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IV.1‑18

This webpage reproduces part of
a complete English translation of the
Rhetorica ad Herennium
published in the Loeb Classical Library,
1954

The text is in the public domain.

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and I believe it to be free of errors.
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IV.47‑69

Rhetorica ad Herennium

 p275  Book IV

13 (18) To confer distinction upon style is to render it ornate,​1 embellishing it by variety. The divisions under Distinction are Figures of Diction and the Figures of Thought.​2 It is a figure of diction if the adornment is comprised in the fine polish of the language itself. A figure of thought derives a certain distinction from the idea, not from the words.

* * *

19 Epanaphora​3 occurs when one and the same word forms successive beginnings for phrases expressing  p277 like and different ideas, as follows: "To you must go the credit for this, to you are thanks due, to you will this act of yours bring glory." Again: "Scipio razed Numantia, Scipio destroyed Carthage, Scipio brought peace, Scipio saved the state." Again: "You venture to enter the Forum? You venture to face the light? You venture to come into the sight of these men? Dare you say a word? Dare you make a request of them? Dare you beg off punishment?​4 What can you say in your defence? What do you dare to demand? What do you think should be granted to you? Have you not violated your oath? Have you not betrayed your friends? Have you not raised your hand against your father? Have you not, I ask, wallowed in every shame?" This figure has not only much charm, but also impressiveness and vigour in highest degree; I therefore believe that it ought to be used for both the embellishment and the amplification of style.

In Antistrophe​5 we repeat, not the first word in successive phrases, as in Epanaphora, but the last, as follows: "It was by the justice of the Roman people that the Carthaginians were conquered, by its force of arms that they were conquered, by its generosity that they were conquered." Again: "Since the time when from our state concord disappeared, liberty disappeared, good faith disappeared, friendship disappeared, the common weal disappeared." Again: "Gaius Laelius was a self-made man, a talented man, a learned man, to good  p279 men and good endeavour a friendly man; and so in the state he was the first man." Again: "Is it acquittal by these men that you are demanding? Then it is their perjury that you are demanding, it is their neglect of their reputation that you are demanding, it is the surrender of the laws of the Roman people to your caprice that you are demanding."6

14 20 Interlacement​7 is the union of both figures, the combined use of Antistrophe and Epanaphora, which are explained above; we repeat both the first word and the last in a succession of phrase, as follows: "Who are they who have often broken treaties? The Carthaginians. Who are they who have waged war with severest cruelty? The Carthaginians. Who are they who have marred the face of Italy? The Carthaginians. Who are they who now ask for pardon? The Carthaginians.​8 See then how appropriate it is for them to gain their request." Again: "One whom the Senate has condemned, one whom the Roman people has condemned, one whom universal public opinion has condemned, would you by your votes acquit such a one?"

Transplacement​9 makes it possible for the same word to be frequently reintroduced, not only without offence to good taste, but even so as to render the style more elegant, as follows: "One who has nothing in life more desirable than life cannot cultivate  p281 a virtuous life."​10 Again: "You call him a man, who, had he been a man, would never so cruelly have sought another man's life.​11 But he was his enemy. Did he therefore wish thus to avenge himself upon his enemy, only to prove himself his own enemy?" Again: "Leave riches to the rich man, but as for you, to riches prefer virtue, for if you will but compare riches with virtue, riches will in your eyes prove scarcely worthy to be the lackeys of virtue."

