Irony can also be produced by juxta

Irony can also be produced by juxtaposition, the third element in historiographical structure. Here we are back on familiar ground. Kitto has given us, in several examples, an acute analysis of Thucydides' use of juxtaposition to attain dramatic effect, and other scholars have long recognized such outstanding cases as the Funeral Oration-plague and Melian dialogue-Sicilian expedition pairs. Perhaps Strasburger describes this technique most cogently when he speaks of Thucydides' "skilled technique of making, without explicit words, historical interpretations apparent through literary composition." Here the emphasis is properly laid on the intent of careful juxtaposition: to extract and present historical meaning without explicitly saying what that meaning is. Careful juxtaposition is the most subtle aspect of Thucydides' art of composition and, therefore, the most difficult to study and appreciate. It is also the most dangerous because the tendency toward overinterpretation is most prevalent. What appears to be created by intentional jux-taposition may be governed only by historical sequence. Dover makes this distinction forcibly in his recent survey of Thucydidean scholarship: "That he described the fate of Melos just before he came to the Athenian plans for Sicily was dictated by the order in which events happened, not by any choice of his; that he treated the occasion as deserving a six-page debate, but not, apparently, as deserving fuller indication of the reasons why Athens at that moment thought Melos worth a campaign, reflects his choice.