[untitled] Classical Philology, (1916-01-01), pages 123-124

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Book Reviews 123

1. Of these 377 words only about 99 are taken from the Cairo material or
from the longer fragmentary plays. This fact reinforces Mr. Durham's
contention (p. 34) that Phrynicus and the other grammarians had been
suflSiciently careful to embahn in short citations such words as could be
criticized. Of the 63 words, for instance, condemned by the grammarians,
only 12 reappear in the more continuous extant material.

2. In the list are included 39 words which occur in Plato and 69 which
occur in Middle and New Comedy. It is desirable to have this matter dis-
played in the catalogue (see Durham, p. 36), but it is also essential to remem-
ber that one question at issue is that of including in the canon "even" the
New Comedy. Without detailed examination of the list one cannot tell how
far these 39 and 69 overlap.

3. In the list are also properly included 14 titles of Menander's plays
which are "unsupported" by Attic usage. It is, however, reasonable to
argue that Menander would not have given, in this prominent way, deliberate
offense to accepted usage.

4. Akin to this question is the consideration of the words, some of them
isolated, which were used for comic effect. Thus a word like povKopv^a,
formed by comic analogy, transgresses no Attic tradition. The comic term
'AXtfavSptiSrjs, naturally not found before the time of Alexander, it is as
anachronistic to stigmatize as non-Attic, as to call "Rooseveltian" non-
Colonial, or "Georgian" non-Elizabethan.

5. We might justly reiterate here (as was emphasized on p. 22) that
many words might prove to be "good" Attic if we could recover the whole
vocabulary, spoken and written, of which only parts have been preserved
(cf., for example, SioStKaTrous Men. with Scxan-ovs, Aristoph.).

But when aU such allowances have been made there is undoubtedly a
residuum of words and usage indicating, according to the bias of the critic,
either "degeneration" or "growth" of the language. Those who believe
that it was stiU a living and growing organism will be inclined to accept as
"approved" such words as are of normal Attic formation (e.g., av9paKevi)
and, unless Attic Greek is a term to be construed in as narrow a sense as
"Ciceronian" Latin, will include in the canonical Attic such remains of the
New Comedy as we are in a position to appraise.

In any case, Durham's careful and keen investigation brings us nearer to
the point where we have a right to pronounce judgment.

Francis G. Allinson
Brown University

Libanii Opera. Recensuit Richardus Foerster. Vol. VIII.
Leipzig: Teubner, 1915. Pp. 683. M. 14.

Foerster says that this latest volume has been the most difficult part of
his great task of editing Libanius. Yet he still has to sift and arrange more

124 Book Reviews

that 1,600 letters, now accessible only in Wolf's eighteenth-century edition.
It was the Letters that first, in the seventies, aroused his interest in Libanius,
and with these he will complete this edition. Already he has given us more
than Reiske lived to edit. This volume contains the Progymnasmata, and
the Hypotheses {argumenta) familiar to every reader of the Orations of
Demosthenes, though one does not always remember to credit them to
Libanius.

Under the general heading Progymnasmata, for which only inferior MSS
are available, are arranged fivOoi, Stijy^/ioTo (narrationes) xpeiai, which
are famous bons mats defended and illustrated, yvlJifuu, koivol rovoi (loci
communes), (rvyKpuj-as, comparisons of town and country, rival heroes and
the like; ■^Ocnroiuu, or appropriate remarks by great personages on great
occasions, eK<f>pa.a-£K, descriptions of works of art, dnmkenness, spring, etc.,
^«ras, such as et yo/iijTtov, to which Libanius, unlike "Punch," answers
"Do"; an ingenious defense of the law which forbade marriage with a
deceased husband's brother — Foerster rejects this — and typical iyKu>/ua
and xj/oyoi, both paradoxical and normal. Then follows the Vita Demos-
thenis, composed, like the Argum£nta which take up the last hundred pages
of the volume, at the request of Montius, proconsul of Constantinople about
352 A.D. For these last, cum adhuc tantum discerpta et incomposita ante
singidas orationes Demosthenis kgerentur, Foerster used 121 MSS and they
gave him much trouble. When edited by Blass, Butcher, and Fuhr the
original spelUng was altered, Blassio auctore, and Attic crasis and elision
were used in order to make Libanius conform to the best Attic standard.
Foerster has restored the usage of Libanius. The 27 rjOoKouta. contain
in proportion more literary reminiscences than the other Progymnasmata.
They are in some cases almost paraphrases of extant tragedies, or suggest
other ways of handling the legends. Of the 30 eK<^poo-as only 7 are accepted
as genuine. It is to be noted that when, as often, Foerster rejects a compo-
sition that has hitherto been ascribed to Libanius, it is partly because he
thinks it lacks the simplicitas et gratia of the genuine pieces; but he makes
the test of language decisive. For instance, he rejects several in which
o Xotiros is used to describe the left foot, a usage that seems natural to us.
The commonplaces are usually brief and are ready to be inserted en bloc.
One can see from this collection how hard Libanius worked to save trouble
for inferior or lazy rhetoricians. When, for instance, JuUan in his second
Oration and in Epistle 16 describes the ordeal by water to test the legitimacy
of the children of the Celts, he was probably borrowing the Sn^yrjiux, of
Libanius which gives a concise account of the essential facts to which Julian
need add only the emotional touches. A leading spirit, such as Libanius or
Themistius, having launched such a Si^yrj/m, it becomes a koivoi tottos, and
the rest of the tribe will never let it die.

WiLMEE Cave Wright

Brtn Mawr, Pa.