21 To the same type of figure belongs that which occurs when the same word is used first in one function, and then in another,​12 as follows: "Why do you so zealously concern yourself with this matter, which will cause you much concern?" Again: "To be dear to you would bring me joy — if only I take care it shall not in anguish cost me dear."​13 Again: "I would leave this place, should the Senate give me leave."14

In the four kinds of figures which I have thus far set forth,​15 the frequent recourse to the same word is not dictated by verbal poverty; rather there inheres in the repetition an elegance which the ear can distinguish more easily than words can explain.

 p283  15 Antithesis​16 occurs when the style is built upon contraries, as follows: "Flattery has pleasant beginnings, but also brings on bitterest endings."​17 Again: "To enemies you show yourself conciliatory, to friends inexorable." Again: "When all is calm, you are confused; when all is in confusion, you are calm. In a situation requiring all your coolness, you are on fire; in one requiring all your ardour, you are cool.​18 When there is need for you to be silent, you are uproarious; when you should speak, you grow mute. Present, you wish to be absent; absent, you are eager to return.​19 In peace, you keep demanding war; in war, you yearn for peace. In the Assembly, you talk of valour; in battle, you cannot for cowardice endure the trumpet's sound." Embellishing our style by means of this figure we shall be able to give it impressiveness and distinction.

22 Apostrophe​20 is the figure which expresses grief or indignation by means of an address to some man or city or place or object, as follows: "It is you I now address, Africanus, whose name even in death means splendour and glory to the state! It is your famous grandsons​21 who by their own blood have fed the  p285 cruelty of their enemies." Again: "Perfidious Fregellae, how quickly, because of your crime, you have wasted away!​22 As a result, of the city whose brilliance but yesterday irradiated Italy, scarce the debris of the foundations now remains." Again: "Plotters against good citizens,​23 villains, you have sought the life of every decent man! Have you assumed such power for your slanders thanks to the perversions of justice?" If we use Apostrophe in its proper place, sparingly, and when the importance of the subject seems to demand it,​24 we shall instill in the hearer as much indignation as we desire.

Not all Interrogation​25 is impressive or elegant, but that Interrogation is, which, when the points against the adversaries' cause have been summed up, reinforces the argument that has just been delivered, as follows: "So when you were doing and saying and managing all this, were you, or were you not, alienating and estranging from the republic the sentiments of our allies? And was it, or was it not, needful to employ some one to thwart these designs of yours and prevent their fulfilment?"26

16 23 Through the figure, Reasoning by Question and Answer,​27 we ask ourselves the reason for every  p287 statement we make, and seek the meaning of each successive affirmation, as follows: "When our ancestors condemned a woman for one crime, they considered that by this single judgement she was convicted of many transgressions. How so? Judged unchaste, she was also deemed guilty of poisoning.​28 Why? Because, having sold her body to the basest passion, she had to live in fear of many persons. Who are these? Her husband, her parents, and the others involved, as she sees, in the infamy of her dishonour. And what then? Those whom she fears so much she would inevitably wish to destroy. Why inevitably? Because no honourable motive can restrain a woman who is terrified by the enormity of her crime, emboldened by her lawlessness, and made heedless by the nature of her sex. Well now, what did they think of a woman found guilty of poisoning? That she was necessarily also unchaste? Why? because no motive could more easily have led her to this crime than base love and unbridled lust. Furthermore, if a woman's soul had been corrupted, they did not consider her body chaste. Now then, did they observe this same principle with respect to men? Not at all. And why? Because men are driven to each separate crime by a different passion, whereas a woman is led into all crimes by one sole passion."​29 Again: "It is a good principle which our ancestors established, of not putting to death any king captured by force of arms.​30 Why is this so? Because it were unfair to use the advantage vouchsafed to us by fortune to punish those whom the same fortune had but recently placed in the highest station. But what  p289 of the fact that he has led an army against us? I refuse to recall it. Why? Because it is characteristic of a brave man to regard rivals for victory as enemies, but when they have been vanquished to consider them as fellow men,​31 in order that his bravery may avail to put an end to the war, and his humanity to advance peace. But had that king prevailed, he would not, would he, have done the same? No, no doubt he would have been less wise. Why, then, do you spare him? Because it is my habit to scorn, not emulate, such folly." 24 This figure is exceedingly well adapted to a conversational style, and both by its stylistic grace and the anticipation of the reasons, holds the hearer's attention.

