MINOR RHETORICIANS
The contemporaries of Isocrates are overshadowed by his genius;
nevertheless there were in his time other speakers and teachers of
ability. The only one of them who deserves serious consideration is
Alcidamas, a pupil of Gorgias or of his school, who, though a rival of
Isocrates, had come under the influence of the latter’s style. We possess
under his name a sophistical exercise, the _Accusation of Palamedes
by Odysseus_, which is of no importance, and may be spurious, and a
declamation _On the Sophists_, which is probably genuine; at least we
may say that it is the work of an able critic and a graceful writer. His
other works included two rhetorical exercises, the _Praise of Death_ and
the _Praise of Nais_, and a _Messenian Oration_, which was apparently a
counterblast to the _Archidamus_ of Isocrates.
_The Sophists_ is really an attack on the methods of Isocrates, and is
directed against the practice of laboriously composing written speeches,
which are no real help to a man who wishes to be an orator, whether in
the assembly or the law-courts. Certain so-called Sophists, he contends,
who, while quite incapable of speaking, have practised writing, pride
themselves on this accomplishment, and though they can call only one
small department of rhetoric their own, claim to be masters of the
complete science. He would not disparage the art of writing, but he
considers it of secondary importance, while other accomplishments deserve
far more attention. Any man of ability, given the time, can learn to
write moderately well; but in order to speak well you must apply a
careful training to the development of certain special gifts. To be able
to speak extemporaneously is a very important gift; a man who possesses
it can adapt himself to the mood of his audience, while one who relies
on prepared orations must often miss a great opportunity, for it is
beyond human powers to learn by heart enough speeches to be ready at a
moment’s notice to speak on any subject and to any kind of audience. A
man accustomed to the use of written speeches, when forced to speak _ex
tempore_, will not maintain his proper level of performance.[213] Many
arguments, of more or less value, are adduced; in all of them there is a
certain cleverness.
Dionysius thought the style of Alcidamas coarse and trivial;[214]
Aristotle says that he used his epithets ‘not as seasoning but as
meat.’[215] These strictures do not apply to the one surviving work.
He seems to have been raised above the dead level of rhetoricians by
possessing ideas; in the speech advocating the freedom of the Messenians
occurred the sentence, ‘God has made all men free; nature has made no
man a slave’; and his description of the _Odyssey_ as ‘a noble mirror of
human life,’ is a fine expression in itself, though Aristotle objects
that such ornaments detract from the value of a speech, as giving the
impression of over-preparation.[216]
* * * * *
Polycrates, a rhetorician of the same period, is known to have composed
a fictitious _Accusation of Socrates_, to which Isocrates refers.[217]
His _Encomium of Busiris_, the cannibal king of Egypt, stirred Isocrates
to write his own _Busiris_, in order to show how such a theme ought to
be treated. Dionysius found his style inane, frigid, and vulgar.[218]
Lycophron, an imitator of Gorgias, is quoted several times by Aristotle;
and Cephisodorus, the best known rhetorician of the school of Isocrates,
wrote an admirable defence of his master against the attacks of
Aristotle.[219]
* * * * *
These minor teachers, who are mentioned only as offshoots from the
prominent schools, had no permanent influence on the growth either of
rhetoric or of oratory.