OLD s.v. Thūȳdidēs cites a plural ~ās from Cicero's Orator 32. Section 30 is cited for Thūȳdidēus (-īus) '(masc. as sb.) an imitator of Thucydides'.
[30] Ecce autem aliqui se Thucydidios esse profitentur: novum quoddam
imperitorum et inauditum genus. Nam qui Lysiam sequuntur, causidicum
quendam sequuntur non illum quidem amplum atque grandem, subtilem et
elegantem tamen et qui in forensibus causis possit praeclare consistere.
Thucydides autem res gestas et bella narrat et proelia, graviter sane
et probe, sed nihil ab eo transferri potest ad forensem usum et
publicum. Ipsae illae contiones ita multas habent obscuras abditasque
sententias vix ut intellegantur; quod est in oratione civili vitium vel
maximum. [31] Quae est autem in hominibus tanta
perversitas, ut inventis frugibus glande vescantur? An victus hominum
Atheniensium beneficio excoli potuit, oratio non potuit? Quis Porro
umquam Graecorum rhetorum a Thucydide quicquam duxit? "At laudatus est
ab omnibus." Fateor; sed ita ut rerum explicator prudens severus gravis;
non ut in iudiciis versaret causas, sed ut in historiis bella narraret;
[32] itaque numquam est numeratus orator, nec vero, si
historiam non scripsisset, nomen eius exstaret, cum praesertim fuisset
honoratus et nobilis. Huius tamen nemo neque verborum neque sententiarum
gravitatem imitatur, sed cum mutila quaedam et hiantia locuti sunt,
quae vel sine magistro facere potuerunt, germanos se putant esse
Thucydidas. Nactus sum etiam qui Xenophontis similem esse se cuperet,
cuius sermo est ille quidem melle dulcior, sed a forensi strepitu
remotissimus.
Yonge: "But some people—quite a new and unprecedented body of ignorant
men—profess themselves imitators of Thucydides. Now those who take
Lysias for their model are copying a great lawyer; not indeed the
greatest and most dignified of speakers, but still subtle and elegant,
and a man who may well hold his ground in all forensic discussions. But
Thucydides, indeed, relates affairs of history, and battles, and wars
with great dignity and excellence; but nothing can be borrowed from him
for forensic or statesmanlike purposes of oratory. And those very
speeches which he gives have many obscure and hard sentences in them, so
as scarcely to be intelligible; and that is the greatest possible fault
in an oration addressed to a man’s fellow-citizens. But how is it that
there is such a perverseness of taste in men, that after they have got
corn they persist in feeding on acorns? Shall we say that the food of
men could be found out by the assistance of the Athenians, but that
eloquence could not? Moreover, [390]
which of the Greek rhetoricians ever drew any of his rules from
Thucydides? Oh, but he is praised universally. I admit that; but it is
on the ground that he is a wise, conscientious, dignified relater of
facts; not that he was pleading causes before tribunals, but that he was
relating wars in a history. Therefore, he was never accounted an
orator; nor, indeed, should we have ever heard of his name if he had not
written a history, though he was a man of eminently high character and
of noble birth. But no one ever imitates the dignity of his language or
of his sentiments; but when they have used some disjointed and
unconnected expressions, which they might have done without any teacher
at all, then they think that they are akin to Thucydides. I have met men
too who were anxious to resemble Xenophon; whose style is, indeed,
sweeter than honey, but as unlike as possible to the noisy style of the
forum.".
Pl.Tht.169b (Ἡρακλέες τε καὶ Θησέες) crossed my path again this week.
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