PANEGYRIC (from the Greek panegyricus,' wavrtyvpinos Ahoy) is a species of oration in praise of a person or thing, so called because such discourses used to be delivered iu ancient Greece on the occasion of great public festivals before the whole assembly, " panegyris," of the people. Afterwards the name came to be applied to political orations delivered in the senate or council of a state in praise of that state or of the leading men or man in it. The panegyrical oration of Isocrates is a fine specimen of the kind, in which he commemorates the glories of Athens, the services which it had rendered to Greece in general, and the whole with a view to nourish friendly feelings between it and the other Greek states.
Under the Roman empire panegyrics were composed in praise of the emperors, Pliny's panegyric of Trajan is a well known specimen of this kind. Panegyrics became frequent wider the late emperors, both of the East and the West, iu Greek and in Latin ; they are mostly however written in a fulsome and adulatory style. We have pane
gyrics of Constantine, Constantine', Justinian, Theodosius, and others, which, if consulted with discrimination, may he useful for historical purposes and for supplying deficiencies in the historians of those times. Eunodius, bishop of Pavia, wrote a panegyric in praise of Theodoric.
Panegyrics have also been written in verse. The poem of Tibullus in praise of Measala is a specimen of this kind, as well as similar com positions by Claudianus, Sidonius, and others.
In modern times panegyrics have been written by Roman Catholic preachers in honour of particular saints. Giordani, an Italian Con temporary author, wrote a panegyric in praise of Napoleon, in imitation of that of Pliny. But the lamegyrical style seems no longer in accord ance with the taste of our age, and its essential character is too laudatory to please minds of an independent cast. The aoges on deceased members of the Acaddinie Francaise are perhaps the only existing examples of the old panegyric.