the most celebrated of Roman rhetoricians, was a native of Calagurris (Calahorra), in the upper valley of the Ebro. He was born about A. D. 40, and if not reared at Rome, must at least have completed his education there, for he himself informs us (5.7.7) that, while yet a very young man, He attended the lectures of Domitius Afer, at that time far advanced in life, and that He witnessed the decline of his powers (5.7.7, 10.1. §§ 11, 24, 36, 12.11.3). Now we know from other sources that Domitius Afer died in A. D. 59 (Tac. Ann. 14.19 ; Frontin. de Aquaed. 102). Having revisited Spain, He returned from thence (A. D. 68) in the train of Galba, and forthwith began to practise at the bar (7.2), where he acquired considerable reputation. But he was chiefly distinguished as a teacher of eloquence, bearing away the palm in this department from all his rivals, and associating his name even to a proverb, with pre-eminence in the art. Among his pupils were numbered Pliny the younger (Plin. Ep. 2.14, 6.6) and the two grand-nephews of Domitian. By this prince he was invested with the insignia and title of consul (consularia ornamenta), and is, moreover, celebrated as the first public instructor, who, in virtue of the endowment by Vespasian (Suet. Vesp. 18), received a regular salary from the imperial exchequer. After leaving devoted twenty years, commencing probably with A. D. 69, to the laborious duties of his profession, he retired into private life, and is supposed to have died about A. D. 118.
Martial, himself from the neighbourhood of Calagurris (Ep. 1.62), and fond of commemorating the literary glories of his own land, although he pays a tribute to the fame of Quintilian (11.90),
nowhere claims him as a countryman, and hence it has been concluded that he was not by birth a Spaniard, but this negative evidence cannot be allowed to outweigh the direct testimony of Ausonius (Prof. 1.7), colnfired by Hieroyiiius (Chron. Euseb. Olymp. ccxi. ccxvii.) and Cassiodorus (Chron. sub Domitian. ann. viii.).
- Quintiliane, vagae moderator summe juventae,
- Gloria Romanae, Quintiliane, togae,
It is frequently affirmed in histories of Roman literature that the father of Quintilian was a pleader, and that his grandfatther was Quintilian thle declaimer spoken of by Seneca, but the passages referred to in proof of these assertions will be found not to warrant any such inferences (9.3.73 ; Senec. Controv. v. praef. and 33).
Doubts have been expressed with regard to the emperor to whom Quintilian was indebted for the honours alluded to above, and it has been confidently maintained that Hadrian, not Domitian, was his patron. In the prooemium to the fourth book of the Institutions the author records with grateful pride that Doimitianus Augustus had committed to his care the grandsons of his sister,--that is, the sons of Flavius Clemens and Domitilla the younger (see Sueton. Dom. 15; Dio Cass. p. 1112, ed. Reimar). Again, Ausonius, in his Gratiarum Actio ad Gratianum, remarks "Quintilianus consularia per Clementem ornamental sortitus honestamenta nominis potius videtur quam insignia potestatis habuisse." It would be false scepticism to doubt that the Clemens here named is the Flavius Clemens to whose children Quintilian acted as preceptor, land if this be admitted, the question seems to be set at rest. To this distinction doubtless the satirist alludes, when he sarcastically declares
"Si Fortuna volet fies de rhetore consul."
The pecuniary circumstances, also, of Quintilian, have afforded a theme for considerable discussion. in consequence of the (apparently) contradictory statements of Juvenal and Pliny. The former, after inveighing against the unsparing profusion of the rich in all luxurious indulgences connected with the pleasures of the table, as contrasted with the paltry remuneration which they offered to the most distinguished teachers of youth, exclaims (7.186),
"Hos inter sumtus sestertia Quintiliano Ut multum duo sufficient; res nulla minoris Constabit patri quam filius. Unde igitur tot Quintilianus habet saltus,"
and then proceeds to ascribe his singular prosperity to the influence of good luck, On the other hand, Pliny, in a letter inscribed "Quintiliano suo" (6.32, comp. 6), makes him a present of 50,000 sesterces, about 400l. sterling, as a contribution towards the outfit of a daughter about to be married, assigning as a reason for his liberality "Te porro, animo beatissimum, modicum facultatibus, scio." Passing over the untenable supposition that Pliny may have been addressing some Quintilian different from the rhetorician, or that the estates indicated above may have been acquired at a later period, we must observe that Juvenal here employs a tone of declamatory exaggeration, and that he speaks with evident, though suppressed bitterness of the good fortune of Quintilian, probably in consequence of the flattery lavished by the latter on the hated Domitian (e. g. prooem. lib. iv.); we must bear in mind also, that although the means of Quintilian may not have been so ample as to render an act of generosity on the part of a rich and powerful pupil in any way unacceptable, still the handsome income which he enjoyed (100,000 sesterces=800l., Suet. Vesp. 18) must have appeared boundless wealth when compared with the indigence of the troops of half-starved grammarians who thronged the metropolis, and whose miseries are so forcibly depicted in the piece where the above lines are found.
The epistle of Pliny has suggested another difficulty. Quintilian, in the preface to his sixth book, laments in very touching language the death of his only son, whose improvement had been one of his chief inducements to undertake the work. He is thus led on to enter into details regarding his family bereavements: first of all he lost his wife, at the age of nineteen, who left behind her two boys; the younger died when five years old, the elder at ten; but there is no allusion to a daughter, and indeed his words clearly imply that two children only had been born to him, both of whom he had lost. Hence we are driven to the supposition that he must have married a second time, that the lady was the daughter of a certain Tutilius (Plin. l.c.), and that the offspring of this union was the girl whose approaching marriage with Nonius Celer called forth the gift of Pliny. It will be seen too that Quintilian, at the lowest computation, must have been nearly fifty when he was left childless, consequently he must have been so far advanced in life when his daughter became marriageable, that it is impossible to believe that he amassed a fortune subsequent to that event.
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