17 A Maxim​32 is a saying drawn from life, which shows concisely either what happens or ought to happen in life, for example: "Every beginning is difficult." Again: "Least in the habit of giving reverence to the virtues is he who has always enjoyed the favours of fortune." Again: "A free man is that man to be judged who is a slave to no base habit."​33 Again: "As poor as the man who had not enough is the man who cannot have enough."​34 Again: "Choose the noblest way of living; habit will make it enjoyable."​35 Simple maxims of this sort are not to be rejected, because, if no reason is needed, the brevity of the statement has great charm. But  p291 we must also favour that kind of maxim which is supported by an accompanying reason, as follows: "All the rules for noble living should be based on virtue, because virtue alone is within her own control, whereas all else is subject to the sway of fortune."​36 Again: "Those who have cultivated a man's friendship for his wealth one and all fly from him as soon as his wealth has slipped away. For when the motive of their intercourse has disappeared, there is nothing left which can maintain that friendship."37

There are also maxims which are presented in double form. Without a reason,​38 as follows: "They who in prosperity think to have escaped all the onslaughts of fortune are mistaken; they who in favourable times fear a reversal are wise in their forethought."​39 25 With a reason,​40 as follows: "They who think that the sins of youth deserve indulgence are deceived, because that time of life does not constitute a hindrance to sound studious activities. But they act wisely who chastise the young with especial severity in order to inculcate at the age most opportune for it the desire to attain those virtues by which they can order their whole lives."​41 We should insert maxims only rarely, that we may be looked upon as pleading the case, not preaching morals. When so interspersed, they will add much distinction. Furthermore, the hearer, when he  p293 perceives that an indisputable principle drawn from practical life is being applied to a cause, must give it his tacit approval.42

18 Reasoning by Contraries​43 is the figure which, of two opposite statements, uses one so as neatly and directly to prove the other, as follows: "Now how should you expect one who has ever been hostile to his own interests to be friendly to another's?"​44 Again: "Now why should you think that one who is, as you have learned, a faithless friend, can be an honourable enemy? Or how should you expect a person whose arrogance has been insufferable in private life, to be agreeable and not forget himself when in power, and one who in ordinary conversation and among friends has never spoken the truth, to refrain from lies before public assemblies?" Again: "Do we fear to fight them on the level plain when we have hurled them down from the hills? When they outnumbered us, they were no match for us; now that we outnumber them, do we fear that they will conquer us?" 26 This figure ought to be brief, and completed in an unbroken period. Furthermore, it is not only agreeable to the ear on account of its brief and complete rounding-off, but by means of the contrary statement it also forcibly proves what the speaker needs to prove; and from a statement which is not open to question it draws a  p295 thought which is in question, in such a way that the inference cannot be refuted, or can be refuted only with much the greatest difficulty.

19 Colon or Clause​45 is the name given to a sentence member, brief and complete, which does not express the entire thought, but is in turn supplemented by another colon, as follows: "On the one hand you were helping your enemy." That is one so‑called colon; it ought then to be supplemented by a second: "And on the other you were hurting your friend." This figure can consist of two cola, but it is neatest and most complete when composed of three, as follows: "You were helping your enemy, you were hurting your friend, and you were not consulting your own best interests."​46 Again: "You have not consulted the welfare of the republic, nor have you helped your friends, nor have you resisted your enemies."

It is called a Comma or Phrase​47 when single words are set apart by pauses in staccato speech, as follows: "By your vigour, voice, looks you have terrified your adversaries." Again: "You have destroyed your enemies by jealousy, injuries, influence, perfidy."  p297 There is this difference in onset between the last figure and the one preceding: the former moves upon its object more slowly and less often, the latter strikes more quickly and frequently. Accordingly in the first figure it seems that the arm draws back and the hand whirls about to bring the sword to the adversary's body, while in the second his body is as it were pierced with quick and repeated thrusts.

