The Interval by C. F. H.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 3, 1865

"The Interval."

By C. F. H.

THURMAN'S CHRONOLOGY.

In my last article I found Mr. Thurman plainly disagreeing with Herodotus, respecting the season and place of the eclipse seen by Xerxes and his army when on the way against Greece. Let us now see how he agrees with another historian, Thucydides.

I closed by alluding to the interval between the invasion of Greece and the Peloponnesian war, which Mr. T. reduces almost to half the time usually allowed. He seems aware of his difficulty, and on page 160 endeavors to remove it. He has just referred to the eclipse of the sun, occurring in the second year of the Peloponnesian war, which he dates B. C. 431, Dr. Zech. B. C. 480. Then, speaking of "the interval," he says:

"According to our English copy of the book of Thucydides, there was an interval of fifty years between the expedition of Xerxes against Greece and the time of the Peloponnesian War. We have only about twenty-five years: yet, since a different punctuation would give a different construction, this can hardly be considered as clashing with Thucydides; for the arrangement of the punctuation is not his, but one of a modern date."

I have deemed this remarkable proposition worthy of italics. Mr. T. assumes that whenever any thing can be gained by changing a comma or a period in an English translation, the same may certainly be done in the Greek original. Let us see if the rule will work another way. There is a famous ancient oracle, of which one translation reads thus: "Thou shalt go, and return never; thou shalt perish in war."

The original, without points, reads thus:

"Ibis et redibis nunquam peribis in bello."

This is fearfully ambiguous. If we make a pause after "nunquam" (never), the sense is as above. If the pause is made before "nunquam" the sense is reversed. Suppose some Roman, not liking the oracle in the sense above given, proposes to put the comma or semicolon before "nunquam," and quietly assumes that the English will allow it. Would not every one who knows English say, "Well, you may put the pause before 'never' if you please; but we shall know you are a foreigner if you try to read it so. 'Thou shalt go and return; never thou shalt perish in war.' Never thou shalt—that is not English, sir. We should say, Never shalt thou."

Thus the order of words, often of the least words, settles the punctuation in English. And in other languages the sense is generally settled either by the order of words, or by other matters. A translation is often ambiguous while the original is not. And in assuming that a point may be changed in a Greek edition of Thucydides, because it can be done in some translation, Mr. T. is wholly without warrant.

But let us hear him out, and see whether he changes any thing more than the punctuation. He proceeds: "The difficulty is removed by punctuating it thus: 'All these things the Greeks performed against one another and the barbarian, occurred in about fifty years.' Thus, placing a full stop at 'fifty years,' we will commence a new sentence for the time 'the Athenians established their empire on a firmer footing.' Indeed this is the only way we can punctuate it so as to reconcile Thucydides with himself; for he tells us positively,—not that a part, but, emphatically,—'All these things the Greeks performed'—not only against one another, but also against 'the barbarian'—occurred in about fifty years." (Thu. b. i. c. 118.) And in another place he tells us that the war with 'the barbarian' commenced ten years before the expedition of Xerxes. (Thu. b. i. c. 18.)

The reader sees that either Mr. T. or his printer makes lame English. But we will let that pass, and see if the Greek will allow his interpretation. He does not tell us what English "copy" (translation) he uses. But I have the Greek, and find Smith's rendering of the passage substantially correct. It reads thus: "All these transactions in general, whether of Grecians against Grecians, or against the Barbarian, fell out in the compass of fifty years, between the retreat of Xerxes and the commencement of this present war; during which period the Athenians had established their dominion on a solid basis, and had risen to a high exaltation of power." (c. 118.)

The version is somewhat free, but the words I have italicized are a very literal rendering. But the reader sees that in changing the "full stop," Mr. T. has given no account of the intervening words. He does not report the whole sentence, even with his own punctuation. More than that: when we hear Thucydides himself we find that his fifty years cannot be taken as Mr. T. proposes, by any punctuation. They are directly and distinctly asserted of the interval between the retreat of Xerxes and the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, which Mr. T.'s chronology reduces to less than twenty-five years, as the retreat occurred a year or two after the invasion. And the nail is clinched by Thucydides in employing the same fifty years to measure another series of events also: "During which period the Athenians had established," etc.

I think the reader will agree with me that such "punctuation," which expunges the words I have italicized and leaves no place for them, is not only unwarranted but not easily paralleled. No historian can consent to be thus "reconciled with himself." And Thucydides does not need even explanation. He does not say that the Greeks performed "all things," etc., in fifty years, but "all these things." And if the term "these" were not defined by the previous context, it would be limited by the interval mentioned in the clause which Mr. T.'s punctuation throws out. The ten years which he names in c. 18 are, on the face of the record, no part of the fifty years. They precede this period, and make it about sixty years from the battle of Marathon to the Peloponnesian war.

But if the ten years could be made part of the fifty years, Mr. T. would gain but little. "The interval" would still be forty years, and Mr. T.'s chronology allows for it less than twenty-five years, dating the invasion B. C. 457, and the Peloponnesian war B. C. 432. So that if Thucydides were thus reconciled with himself, he would still lack fifteen years of being reconciled with Mr. Thurman.

But, granting that Thucydides asserts an interval of about fifty years between the two wars, some one may ask if he was not mistaken in making it so long. I reply, that he was commander of the Athenian allies during the Peloponnesian war. Though not old enough to recollect the Persian war, he must know when it occurred, just as every American must know, even without books, that our war with England about free trade and sailors' rights was waged fifty years ago. But more than this: his history of the Peloponnesian war is to this day a masterpiece and a model, because it gives not a mere narrative of events, but their causes and connections. And his first book is an account of that growth and rivalry of the different Grecian states in which Athens came to be so greatly envied and feared; just as the power and influence of the New England States have been so long hated by the South, and that hatred is a main cause of our present war. Horace Greeley, in his history of the rebellion, very justly goes back more than fifty years to trace its causes and their progress. And if the period which such a historian assigns is to be reduced to shorter dimensions by some critic, centuries afterward, the calculation of an eclipse may have its weight; but a thorough and satisfactory argument must be more than such a mere raid; the critic must be so at home in that period of history that the sky shall be unclouded and the sun without eclipse, to his clear vision. And, as I said in my last, the period which Thucydides names is one of the most marked and eventful of Grecian history. If

its length is uncertain by fifty per cent., then we may as well write "fabulous age" over the whole history of antiquity. I am not ready for this.

Personally I have nought to say against Eld. Thurman. We are told that his scruples respecting bearing arms have commanded respect where he is known; and I almost reverence the man whose daily life gains such respect, whether his scruples and opinions are my own or not. But when I take up his book and find in it modes of argument which are open to criticism, and well nigh open to censure, I am sure he will thank me for pointing out his errors. I shall be grateful for all the good wheat I find; but if any chaff is swept away, there is so much clear gain. The reign of peace may begin in 1875, or later, or sooner. But whenever it shall begin, if we are to tell the blessed day, let us tell it so there shall be no occasion for gainsaying.

C. F. H. in World's Crisis.

P. S.—I fail to find the translation of Thucydides which Mr. Thurman quotes. But the clause which his punctuation omits is rendered by Hobbes thus: "from the time of the departure of Xerxes to the beginning of this present war; in which time," etc. And by Bloomfield thus; "which elapsed between the retreat of Xerxes and the beginning of the aforesaid war; during which period," etc.