[200] A good practical recipe for brevity combined with clearness is given in the Rhet. ad Alex. c. 30: συντόμως δὲ [δηλώσομεν], ἐὰν ἀπὸ τῶν πραγμάτων καὶ τῶν ὀνομάτων περιαιρῶμεν τὰ μὴ ἀναγκαῖα ῥηθῆναι, ταῦτα μόνα καταλείποντες, ὧν ἀφαιρεθέντων ἀσαφὴς ἔσται ὁ λόγος.
[201] He illustrates from the Introduction (προοίμιον) of Thucydides—the passage quoted in C.V. c. 22. A good example of the εἰρομένη λέξις in Thucydides (who is an acknowledged master of the κατεστραμμένη λέξις) is furnished by Thucyd. i. 9. 2: cp. p. [119] supra.
[202] Earlier (vii. 9. 6) in his treatise, Quintilian has quoted ‘Aio te, Aeacida, Romanos vincere posse’; and these oracular ambiguities had been glanced at previously by Aristotle (Rhet. iii. 5. 4).
[203] In a passage of Aristotle (Eth. Nic. vi. 1142 b ἀλλ’ ὀρθότης τίς ἐστιν ἡ εὐβουλία βουλῆς) βουλῆς seems to be emphatic because so far separated from ὀρθότης. Cp. L. H. G. Greenwood in the Classical Review xix. 18, and the same writer’s translation (Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics Book Six p. 111), “But deliberative excellence is rightness in deliberation.”
[204] Short and simple as it is, this last sentence is a good example of effective word-order. τριήρης is put early, to contrast it with φρούριον in the previous sentence. Then the time is indicated. Next τῶν Ἀθηναίων (removed from Thucydides’ usual position for a dependent genitive) is put in expressive juxtaposition to ὑπὸ τῶν Συρακοσιών. Lastly, the reason or circumstance is given: ἐφορμοῦσα τῷ λιμένι. And the rhythm of the sentence is not unpleasant.
[205] Aristotle (Rhet. i. 15), in quoting the first line only, gives ταῦτ’ οὖν ἐγὼ κτλ.
[206] In English it would be interesting to test, by these criteria, such usages (for usages they may be called in so far as they rest on the authority of many good writers) as the ‘split infinitive,’ or the preposition coming at the end of a sentence.
[207] The authenticity of these portions of the Odyssey was suspected in antiquity. But compare Iliad xviii. 587-8 (quoted in Introduction p. [13] supra) or Odyss. xi. 160-1.
[208] The dates and stages of these changes cannot as yet be settled with precision. But the practical choice seems to be between the earliest and the latest values, though there is no doubt whatever that a distinct h was heard in all these sounds long after the fourth century B.C.
[209] It is not easy to determine precisely the sound of χθ, φθ (χθών, φθόνος) at the beginning of words, and the Committee therefore thinks it best to leave the option of (1) sounding the first consonants as κ and π respectively, and the θ as it is in other positions (this applies both to students who adopt the fricative and to those who adopt the primitive aspirate pronunciation of the letters in other positions), or (2) where the fricative pronunciation is adopted, of sounding χ and φ, in this position also, respectively as Scotch ch and English f.