Institutio Oratoria

But its decorative effect is greatest when it is metaphorical, as in the phrases

unbridled greed

those mad piles of masonry.

disgraceful poverty

sad old age.

For then it becomes long-winded and cumbrous, in fact you might compare it to an army with as many camp-followers as soldiers, an army, that is to say, which has doubled its numbers without doubling its strength. None the less, not merely single epithets are employed, but we may find a number of them together, as in the following passage from Virgil: [*](Aen. iii. 475. I have translated 476 ( cura deum, bis Pergameis erepte ruinis ) as well to bring out Quintilian's meaning. Quintilian assumes the rest of quotation to be known. )

1. Anchises, worthy deigned
2. Of Venus' glorious bed, [beloved of heaven,
3. Twice rescued from the wreck of Pergamum.]

Be this as it may, two epithets directly attached to one noun are unbecoming even in verse. There are some writers who refuse to regard an epithet as a trope, on the ground that it involves no change. It

The man who destroyed Numantia and Carthage,

Scipio,

Allegory, which is translated in Latin by inversio, either presents one thing in words and another in meaning, or else something absolutely opposed to the meaning of the words. The first type is generally produced by a series of metaphors. Take as an example:

1. O ship, new waves will bear thee back to sea.
2. What dost thou? Make the haven, come what may,

Hor. Od. i. xiv. 1.

Such, again, is the claim of Lucretius: [*](Lucr. IV. 1. )

1. Pierian fields I range untrod by man,

1. But now
2. A mighty length of plain we have travelled o'er;
3. 'Tis time to loose our horses' steaming necks.

Georg. II. 541.

On the other hand, in the Bucolics [*](Buc. IX. 7. ) he introduces an allegory without any metaphor:

1. Truth, I had heard
2. Your loved Menalcas by his songs had saved
3. All those fair acres, where the hills begin
4. To sink and droop their ridge with easy slope
5. Down to the waterside and that old beech
6. With splintered crest.

For in this passage, with the exception of the proper name, the words bear no more than their literal meaning. But the name does not simply denote the shepherd Menalcas, but is a pseudonym for Virgil himself. Oratory makes frequent use of such allegory, but generally with this modification, that there is an admixture of plain speaking. We get allegory pure and unadulterated in the following passage of Cicero: [*](From an unknown speech.)

What I marvel at and complain of is this, that there should exist any man so set on destroying his enemy as to scuttle the ship on which he himself is sailing.

The following is an example of the commonest type, namely, the mixed allegory: [*](Pro Mil. ii, 5. )

I always thought that Milo would have other storms and tempests to weather, at least in the troubled waters of political meetings.

at least in the troubled waters of political meetings,

But far the most ornamental effect is produced by the artistic admixture of simile, metaphor and allegory, as in the following example: [*](Pro Mur. xvii. 35. )

What strait, what tide-race, think you, is full of so many conflicting motions or vexed by such a variety of eddies, waves and fluctuations, as confuse our popular elections with their wild ebb and flow? The passing of one day, or the interval of a single night, will often throw everything into confusion, and one little breath of rumour will sometimes turn the whole trend of opinion.

For the rest, allegory is often used by men of little ability and in the conversation of everyday life. For those hackneyed phrases of forensic pleading,

to fight hand to hand,

to attack the throat,

to let blood

Illustrative examples also involve allegory if not preceded by an explanation; for there are numbers of sayings available for use like the

Dionysius is at Corinth,

1. Say in what land, and if thou tell me true,
2. I'll hold thee as Apollo's oracle,
3. Three ells will measure all the arch of heaven.

as when Caelius [*]( The references are to the licentious character of Clodia. Coa was probably intended to suggest coitus, while nola is best derived from nolle, and is to be regarded as the opposite of coa. ) speaks of the

Clytemnestra who sold her favours for a farthing, who was a Coan in the dining-room and a Nolan in her bedroom.

On the other hand, that class of allegory in which the meaning is contrary to that suggested by the words, involve an element of irony, or, as our rhetoricians call it, illusio. This is made evident to the understanding either by the delivery, the character of the speaker or the nature of the subject. For if any one of these three is out of keeping with the words, it at once becomes clear that the intention of the speaker is other than what he actually says In the majority of tropes it is, however,

important to bear in mind not merely what is said, but about whom it is said, since what is said may in another context be literally true. It is permissible to censure with counterfeited praise and praise under a pretence of blame. The following will serve as an example of the first. [*]( Cic. Pro Cluent. xxxiii. 91. )

Since Gaius Verres, the urban praetor, being a man of energy and blameless character, had no record in his register of this substitution of this man for another on the panel.

We are regarded as orators and have imposed on the people.

Sometimes, again, we may speak in mockery when we say the opposite of what we desire to be understood, as in Cicero's denunciation of Clodius [*]( From the lost speech in Clodium et Curionem. ) :

Believe me, your well known integrity has cleared you of all blame, your modesty has saved you, your past life has been your salvation.

Further, we may employ allegory, and disguise bitter taunts in gentle words I y way of wit, or we may indicate our meaning by saying exactly the contrary or. . . [*]( The passage is hopelessly corrupt. The concluding portion of the sentence must have referred to the use of proverbs, of which it may have contained an example. This is clear from the next sentence. Sarcasm, urbane wit and contradiction are covered by the first three clauses, but there has been no allusion to proverbs such as παροιμία demands. ) If the Greek names for these

There are, however, some writers who deny that these are species of allegory, and assert that they are actually tropes in themselves: for they argue shrewdly that allegory involves an element of obscurity, whereas in all these cases our meaning is perfectly obvious. To this may be added the fact that when a genus is divided into species, it ceases to have any peculiar properties of its own: for example, we may divide tree into its species, pine, olive, cypress, etc., leaving it no properties of its own, whereas allegory always has some property peculiar to itself. The only explanation of this fact is that it is itself a species. But this, of course, is a matter of indifference to those that use it.

To these the Greeks add μυκτηρισμός or mockery under the thinnest of disguises. When we use a number of words to describe something for which one, or at any rate only a few words of description would suffice, it is called periphrasis, that is, a circuitous mode of speech. It is sometimes necessary, being of special service when it conceals something which would be indecent, if expressed in so many words: compare the phrase

To meet the demands of nature

But at times it is employed solely for decorative effect, a practice most frequent among the poets:

1. Now was the time
2. When the first sleep to weary mortals comes
3. Stealing its way, the sweetest boon of heaven.

Aen. ii. 268.

Still it is far from uncommon even in oratory, though