Institutio Oratoria

When the masters of sculpture and painting desired to carve or paint forms of ideal beauty, they never fell into the error of taking some Bagoas or Megabyzus [*](Eunuchs.) as models, but rightly selected the well-known Doryphorus, [*]( The famous statue of Polycletus, regarded as the standard of manly beauty and proportion. Many copies have survived. Doryphorus= the Spearbearer. ) equally adapted either for the fields of war or for the wrestling school, and other warlike and athletic youths as types of physical beauty. Shall we then, who are endeavouring to mould the ideal orator, equip eloquence not with weapons but with timbrels?

Consequently, let the youth whom we are training devote himself, as far as in him lies, to the imitation of truth and, in view of the fact that the battles of the forum that await him are not few, let him strive for victory in the schools and learn

At the present time the misfortune is that teachers more often than not pass over what is necessary in silence, and utility is not accounted one of the good qualities of eloquence. But I have dealt with these points in another work, [*]( Perhaps the lost de causis corruptae eloquentiae. ) and shall often have to recur to them in this. I will now return to my prescribed course.