De Euripide et Georgio Piside judicium The same author, to one who asked, "Who composed verses better, Euripides or Pisides?"

Both, indeed, are serviceable for the sake of meter and poetry, both Euripides the tragedian from Phlius and George of the Pisidians, who polished the iambic meter beyond the many who <followed> him; but since he made the same style, so to speak, most similar, the distinction is difficult as to how they differ from one another and which of the two is better than the other. But if someone has knowledge of both arts, both metrical and noteworthy concerning rhythms, lofty-minded and theoretical concerning meters and feet, it is not at all difficult to find some difference in both and to grant victory to one over the other. But let this be set forth before the whole discussion: that meters and rhythms have received countless alterations over time. For the heroic meter does not now preserve its ancient magnificence, nor does it stand among the most precise meters, but ithyphallic meters and syzygies of iambs are mixed with the dactylic and spondaic, nor does the iambic meter appear having the same pauses and the same rhythms and the same composition as its predecessors, but it is now more theatrical and has behaved shamelessly, as if on the orchestra, and it leaps over every basis, and flies over every rhythm, and only the rushing and iambic-beating quality of the meter is now emulated. Tragic poetry, however, being adorned with different rhythms and taking up various meters does not <always> dance out the plots nor leap over them, but there are times when it emulates well-beaten sounds and prefers rhythmic grace of foot and embraces the metrical syzygies of speech, but wherever it seems good to the poet, it changes its tone and alters the rhythm, and sometimes the rhythm is seized, and sometimes it proceeds on a trisyllabic or tetrasyllabic metrical basis, and rhetorical speech, in beauty—I mean in style—somehow regulates the ... more musical rhythms, but in the other styles it is roughened most of all—I mean, it makes the meters rough—and it roughens the hearing.

Euripides, at any rate, having perfected his poetry as no other has, unless one might prefer Sophocles to him, is marvelous for his variety and able to imitate all things. And sometimes you will find the poet composing dithyrambs and emulating and preferring new things, and at other times leading in other graces and solemnities and being adorned with choriambs and becoming all-various in his poetry, and being most ethical where character must be revered and again most pathetic where the passions of the sufferers surge up, since indeed the most perfect point of tragic poetry is pathos, and of the two styles of speaking, the tragic and the comic, this is the difference: that in the former, pathos is the subject, while in the latter, laughter for the most part, and graces. And since the parts of tragedy are several, not only in respect to the stage, but also in respect to the whole subject matter and composition, and the part on stage is one thing, <and the choral part is another>, and the part off-stage is yet another, and the episodes are one thing, and the pro-episodes are another; and some things messengers utter, others a barbarian band of Phrygians, or captive women, or another chorus, and the same meters are not suitable for all parts, but the poet must both call up some womanly song and imitate a barbarian character, and perfect the Greek tongue and represent the other things fitting to the underlying characters, for these reasons also the verses for them in each case are different and the meters are various and the rhythms are unsuitable for one another. To Sophocles, then, indeed

De Euripide et Georgio Piside judicium ̔Ο αὐτὸς ἐρωτήσαντι "Τίς ἐστίχιζε κρεῖττον, ὁ Εὐριπίδης ἢ ὁ Πισίδης;"

