Institutio Oratoria
Quintilian
Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.
A different form of fictitious question is to be found in the pro Caelio.
Some one will say, 'Is this your moral discipline? Is this the training you would give young men?'with the whole passage that follows. Then comes his reply,
Gentlemen, if there were any man with such vigour of mind, with such innate virtue and self-control, etc.[*]( xvii. 39 sqq. The passage concludes, I should consider such an one the possessor of qualities which I can only call worthy of a god. ) A different method is to ask a question and not to wait for a reply, but to subjoin the reply at once yourself. For example,
Had you no house? Yes, you had one. Had you money and to spare? No, you were in actual want.[*](Orat. lxvii. 223. ) This is a figure which some call suggestion.
Again, a question may involve comparison, as, for instance,
Which of the two then could more easily assign a reason for his opinion?[*](pro Cluent. xxxviii. 106. ) There are other forms of question as well, some concise, some developed at greater length, some dealing with one thing only, others with several. Anticipation, or, as the Greeks call it, πρόληψις, whereby we forestall objections, is of extraordinary value in pleading; it is frequently employed in all parts of a speech, but is especially useful in the exordium.
However, it forms a genus in itself, and
For I will say without any intention of aggravating the charge.Again, there is a form of self-correction, such as,
I beg you to pardon me, if I have been carried too far.And, most frequent of all, there is preparation, whereby we state fully why we are going to do something or have done it.
Anticipation may also be employed to establish the meaning or propriety of words, as in the following case,
Although that was not a punishment, but merely a prevention of crime,[*](From a lost work of Cicero.) while the same effect may be produced by qualification, as in the following sentence,
Citizens, I say, if I may call them by that name.[*](pro Mur. xxxvii. 80. )
Again, hesitation may lend an impression of truth to our statements, when, for example, we pretend to be at a loss, where to begin or end, or to decide what especially requires to be said or not to be said at all. All speeches are full of such instances, but for the present one will be enough.
As for myself, I know not where to turn. Shall I deny that there was a scandalous rumour that the jury had been bribed, etc.?[*](pro Cluent. i. 4. )
This device may also be employed to cover the past; for we may equally pretend that we had felt hesitation on the subject. This figure is akin to that known as communication,
She is so agitated that she does not know what is permitted to a woman or what becomes a wife. It may be that chance has brought you into contact with the unhappy woman in her helpless plight. What counsel do you give her, you her brother, and you, her father's friends?
Or we may admit the judges to our deliberations, a device which is frequently called into play. We may say,
What do you advise?or,
I ask you,or,
What, then, should have been done?Cato, for example, says,
Come now, if you had been in his place, what else would you have done?And in another passage,
Imagine this to be a matter which concerns us all, and assume you have been placed in charge of the whole affair.
Sometimes, however, in such forms of communication we may add something unexpected, a device which is in itself a figure, as Cicero does in the Verrines:
What then? What think you? Perhaps you expect to hear of some theft or plunder.[*](v. 5. 10.) Then, after keeping the minds of the judges in suspense for a considerable time, he adds something much worse. This figure is termed suspension by Celsus. It has two forms.
For we may adopt exactly the opposite procedure to that just mentioned, and after raising expectation of a sequel of the most serious nature, we may drop to something which is of a trivial character, and may even imply no offence at all. But since this does not necessarily involve any form of communication, some have given it the name of paradox or surprise.
I do not agree with those who extend the name of figure to a statement that something has happened unexpectedly to the
Gentlemen, I never thought it would come to pass that, when Scaurus was the accused, I should have to entreat you not to allow influence to carry any weight on his behalf.
The figure known as concession springs from practically the same source as communication; it occurs when we leave some things to the judgment of the jury, or even in some cases of our opponents, as when Calvus says to Vatinius,
Summon all your assurance and assert that you have a better claim than Cato to be elected praetor.
The figures best adapted for intensifying emotion consist chiefly in simulation. For we may feign that we are angry, glad, afraid, filled with wonder, grief or indignation, or that we wish something, and so on. Hence we get passages like the following:
I am free, I breathe again,[*](pro Mil. xviii. 47. ) or,
It is well,or,
What madness is this?[*](pro Muren. vi. 14. ) or,
Alas! for these degenerate days or,
Woe is me; for though all my tears are shed my grief still clings to me deep-rooted in my heart,[*](Phil.. xxvi. 64. ) or,
To this some give the name of exclamation,Unknown.
- Gape now, wide earth.
and include it among figures of speech. When, however, such exclamations are genuine, they do not come under the head of our present topic: it is only those which are simulated and artfully designed which can with any certainty be regarded as figures. The same is true of free speech, which Corificius [*]( The author of Auct. ad Herennium, iv. 36. ) calls licence, and the Greeks παῤῥησία. For what has less of the figure about it than true freedom? On the other hand, freedom of speech may frequently be made a