signs and wonders. Polybius,
however (vi. 45), classes him among the best historical writers. His
style is said by Cicero (_de Or._ ii. 14) to approximate to the
rhetorical (Pauly).
KLEITARCHUS, a contemporary of Alexander, accompanied that monarch on
his Asiatic expedition, and wrote a history of the same in twelve books,
which must have included at least a short retrospect on the early
history of Asia. His talents are spoken of in high terms, but his credit
as an historian is held very light--"probatur ingenium, fides
infamatur," Quint. x. 1, 74. Cicero also (_de Leg._ i. 2) ranks him very
low. That his credit as an historian was sacrificed to a childish
credulity and a foolish love of fable and adventure is sufficiently