Showing papers on "Viseme published in 1966"

The speech against Pancleon

Abstract: SOME doubts were expressed by nineteenth-century scholars as to Lysias' authorship of the speech Against Pancleon. Dobree suspected it, but gave no reasons for his suspicion; and Francken thought that the transmitted speech was the work of an epitomist. Subsequent scholars have not shared their doubts. Blass accepts it unreservedly; Jebb asserts its genuineness; Wilamowitz* analyses the speech as a unique example of a speech irpos Trapaypcufyqv, and refuses to entertain any possibility of its spuriousness; Shuckburgh includes it in his selection of sixteen speeches of Lysias ; and the Loeb and Bude editors strongly affirm the prevalent belief that the speech is the work of Lysias. The fact that learned opinion since Wilamowitz has been unanimous ought perhaps to discourage further speculation: the following examples of nonLysianic usage in the speech are submitted in the hope that others may at least share the present writer's surprise at such unanimity. Commentators have noted that in this speech alone in Lysias the speaker always asks for the water-clock to be stopped when he introduces a witness. Wilamowitzs has taken this to indicate that the time allotted to the speaker was short because the hearing was a preliminary one, at which only the admissibility of the suit was being considered. But could the speaker's time have been so short? His speech is extremely short as it is, very much shorter than the extant irapaypafai of Demosthenes and Isocrates, which may reasonably be taken as guides to the length allowed to Pancleon in his reply to this speech. Such a disparity in the time allowed to the opposing sides, even at a preliminary hearing, would seem grossly unfair. A further aspect of the matter is raised by the absence not only of requests that the water be stopped when witnesses or evidence are called, but also of references to shortage of time in any of Lysias' speeches except that against Eratosthenes, which was probably his first essay in forensic oratory. He seems to refer at the outset of this speech to a time limit when he says: '. . . dAA' avay/oj •»} TOV Karfyyopov airwrciv r) rov Xpovov eiri\\i.neiv', and the brevity of the epilogue, rhetorically effective as it is, may be due to the efHuxion of time; but even in this speech he does not have the water stopped when he introduces witnesses. It may be an indication of his improving technique that in his remaining speeches his clients never appear to be in any time trouble. It is therefore suggested that if Lysias had written the speech for the prosecutor of Pancleon, and time had been at a premium, he would have tailored the speech accordingly; while if there was really no time shortage, as seems likely, the request is an un-Lysianic mannerism's which should raise doubts as to authorship of the speech.