private causes, show his consummate and versatile command over all the
resources of the language. In him the development of Attic prose is
completed, and the best elements in each of its earlier phases are
united. The modern world can more easily appreciate Demosthenes as a
great natural orator than as an elaborate artist. But, in order to
apprehend his place in the history of Attic prose, we must remember that
the ancients felt him to be both; and that he was even reproached by
detractors with excessive study of effect. Aeschines is the most
theatrical of the Greek orators; he is vehement, and often brilliant,
but seldom persuasive. Hypereides was, after Demosthenes, probably the
most effective; he had much of the grace of Lysias, but also a wit, a
fire and a pathos which were his own. Portions of six of his speeches,
found in Egypt between 1847 and 1890, are extant. The one oration of
Lycurgus which remains to us is earnest and stately, reminding us both
of Antiphon and of Isocrates. Dinarchus was merely a bad imitator of
Demosthenes. There seems more reason to regret that Demades is not
represented by larger fragments. The decline of Attic oratory may be
dated from Demetrius of Phalerum (318 B.C.), the pupil of Aristotle, and
the first to introduce the custom of making speeches on imaginary
subjects as practised in the rhetorical schools. Cicero names him as the
first who impaired the vigour of the earlier eloquence, "preferring his
own sweetness to the weight and dignity of his predecessors." He forms a
connecting link between Athens and Alexandria, where he found refuge
after his downfall and promoted the foundation of the famous library.
In later times oratory chiefly flourished in the coast and island
settlements of Asia Minor, especially Rhodes. Here a new, florid style
of oration arose, called the "Asiatic," which owed its origin to
Hegesias of Magnesia (c. 250 B.C.).
Philosophical prose--Plato and Aristotle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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