Institutio Oratoria

For Homer himself assigns to Menelaus [*](Mil. iii. 214. The words which Quintilian translates by non deerrare verbhis are οὐδ᾽ ἀφαμαρτοεπής, no stumbler in speech, rather than correct in speech. ) an eloquence, terse and pleasing, exact (for that is what is meant by

making no errors in words

) and devoid of all redundance, which qualities are virtues of the first type: and he says that from the lips of Nestor [*](Il. i. 249. ) flowed speech sweeter than honey, than which assuredly we can conceive no greater delight: but when he seeks to express the supreme gift of eloquence possessed by Ulysses [*](Il. iii. 221. ) he gives a mighty voice and a vehemence of oratory equal to the snows of winter in the abundance and the vigour of its words.

With him then,

he says,

no mortal will contend, and men shall look upon him as on a god.

[*]( A blend of Il. iii. 223 and Od. viii. 173. ) It is this force and impetuosity that Eupolis admires in Pericles, this that Aristophanes [*](Aeh. 530. Then in his wrath Pericles the Olympian lightened and thundered and threw all Greece into confusion. ) compares to the thunderbolt, this that is the power of true eloquence.