Indeed, what colouring is there which would not look tame when placed side by side with the magnificent light, and the terrible shade, of Thucydides?
Tacitus was a great man, but he was not up to the Sicilian expedition.

When I finished Thucydides, and took up Xenophon, the case was reversed.

Tacitus had been a foil to Thucydides.

Xenophon was a foil to Tacitus.
I have read Pliny the Younger.

Some of the Epistles are interesting.
Nothing more stupid than the Panegyric was ever preached in the University church.