Institutio Oratoria
Quintilian
Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.
The praise awarded to perfect brevity is well-deserved; but, on the other hand, brachylogy, which I shall deal with when I come to speak of figures, that is to say, the brevity that says nothing more than what is absolutely necessary, is less effective, although it may be employed with admirable results when it expresses a great deal in a very few words, as in Sallust's description of Mithridates as
huge of stature, and armed to match.But unsuccessful attempts to imitate this form of terseness result merely in obscurity.
A virtue which closely resembles the last, but is on a grander scale, is emphasis, which succeeds
An example of the former is found in Homer, [*](Od. xi. 523. ) where he makes Menelaus say that the Greeks descended into the Wooden Horse, indicating its size by a single verb. Or again, there is the following example by Virgil: [*](Aen. ii. 262. )
a phrase which in a similar manner indicates the height of the horse. The same poet, [*](Aen. iii. 631. ) when he says that the Cyclops lay stretched
- Descending by a rope let down,
throughout the cave,by taking the room occupied as the standard of measure, gives an impression of the giant's immense bulk.
The second kind of emphasis consists either in the complete suppression of a word or in the deliberate omission to utter it. As an example of complete suppression I may quote the following passage from the pro Ligario, 4 where Cicero says:
But if your exalted position were not matched by your goodness of heart, a quality which is all your own, your very own—I know well enough what I am saying——Here he suppresses the fact, which is none the less clear enough to us, that he does not lack counsellors who would incite him to cruelty. The omission of a word is produced by aposiopesis, which, however, being a figure, shall be dealt with in its proper place. [*]( v. 15: The passage goes on, Then your victory would have brought bitter grief in its train. For how many of the victors would have wished you to be cruel! Where then is the suppression? Quintilian is probably quoting from memory and has forgotten the context. ix. ii. 54; iii. 60. )
Emphasis is also found in the phrases of every day, such as
Be a man!or
He is but mortal,or
We must live!So like, as a rule, is nature to art. It is not, however, sufficient for eloquence to set
For even that absolute and unaffected simplicity which the Greeks call ἀφέλεια has in it a certain chaste ornateness such as we admire also in women, while a minute accuracy in securing propriety and precision in our words likewise produces an impression of neatness and delicacy. Again copiousness may consist either in wealth of thought or luxuriance of language.
Force, too, may be shown in different ways; for there will always be force in anything that is in its own way effective. Its most important exhibitions are to be found in the following: δείνωσις or a certain sublimity in the exaggerated denunciation of unworthy conduct, to mention no other topics; φαντασία or imagination, which assists us to form mental pictures of things; ἐξεργασία or finish, which produces completeness of effect; ἐπεξεργασία an intensified form of the preceding, which reasserts our proofs and clinches the argument by repetition;
and ἐνέργεια, or vigour, a near relative of all these qualities, which derives its name from action and finds its peculiar function in securing that nothing that we say is tame. Bitterness, which is generally employed in abuse, may be of service as in the following passage. from Cassius:
What will you do when I invade your special province, that is, when I show that, as far as abuse is concerned, you are a mere ignoramus?[*]( Cassius Severus was famous for his powers of abuse. His opponent was abusive. Cassius says that he will take a leaf out of his book and show him what real abuse is. ) Pungency also may be employed, as in the following remark of Crassus:
Shall I regard you as a consul, when you refuse to regard me as a senator?But the real power of oratory lies in enhancing or attenuating the force
already dealt with the methods of invention and arrangement, and shall therefore now concern myself with the way in which style may elevate or depress the subject in hand.
IV. The first method of amplification or attenuation is to be found in the actual word employed to describe a thing. For example, we may say that a man who was beaten was murdered, or that a dishonest fellow is a robber, or, on the other hand, we may say that one who struck another merely touched him, and that one who wounded another merely hurt him. The following passage from the pro Caelio, [*](xvi. 38.) provides examples of both:
If a widow lives freely, if being by nature bold she throws restraint to the winds, makes wealth an excuse for luxury, and strong passions for playing the harlot, would this be a reason for my regarding a man who was somewhat free in his method of saluting her to be an adulterer?
