Appian the artist: Rhythmic prose and its literary implications

Classical Quarterly 65 (2):788-806 (2015)
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Abstract

If we had no idea which parts of Greek literature in a certain period were poetry or prose, we would regard it as our first job to find out. How much of the Greek prose of the Imperial period is rhythmic has excited less attention; and yet the question should greatly affect both our reading of specific texts and our understanding of the whole literary scene. By ‘rhythmic’ prose, this article means only prose that follows the Hellenistic system of rhythm started, it is said, by Hegesias, and adopted by Cicero and by many Latin writers of the Imperial period. Estimates of how much Greek Imperial prose is rhythmic have long varied drastically. Some experts suggest that all or much artistic Greek prose in the period is rhythmic, others that what little there is fades out after the first centurya.d., as part of the victory of Atticism. There has been fairly little substantial work on rhythmic prose in the first three centuriesa.d.for over fifty years. The object of this article is to investigate a large part of one author's work thoroughly, and to establish that that part is rhythmic. It will also aim to show how that conclusion should greatly affect our whole conception of the author as a writer, and our reading of his every sentence.

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Citations of this work

The beginning and end of appian's mithridateios.Brian McGing - 2021 - Classical Quarterly 71 (2):791-798.

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References found in this work

Rhythm and Authenticity in Plutarch's Moralia.F. H. Sandbach - 1939 - Classical Quarterly 33 (3-4):194-.
Rhythm, style, and meaning in Cicero's prose.G. O. Hutchinson - 1995 - Classical Quarterly 45 (02):485-.
Appians klio dichtet.Erich Potz - 1998 - Philologus: Zeitschrift für Antike Literatur Und Ihre Rezeption 142 (2):293-299.
Papyrologisches zum namen appians.István Hahn - 1973 - Philologus: Zeitschrift für Antike Literatur Und Ihre Rezeption 117 (1-2):97-101.
Eurhythmia in isocrates.Stephen Usher - 2010 - Classical Quarterly 60 (1):82-.

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