Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

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

One word of this type has remained in common use, namely enimvero. I might further quote from the same author

  1. nam quis te iuvenum confidentissime,
Georg. iv. 445. [*](For who bade thee, of youths most bold.) The figure consists in the opening of a speech with nam, or perhaps rather in saying nam quis for quisnam.
words which form the beginning of a speech: or
  1. tam magis illa tremens et tristibus etffra flammis,
  2. quam magis effuso crudescunt sanguine pugnae.
Aen. vii. 787.
  1. The more the strife with bloodshed rages wild,
  2. The more it quivers and with baleful fire
  3. Glows fiercer.
There the sentence inverts the natural order which may be illustrated by quam magis aerumna urgent, tam magis ad malefaciendumn viget. [*]( The source of the quotation is unknown. The more calamity oppresses him, the greater his vigour for evil doing. )

Old writers are full of such usages. At the

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beginning of the Eunuchus [*](Eun. I. i. 1. What shall I do then? ) of Terence we have quid igitur faciam, while another comic poet says ain tandem leno? [*]( The poet is unknown. Do you agree then, you pimp? The figure in this and the preceding instance lies in the idiomatic use of igitur and tandem. ) Catullus in his Epithalamium writes:
  1. dum innupta manet, dum cara suis est,
Cat. lxii. 45. [*](While she remains unwed, so long is she dear to her own. Such is Quintilian's interpretation. The line, however, runs sic virgo, dum intacta (MSS. of Catullus), etc., and is most naturally interpreted: Even so ( i.e. like to a perfect blossom) is the maiden, while she remains unblemished and dear to her own. )
where the first dum means while, and the second means so long.

Sallust, on the other hand, borrows a number of idioms from the Greek, such as vulgus amat fieri: [*](Such things as the people love to see done. Not found in Sallust's extant works. But cp. Jug. 34: ira amat fieri. ) the same is true of Horace, who strongly approves of the practice. Compare his

  1. nec ciceris net longae invidit avenae.
Sat. II. vi. 83. [*](Nor grudged him vetches nor the long-eared oat.) The gen. of respect is regarded as a Graecism.
Virgil [*](Aen. i. 67. He sails the Tyrrhene deep. The internal ace. after the intrans. navigat is treated as a Graecism, as is ace. of part concerned after saucius. ) does the same in phrases such as
  1. Tyrrhenum navigat aequor
or saucius pectus (
wounded at heart
), an idiom which has now become familiar in the public gazette.

Under the same class of figure falls that of addition, which, although the words added may be strictly superfluous, may still be far from inelegant. Take, for example,

  1. nam neque Parnasi vobis iuga, nam neque Pindi,
Ecl. x. 11: [*](For neither did Parnassus slope, nor yet/ The slopes of Pindus make delay for you.)
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where the second nam might be omitted. And we find in Horace, [*]( Hor. Od. I. xii. 40. And Fabricius, him and Cato with locks unshorn. )
  1. Fabriciumcque,
  2. hunc et intonsis Curium capillis.
Similarly, words are omitted, a device which may be either a blemish or a figure, according to the context. The following is an example:
  1. accede ad ignen, iam calesces plus satis;
Ter. Eun. I. ii. 5. [*](Draw near the fire and you shall be more than warm enough.)
for the full phrase would be plus quam satis. There is, however, another form of omission which requires treatment at greater length. [*]( The sense is obscure. The words are either an interpolation or illustrative matter has been lost. )

We frequently use the comparative for the positive, as, for example, when a man speaks of himself as being infirmior (rather indisposed). Sometimes we join two comparatives, as in the following passage [*](Cat. I. ii. 5. If I were to give orders that you should he apprehended and put to death, I think I should have reason to fear that all good citizens would regard my action as too tardy rather than that anyone would assert that it was too cruel. ) : si te, Catilina, comprehend, si interfici iussero, credo erit verendum mihi, ne non potius hoc ones boni serius a me qam quisquam crudelius factum esse dicat.

There are also figures like the following, which, though far from being solecisms, alter the number and are also usually included among tropes. We may speak of a single thing in the plural, as in the following instance [*](Georg. ii. 541. ) :

  1. But we have travelled o'er a boundless space;
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Or we may speak of the plural in the singular, as in the following case [*](Georg. iii. 346. ) :
  1. Like the fierce Roman in his country's arms.

There are others which belong to a diflfrent species, but the same genus, such as

  1. Nor let thy vineyards slope toward the west,
Georg. ii. 298.
or
  1. In that hour
  2. Be it not mine beneath the open sky
  3. To court soft sleep nor on the forest ridge
  4. Amid the grass to lie.
Georg. iii. 435.
For in the first of these passages he is not advising some other person, nor exhorting himself in the second, his advice in both passages being meant for all. Sometimes, again, we speak of ourselves as though we were referring to others, as in phrases like,
Servius asserts, Tullius denies it.
[*](i. e. I, Cicero, deny it. Halm suggests that the passage comes from an unpublished portion of his speech in defence of Murena. cp. Pro Mur. xxvii. 57. )