For here he calls an immodest woman a harlot, and says that one who had long been her lover saluted her with a certain freedom. This sort of amplification may be strengthened and made more striking by pointing the comparison between words of stronger meaning and those for which we propose to substitute them, as Cicero does in denouncing Verres [*](Verr. I. iii. 9. ) :
I have brought before you, judges, not a thief, but a plunderer; not an adulterer, but a ravisher; not a mere committer of sacrilege, but the enemy of all religious observance and all holy things; not an assassin,v7-9 p.265but a bloodthirsty butcher who has slain our fellowcitizens and our allies.
In this passage the first epithets are bad enough, but are rendered still worse by those which follow. I consider, However, that there are four principal methods of implication: augmentation, comparison, reasoning and accumulation. Of these, augmentation is most impressive when it ends grandeur even to comparative insignificance. This may be effected either by one step or by everal, and may be carried not merely to the highest degree, but sometimes even beyond it.
A single example from Cicero [*](Verr. v. lxvi. 170. ) will suffice to llustrate all these points.
It is a sin to bind a Roman citizen, a crime to scourge him, little short if the most unnatural murder to put him to death; chat then shall I call his crucifixion?If he had merely been scourged, we should have had but one tep, indicated by the description even of the lesser offence as a sin, while if he had merely been killed,
we should have had several more steps; but after saying that it was
little short of the most unatural murder to put him to death,and mentioning the worst of crimes, he adds,
What then shall call his crucifixion?Consequently, since he had ready exhausted his vocabulary of crime, words must necessarily fail him to describe something still orse.
There is a second method of passing beond the highest degree, exemplified in Virgil's description of Lausus: [*](Aen. vii. 649. )
or here the words
- Than whom there was not one more fair
- Saving Laurentian Turnus.
than whom there was notgive us the superlative, on which the poet proceeds to superimpose a still higher degree.v7-9 p.267one more fair
There is also a third sort, which is not attained by gradation, a height which is not a degree beyond the superlative, but such that nothing greater can be conceived.
You beat your mother. What more need I say? You beat your mother.For to make a thing so great as to be incapable of augmentation is in itself a kind of augmentation.
It is also possible to heighten our style less obviously, but perhaps yet more effectively, by introducing a continuous and unbroken series in which each word is stronger than the last, as Cicero [*](Phil. I. xxv. 63. ) does when he describes how Antony vomited
before an assembly of the Roman people, while performing a public duty, while Master of the Horse.Each phrase is more forcible than that which went before. Vomiting is an ugly thing in itself, even when there is no assembly to witness it; it is ugly when there is such an assembly, even though it be not an assembly of the people; ugly even though it be an assembly of the people and not the Roman people; ugly even though he were engaged on no business at the time, even if his business were not public business, even if lie were not Master of the Horse.
Another might have broken up the series and lingered over each step in the ascending scale, but Cicero hastens to his climax and reaches the height not by laborious effort, but by the impetus of his speed. Just as this form of amplification rises to a climax, so, too, the form which depends on comparison seeks to rise from the less to the greater, since by raising what is below it must necessarily exalt that which
If this had befallen you at the dinner-table in the midst of your amazing potations, who would not have thought it unseemly? But it occurred at an assembly of the Roman people.Or take this passage from the speech against Catiline: [*](Phil. I. vii. 17. xi 32. )
In truth, if my slaves feared me as all your fellowcitizens fear you, I should think it wise to leave my house.
At times, again, we may advance a parallel to make something which we desire to exaggerate seem greater than ever, as Cicero does in the pro Cluentio, [*](cp. v. xiii. 24. ) where, after telling a story of a woman of Miletus who took a bribe from the reversionary heirs to prevent the birth of her expected child, lie cries,
How much greater is the punishment deserved by Oppianicus for the same offence! For that woman, by doing violence to her own body did but torture herself, whereas he procured the same result by applying violence and torture to the body of another.