῎Α̣μφω μὲν εὔχρησ̣τοι τ̣ο̣ῦ γε μέτρου καὶ τῆς ποιήσεως ἕνεκα, καὶ ὁ Φλιάσιος Εὐριπίδης ὁ τραγικὸς καὶ ὁ τ̣ῶν Πισιδῶν Γ̣εω´̣ργιος, ὃς τὸ ἰαμβικὸν μέτρον παρὰ τοὺς πολλοὺς τοὺς αὐτῷ <ἑπομένους> η᾿̣κ̣ρίβωσε· ἐπεὶ δ' ἐποίησε τὸν α̣ὐτὸν λόγον οὕτως εἰπεῖν ὁμοιότατον, δυσχερὴς ἡ διάκρισις̣ πω῀̣ς̣ α᾿̣λλήλ̣οιν διαφέρετον καὶ τίς ἅτερος θατέρου καλλίων. περὶ δὲ τὰς ἀμφοτέρα̣ς̣ τέχνας εἴ τις καὶ τὴν ἐπιστήμην ἔχει τὴν μετρικὴν καὶ τὴν περὶ τοὺς ῥυθμοὺς ἀξιόλογ̣ον, τὴν περὶ τὰ μέτρα καὶ τοὺς πόδας ὑψηλόνουν καὶ θεωρητικόν, οὐ πάνυ χαλεπὸν εὑρεῖν τινα ε᾿̣ν̣ α᾿̣μ̣φοτέροις διαφο̣ρα`̣ν̣ καὶ δοῦναι τῷ ἑτέρῳ τὰ νικητήρια κατὰ τοῦ ἑτέρου. Τοῦτο δὲ παντὸς ἕνεκα προκείσ̣θ̣ω τοῦ λόγου ὁ´̣τι τὰ μέτρα καὶ οἱ ῥυθμοὶ ἑτερότητας μυρίας παρὰ τοὺς χρόνους ἐδ̣έξαντο· οὐ γ̣ὰρ τὸ ἡρωϊκὸν μέτρον τὴν ἀρχαίαν νῦν σῴζει μεγαλοπρέπειαν, ο̣ὐ´̣τ̣ε̣ ἐν το̣ι῀̣ς̣ α᾿̣κ̣ριβεστάτοις μέτροις ἵσταται, ἀλλὰ τῷ δακτυλικῷ καὶ σπονδειακῷ καὶ ἰθυφαλλικὰ μέτρα καὶ τῶν ἰάμβων συζυγίαι ἀναμεμίχαται, οὔτε τὸ ἰαμβικὸν μέτρον τὰς αὐτὰς ἀναπαύσεις καὶ τοὺς αὐτοὺς ῥυθμοὺς καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν συνθήκην τοῖς προτέροις ἔχον προφαίνεται, ἀλλὰ θεατρ̣ικω´̣τερον νυ῀̣ν̣ ἐστι καὶ ὥσπερ ἐπὶ ὀρχήστρας ἀπηναισχύντηκε, καὶ πάσης μὲν ὑπεράλλεται β̣άσεως, παντὸς δὲ ῥυθμοῦ ὑπερίπταται, καὶ μόνον νῦν ζηλωτὸν τὸ ἀΐττον τοῦ μέτ̣ρο̣υ̣ καὶ ἰαμβόκροτον. ἡ μέντοι τραγικὴ ποίησις διαφόροις τε ῥυθμοῖς κοσμουμένη καὶ μέτρα ποικίλα λ̣αμβάν̣ο̣υ̣σ̣α οὐ <διὰ> παντὸς ἐξορχεῖται τὰς ὑποθέσεις οὐδ' ὑπεράλλεται, ἀλλ' ἔστι μὲν οὗ καὶ τοὺς εὐκρότους ἤχους ζηλοῖ κα̣ι`̣ τὴν ποδικὴν εὐρυθμίαν προκρίνει καὶ τοῦ λόγου τὰς ἐμμέτρους συζυγίας ἀσπάζεται, ὅπῃ δὲ δόξει τῷ ποιητῇ, μεταβάλλε̣τ̣α̣ι̣ τοῦ τόνου καὶ τὸν ῥυθμὸν ἐξαλλάττει, καὶ ποτὲ ἔστιν οὑ῀̣ ἁρπάζετα̣ι ὁ ῥυθμός, ποτὲ δὲ βαίνε̣ι̣ ε᾿̣πὶ τρισυλλάβου ἢ τετρασυλλάβου τῆς βάσεως τῆς μετρικῆς, καὶ ὁ ῥητορικὸς λόγος ἐν μὲν τῷ κάλλει, φ̣η̣μὶ δὴ τῇ ἰδέᾳ, ῥυθμίζ̣ει πως τὸν ···π··· μουσικωτέρους ῥυθμούς, ἐν δέ γε ταῖς λοιπαῖς ἰδέαις μάλιστα ἐντραχύνε̣ι̣, φημὶ δὴ τραχέα γε τὰ μ̣έτρα τίθησι̣, καὶ τραχύνει τὴν α᾿̣κ̣ο̣η´̣ν̣.

