Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

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

Such are the rules for the exordium, wherever it is employed. It may however sometimes be dispensed with. For occasionally it is superfluous, if the judge has been sufficiently prepared for our speech without it or if the case is such as to render

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such preparation unnecessary. Aristotle [*](Rhet. iii. 14. ) indeed says that with good judges the exordium is entirely unnecessary. Sometimes however it is impossible to employ it, even if we desire to do so, when, for instance, the judge is much occupied, when time is short or superior authority forces us to embark upon the subject right away.

On the other hand it is at times possible to give the force of an exordium to other portions of the speech. For instance we may ask the judges in the course of our statement of the facts or of our arguments to give us their best attention and good-will, a proceeding which Prodicus recommended as a means of wakening them when they begin to nod. A good example is the following: [*]( Cic. pro Var. fr. 8. )

Gaius Varenus, he who was killed by the slaves of Ancharius—I beg you, gentlemen, to give me your best attention at this point.
Further if the case involves a number of different matters, each section must be prefaced with a short introduction, such as
Listen now to what follows,
or
I now pass to the next point.
Even in the proof there are many passages which perform the same function as an exordium, such as the passage in the pro Cluentio [*](xlii. 117.) where Cicero introduces an attack on the censors and in the pro Murena [*](iii. 7.) when he apologises to Servius. But the practice is too common to need illustration.

However on all occasions when we have employed the exordium, whether we intend to pass to the statement of facts or direct to the proof, our intention should be mentioned at the conclusion of the introduction, with the result that the transition to what follows will be smooth and easy.

There is indeed a pedantic and childish affectation in vogue in the schools of

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marking the transition by some epigram and seeking to win applause by this feat of legerdemain. Ovid is given to this form of affectation in his Metamorphoses, but there is some excuse for him owing to the fact that he is compelled to weld together subjects of the most diverse nature so as to form a continuous whole.