Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

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

Nor are words only repeated to reaffirm the same meaning, but the repetition may serve to mark a contrast, as in the following sentence.

v7-9 p.467
The reputation of the leaders was approximately equal, but that of their followers perhaps not so equal.
[*](pro Lig. vi. 19. ) At times the cases and genders of the words repeated may be varied, as in
Great is the toil of speaking, and great the task, etc.
; [*](pro Muren. xiii. 29. ) a similar instance is found in Rutilius, but in a long period. I therefore merely cite the beginnings of the clauses. Pater hic tuus? patrem nunc appellas? patris tui filius es? [*](Rutil. i. x. Is this your father? Do you still call him father? Are you your father's son? )

This figure may also be effected solely by change of cases, a proceeding which the Greeks call πολύπτωτον It may also be produced in other ways, as in the pro Cluentio: [*]( lx. 167. But what was the time chosen for giving the poison? Was it on that day? Amid such a crowd? And who was selected to administer it? Where was it got? How was the cup intercepted? Why was it not given a second time? ) Quod autem tempus veneni dandi? illo die? illa frequentia? per quem porro datum? unde sumptum? quae porro interceptio poculi? cur non de integro autem datum?

The combination of different details is called μεταβολὴν by Caecilius, and may be exemplified by the following passage directed against Oppianicus in the pro Cluentio: [*](xiv. 41.)

The local senate were unanimously of opinion that he had falsified the public registers at Larinum; no one would have any business dealings or make any contract with him, no one out of all his numerous relations and kinsfolk ever appointed him as guardian to his children,
with much more to the same effect.

In this case the details are massed together, but they may equally be distributed or dissipated, as I think Cicero says. For example:

  1. Here corn, there grapes, elsewhere the growth of trees
  2. More freely rises,
Georg. i. 54.
with the remainder of the passage.

A wonderful

v7-9 p.469
mixture of figures may be found in Cicero [*](From the lost speech against Q. Metellus.) in the following passage, where the first word is repeated last after a long interval, while the middle corresponds with the beginning, and the concluding words with the middle.
Yours is the work which we find here, conscript fathers, not mine, a fine piece of work too, but, as I have said, not mine, but yours.
This frequent repetition, which,

as I have said, is produced by a mixture of figures, is called πλοκὴ by the Greeks: a letter of Cicero [*](Now lost.) to Brutus will provide a further example.

When I had made my peace with Appius Claudius and made it through the agency of Gnaeus Pompeius, when then I had made my peace,
etc.

The like effect may be produced in the same sentence by repeating the same words in different forms, as in Persius:

  1. Is then to know in thee
  2. Nothing unless another know thou knowest?
i. 26. The translation is Watson's.
and in Cicero, [*](Origin unknown.) where he says,
For it was impossible for the judges as well to be condemned by their own judgement.