῾Ο̣ γοῦν Εὐρι̣πίδης τὴν ποίησι̣ν̣ ὡς οὐδεὶς ἀ´̣λλος α᾿̣κριβωσάμενος, εἰ μή τις αὐτ̣οῦ προκρίνοι τ̣ὸν Σοφ̣οκλ̣έα, διὰ τὴν ποικιλίαν θαυμάσιος καὶ πάντα μιμεῖσθαι δυνατός· καὶ ποτὲ μὲν εὑρήσεις τ̣ο`̣ν̣ ποιητὴν δ̣ι̣θυραμβίζοντα καὶ νέα ζηλοῦντα τε καὶ προκρίνοντα, ποτὲ δὲ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων χαρίτων καὶ σεμνο̣τήτων ἐξάρχοντα καὶ τοῖς χοριάμβοις κοσμ̣ούμενον καὶ παντοδαπὸν τῇ ποιήσει γινόμενον, καὶ ἠθικώτατον με`̣ν̣ ὄντα οἷς δεῖ ἦθος ἐνσεμνύνεσθαι καὶ αὖθις παθητικώτατον ἔνθα πάθη τῶν πεπονθότων ὑποκυμαίνει, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸ τελεώτατον κεφάλαιον τῆς τραγικῆς ποιήσεως τὸ πάθος ε᾿̣στί, καὶ τοῖν δ̣υ̣οῖν εἰδοῖν τοῦ τε τραγικῶς καὶ τοῦ κωμικῶς λέγειν τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ διάφορον, ὁ´̣τι ἐκ̣ε̣ι῀̣ μ̣ὲν ὑπο´̣κ̣ειται τὸ πάθος, ἐνταῦθα δὲ γέλωτες τὰ πλείω καὶ χάριτες. ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ πλείω̣ τ̣ὰ μέρη τῆς τρα̣γῳδίας, οὐ μόνον κατὰ τὴν σκηνήν, ἀλλὰ καὶ κατ' αὐτὴν τὴν ὅλην πραγματείαν τε καὶ συνθήκην, καὶ ἄλλο μέν ἐστι τὸ ἐπὶ σκηνῆς, <ἄλλο δὲ τὸ> χορικόν, ἕτερον δὲ τὸ ἑτεροσκήνιον, καὶ ἄλλα μὲν τὰ ἐπεισόδια, ἄλλα δὲ τὰ προεισόδια· καὶ τὰ μὲν ἄγγελοι φθέγγονται, τὰ δὲ Φρύγες βάρβαρον σύστημα, ἢ γυναῖκες αἰχμάλωτοι, ἢ χορὸς ἕτερος, οὐ πᾶσι δὲ πάντων <ταὐ>τὰ τῶν μέτρων κατάλληλα, ἀλλὰ δεῖ τὸν ποιητὴν καὶ γυναικεῖόν τι μέλος ἀνακαλέσασθαι καὶ βάρβαρον̣ ἦθος μιμήσασθαι, καὶ γλῶτταν Ἑλληνίδα ἐξακριβώσασθαι καὶ τἆλλα ὑποκ̣ρ̣ι´̣ν̣α̣σ̣θ̣αι τοῖς ὑποκειμένοις προσώποις προσήκοντα, διὰ ταῦτα καὶ τὰ ἔπη τ̣ο̣υ´̣τ̣ο̣ι̣ς̣ ε᾿̣φ' ἑκάστων διάφορα καὶ ἑτεροῖα τὰ μέτρα καὶ οἱ ῥυθμοὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἀκατάλ̣λ̣η̣λο̣ι. Σοφ̣οκλεῖ μὲν οὖν κ̣αι`̣ δὴ