en, his career as a general, his banishment and enforced residence
in Thrace, his visit to the countries of the Peloponnesian allies with
whom Athens was at war,--all these gave him a signal opportunity to
gather materials, and to assimilate them in the gathering. We may fancy
him looking at an alleged fact on all sides, and turning it over and
over in his mind; we know that he must have meditated long on ideas,
opinions, and events; and the result is a brief, pithy narrative.
Tradition hath it that Demosthenes copied out this history eight times,
or even learned it by heart. Chatham, urging the removal of the forces
from Boston, had reason to refer to the history of Greece, and, that he
might impress it upon the lords that he knew whereof he spoke, declared,
"I have read Thucydides."

Of Tacitus likewise is conciseness a well-known merit. Living in an age
of books and libraries, he drew more from the written word than did
Thucydides; and his method of working, therefore, resembled more our
own. These are common expressions of his: "It is related by most of the
writers of those times;" I adopt the account "in which the authors are
agreed;" this account "agrees with those of the other writers." Relating
a case of recklessness of vice in Messalina, he acknowledges that it
will appear fabulous, and asserts his truthfulness thus: "But I would
not dress up my narrative with fictions, to give it an air of marvel,
rather than relate what has been stated to me or written by my seniors."
He also speaks of the authority of tradition, and tells what he
remembers "to have heard from aged men." He will not paraphrase the
eloquence of Seneca after he had his veins opened, because the very
words of the philosopher had been published; but when, a little later,
Flavius the tribune came to die, the historian gives this report of his
defiance of Nero. "I hated you," the tribune said to the emperor; "nor
had you a soldier more true to you while you deserved to be loved. I
began to hate you from the time you showed yourself the impious murderer
of your mother and your wife, a charioteer, a stage-player, an
incendiary." "I have given the very words," Tacitus adds, "because they
were not, like those of Seneca, published, though the rough and vigorous
sentiments of a soldier ought to be no less known." Everywhere we see in
Tacitus, as in Thucydides, a dislike of superfluous detail, a closeness
of thought, a compression of language. He was likew