Institutio Oratoria

I am therefore all the more surprised at those who hold that there should be no appeal to the emotions in the statement of facts. If they were to say

Such appeals should be brief and not on the scale on which they are employed in tile peroration,

Why should I not, if it is possible, obtain that effect at the very opening of the case which I am anxious to secure at its conclusion, more especially in view of the fact that I shall find the judge far more amenable to the cogency of my proof, if I have previously filled his mind with anger or pity?

Does not Cicero, [*](Verr. v 62. A Roman citizen might not be scourged. cp. St. Paul. ) in his description of the scourging of a Roman citizen, in a few brief words stir all the emotions, not merely by describing the victim's position, the place where the outrage was committed and the nature of the punishment, but also by praising the courage with which he bore it? For he shows us a man of the highest character who, when beaten with rods, uttered not a moan nor an entreaty, but only cried that lie was a Roman citizen, thereby bringing shame on his oppressor and showing his confidence in the law.

Again does he not throughout the whole of his statement excite the warmest indignation at the misfortunes of Philodamus [*](ib. i. 30 ) and move

What can any peroration present that is more calculated to stir our pity? If you wait for the peroration to stir your hearer's emotions over circumstances which you have recorded unmoved in your statement of facts, your appeal will come too late. The judge is already familiar with them and hears their mention without turning a hair, since he was unstirred when they were first recounted to him. Once the habit of mind is formed, it is hard to change it.