Sir Richard C. Jebb, The Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeos

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The Periodic style

With Antiphon¹, as we saw, the structure of a period was still a matter of effort—admitting, too, of little variety: in Lysias² the power of forming terse, compact periods is nearly perfect, and is combined with skill in avoiding monotony; with

how developed by Isokrates.

Isokrates, the periodic style passes into an altogether new phase. The distinctive mark of the new Isokratic period is a certain luxuriant amplitude. Instead of aiming at the vigorous compression fittest for real contests, it rejoices in rich diffuseness—it unrolls itself like a clear river, luring the hearer on from bend to bend through the soft beauties of its winding course³. Three kinds of period are distinguished by Demetrios: the Rhetorical, terse and round;—the Conversational, slack and simple;—the Historical, intermediate between these two⁴. Lysias, as has been noticed, uses what may be called a ‘historical’ period in one special part of his work—in narrative parts of his public speeches. Isokrates, as a rule, uses everywhere the historical rather than the rhetorical period⁵—giving to it, however, a certain long and stately flow which is his own. The great fault of his management is monotony. Lysias knew at least how to brace or relax his framework; Demosthenes was a master of structural contrasts; but, in all the speeches of Isokrates, except the forensic, one long and finished period follows another with little variety or relief. He must always round his sentence⁶. Not only the form but the matter often suffers for this artificial uniformity. A thought has sometimes to be diffusely, and therefore weakly, expressed, in order to afford a symmetry of clauses⁷. But although there is this grave fault in his handling of the periodic style, it must not be forgotten that Isokrates gave a really important development to the idea of the period itself. Hitherto it had been too cramped: he was the first to give it a large and free expansion. He was the first, too, who showed how the ampler period might be worked up through the series of clauses and members to an artistic climax⁸.