Thucydides’ famous discussion of the degeneration of language during stasis (3.82.4–6) employs a hitherto underappreciated meta-topos: the historian draws attention not only to linguistic inversion but to the self-serving abuse of the topos that virtues and vices are being misnamed. Sallust and Tacitus also employ the meta-topos in their treatments of corrupted language, deliberately distinguishing their critiques from a banal rhetorical commonplace. This self-consciousness about a central topos of historiography leads historians to reflect on the topos of corrupted language amid stasis as a paradigm of historical analysis, one which must be reformulated to account for crises such as the last century of the Republic and the institution of the Principate.

中文翻译：

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修昔底德、萨卢斯特和塔西佗中的语言、停滞和历史学家的角色

修昔底德关于停滞期间语言退化的著名讨论 (3.82.4-6) 使用了一个迄今为止未被充分认识的元主题：历史学家不仅关注语言倒置，而且还关注对美德和恶习这一主题的自私滥用被错误命名。Sallust 和 Tacitus 也在他们对腐败语言的处理中使用了元主题，故意将他们的批评与平庸的修辞手法区分开来。这种对史学中心主题的自我意识导致历史学家将停滞中的腐败语言的主题作为历史分析的范式进行反思，必须重新制定这种范式以解释上个世纪的共和国和制度等危机。校长。