Institutio Oratoria

as I have said, is produced by a mixture of figures, is called πλοκὴ by the Greeks: a letter of Cicero [*](Now lost.) to Brutus will provide a further example.

When I had made my peace with Appius Claudius and made it through the agency of Gnaeus Pompeius, when then I had made my peace,

The like effect may be produced in the same sentence by repeating the same words in different forms, as in Persius:

1. Is then to know in thee
2. Nothing unless another know thou knowest?

i. 26. The translation is Watson's.

For it was impossible for the judges as well to be condemned by their own judgement.

Whole sentences again end with the phrase with which they began. Take an example.

He came from Asia. What a strange thing. A tribune of the people came from Asia.

Still for all that he came.

The first word of one clause is also frequently the same as the last of the preceding, a figure common in poetry.

1. And ye,
2. Pierian Muses, shall enhance their worth
3. For Gallus; Gallus, he for whom each hour
4. My love burns stronger.

Cat. I. i. 2.

Yet this man lives. Lives? Why he even came into the senate house.

Sometimes, as I remarked in connexion with the doubling of words, the beginnings and the conclusions of sentences are made to correspond by the use of other words with the same meaning. Here is an example of correspondence between the beginnings:

I would have faced every kind of danger; I would have exposed myself to treacherous attacks; I would have delivered myself over to public hatred.

For you have decided; you have passed sentence; you have given judgment.

Since this is so, Catiline, proceed on the path which you have entered; depart from the city, it is high time. The gates are open, get you forth.

Or take this example from another book of the orations against Catiline,

He departed, he went

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hence; he burst forth, he was gone.

1. Myself before my very eyes I saw:

Aen. xii. 638.

myself

I saw.

I saw,

myself,

before my very eyes,

I cannot therefore see why Caecilius should have stigmatised these words by such a name, since the doubling and repetition of words and all forms of addition may likewise be regarded as pleonasms. And it is not merely words that are thus grouped together. The same device may be applied to thoughts of similar content.

The wild confusion of his thoughts, the thick darkness shed upon his soul by his crimes and the burning torches of the furies all drove him on.

Words of different meaning may likewise be grouped together, as for instance,

The woman, the savage cruelty of the tyrant, love for his father, anger beyond control, the madness of blind daring

1. But the dread Nereids' power,
2. But horned Ammon, but that wild sea-beast
3. To feed upon my vitals that must come.

I have found some who call this also by the name of πλοκή: but I do not agree, as only one figure is

I ask my enemies whether these plots were investigated, discovered and laid bare, overthrown, crushed and destroyed by me.

investigated,

discovered

laid bare

overthrown,

crushed

destroyed

But both the last example and the last but one involve a different figure as well, which, owing to the absence of connecting particles, is called dissolution ( asyndeton ), and is useful when we are speaking with special vigour: for it at once impresses the details on the mind and makes them seem more numerous than they really are. Consequently, we apply this figure not merely to single words, but to whole sentences, as, for instance, is done by Cicero in his reply [*](Only a few fragments remain.) to the speech which Metellus made to the public assembly:

I ordered those against whom information was laid, to be summoned, guarded, brought before the senate: they were led into the senate,

In this figure we may repeat the same connecting particle a number of times, as in the following instance:

1. His house and home and arms
2. And Amyclean hound and Cretan quiver;

Georg. iii. 344.

as in the case of arma virumque followed by multum ille et terris and multa quoque. [*](Aen. i. sqq.)

Adverbs and pronouns also may be varied, as in the following instance: [*](Ecl. i. 43. Here I beheld that youth For whom each year twelve days my altars smoke, He first gave answer to my aupplication. ) lic ilium vidi iunvenem followed by bis senos cui nostra dies and hic mihi responsum primus dedit ille petenti. But both these cases involve the massing together of words and phrases either in asyndeton or polysyndeton.

Writers have given special names to all the different forms, but the names vary with the caprice of the inventor. The origin of these figures is one and the same, namely that they make our utterances more vigorous and emphatic and produce animpression of vehemence such as might spring from repeated outbursts of emotion. Gradation, which the Greeks call climax, necessitates a more obvious and less natural application of art and should therefore be more sparingly employed. Moreover, it involves addition,

since it repeats what has already been said and, before passing to a new point, dwells on those which precede. I will translate a very famous instance from the Greek. [*]( Demosth. de Cor. 179. )

I did not say this, without making a formal proposal to that effect, I did not make that proposal without undertaking the embassy, nor undertake the embassy without persuading the Thebans.

There are, however, examples of the same thing in Latin authors.

It was the energy of Africanus that gave him his peculiar excellence, his excellence that gave him glory, his glory that gave him rivals.

Consequently this means the abolition

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of trials for treason no less than for extortion, for offences covered by the Plautian law no less than for treason, for bribery no less than for those offences, and for all breaches of every law no less than for bribery,

It is also to be found in poets, as in the passage in Homer [*](Il. ii. 101. ) describing the sceptre which he traces from the hands of Jupiter down to those of Agamemnon, and in the following from one of our own tragedians: [*](Unknown.)

1. From Jove, so runs the tale, was Tantalus sprung,
2. From Tantalus Pelops, and of Pelops' seed
3. Sprang Atreus, who is sire of all our line.

As regards the figures produced by omission, they rely for their charm in the main on conciseness and novelty. There is one of these which I mentioned in the last book [*](VII. vi. 21.) with reference to synecdoche, and postponed discussing until such time as I came to deal with figures: it occurs when the word omitted may be clearly gathered from the context: an example may be found in Caelius' denunciation of Antony: stupere gaudio Graecus: [*](The Greek was struck dumb with joy.) for we must clearly supply coepit. Or take the following passage from a letter of Cicero [*]( Lost. No talk except of you. What better? Then Fla virus says, 'Couriers to-morrow,' and I scribbled these lines at his house during dinner. ) to Brutus: Serno nullus scilicet nisi de te: quid enim potius? turn Flavius, cras, inquit, tabellarii, et ego ibidem has inter cenum exaravi.

Of a similar kind, at any rate in my opinion, are those passages in which words are decently omitted to spare our modesty.

1. You—while the goats looked goatish-we know who,
2. And in what chapel—(but the kind Nymphs laughed).

Ecl. iii. 8.

For in aposiopesis it is either uncertain or at least requires an explanation of some length to show what is suppressed, whereas in the present case only one word, and that of an obvious character, is missing. If this, then, is an aposiopesis, all omissions will have a claim to the title.