Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.

Athenaeus laid down that there were four bases: the προτρεπτικὴ or παρορμητική, that is, the hortative, which is peculiar to deliberative themes; the συντελική [*](συντελική lit. = contributory. ) which is shown to be the conjectural, not so much from the name itself, but from what

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follows; the ὑπαλλακτική or definitive, for it consists in a change of terms. [*]( The defendant admits the act, but gives it a different name, e.g. theft, not sacrilege. ὑπαλλακτική = changing. ) ; and the juridical to which he gives the name employed by other Greek writers. [*](δικαιολογικός)

For, as I have said, there is a great variety in the names employed. There are some who, arguing from its meaning of change, hold that ὑπαλλακτική is the translative basis, which is concerned with competence. Others, Caecilius [*](Caec. fr. 49, Burkh.) and Theon for instance, hold that there are the same number of bases, but make them of a different kind, namely, those covered by the questions whether a thing is, what it is, of what kind it is and how great it is.

Aristotle [*]( Ar. Rhet. 1416 b : 1374 a . ) in his Rhetoric states that all enquiry turns on the questions whether a thing is, of what kind it is, how great it is, and of how many parts it consists. In one place however he recognises the force of definition as well, saying that certain points are defended on the following lines:—

I took it, but did not steal it.

I struck him, but did not commit an assault.

Cicero [*](de Inv. I. viii. 10. ) again in his Rhetorica makes the number of bases to be four, namely those concerned with fact, names, kinds, and legal action, that is to say conjecture is concerned with fact, definition with names, quality with kinds, and law with action: under this latter head of law he included questions of competence. But in another passage he treats [*](Part. Or. 31 and 38. ) legal questions as a species of action. Some writers have held that there are five bases:

the conjectural, definitive, qualitative, quantitative and relative. Theodorus, also, as I have said, [*](§ 36.) adopts the same number of general heads, whether a thing is, what it is, of what kind it is, how great it is, and to what it refers. The last he considers to be chiefly concerned with comparison, since better and worse, greater and less

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are meaningless terms unless referred to some standard.

But questions of relation, as I have already pointed out, enter also into translative questions, that is, questions of competence, since in cases such as

Has this man a right to bring an action?

Is it fitting that he should do such and such a thing, or against this man, or at this time, or in this manner?

For all these questions must be referred to a certain standard.

Others hold that there are six bases: conjecture or γένεσις, quality, particularity or ἰδιότης by which word they mean definition, quantity or ἀξία, comparison and competence, for which a new term has been found in μετάστασις I call it new when applied to a basis, for Hermagoras employs it to describe a species of juridical question.