27 A Period​48 is a close-packed and uninterrupted group of words embracing a complete thought. We shall best use it in three places: in a Maxim, in a Contrast,​49 and in Conclusion. In a Maxim as follows: "Fortune cannot much harm him who has built his support more firmly upon virtue than upon chance." In a Contrast, as follows: "For if a person has not placed much hope in chance, what great harm can chance do to him?" In a Conclusion, as follows: "But if Fortune has her greatest power over those who have committed all their plans to chance, we should not entrust our all with her, lest she gain too great a domination over us."​50 In these three types a compact style is so necessary for the force of the period that the orator's power seems inadequate if he fails to present the Maxim, Contrast, or Conclusion in a press of words. But in other cases as well it is often proper, although not imperative, to express certain thoughts by means of periods of this sort.

 p299  20 We call Isocolon​51 the figure comprised of cola (discussed above)​52 which consist of a virtually equal number of syllables. To effect the isocolon we shall not count the syllables — for that is surely childish — but experience and practice will bring such a facility that by a sort of instinct we can produce again a colon of equal length to the one before it, as follows: "The father was meeting death in battle; the son was planning marriage at his home. These omens wrote grievous disasters." Again: "Another man's prosperity is the gift of fortune, but this man's good character has been won by hard work." 28 In this figure it may often happen that the number of syllables seems equal without being precisely so​53 — as when one colon is shorter than the other by one or even two syllables, or when one colon contains more syllables, and the other contains one or more longer or fuller-sounding syllables, so that the length or fullness of sound of these matches and counterbalances the greater number of syllables in the other.

The figure called Homoeoptoton​54 occurs when in the same period two or more words appear in the same case, and with like termination, as follows: "Hominem laudem egentem virtutis, abundantem felicitatis?"​55 Again: "Huic omnis in pecunia spes est, a sapientia est animus remotus; diligentia conparat divitias, neglegentia corrumpit animum,  p301 et tamen, cum ita vivit, neminem prae se ducit hominem."56

Homoeoteleuton​57 occurs when the word endings are similar, although the words are indeclinable, as follows: "You dare to act dishonourably, you strive to talk despicably; you live hatefully, you sin zealously, you speak offensively." Again: "Blusteringly you threaten; cringingly you appease."58

These two figures, of which one depends on like word endings and the other on like case endings, are very much of a piece. And that is why those who use them well generally set them together in the same passage of a discourse. One should effect this in the following way: "Perditissima ratio est amorem petere, pudorem fugere, diligere formam, neglegere famam."​59 Here the declinable words​60 close with like case endings, and those lacking cases​61 close with like terminations.62

21 29 Paronomasia​63 is the figure in which, by means of a modification in sound, or change of letters, a close resemblance to a given verb or noun​64 is produced,  p303 so that similar words express dissimilar things. This is accomplished by many different methods: (1) by thinning or contracting​65 the same letter, as follows: "Hic qui se magnifice iactat atque ostentat, venīt antequam Romam venĭt;"​66 (2) and by the reverse: "Hic quos homines alea vincĭt, eos ferro statim vincīt;"​67 (3) by lengthening the same letter, as follows: "Hinc ăvium dulcedo ducit ad āvium;"​68 (4) by shortening the same letter: "Hic, tametsi videtur esse honoris cupidus, tantum tamen cūriam diligit quantum Cŭriam?";​69 (5) by adding letters, as follows: "Hic sibi posset temperare, nisi amori mallet obtemperare";​70 (6) and now by omitting letters, as follows: "Si lenones vitasset tamquam leones, vitae tradidisset se";​71 (7) by transposing letters, as follows: "Videte, iudices, utrum homini  p305 navo an vano credere malitis";​72 (8) by changing letters, as follows: "Deligere oportet quem velis diligere."73

These are word-plays which depend on a slight change or lengthening or transposition of letters, and the like. 22 30 There are others also in which the words lack so close a resemblance, and yet are not dissimilar. Here is an example of one kind of such word-plays: "Quid veniam, qui sim, quem insimulem, cui prosim, quae postulem, brevi cognoscetis."​74 For in this example there is a sort of resemblance among certain words, not so complete, to be sure, as in the instances above, yet sometimes serviceable. An example of another kind: "Demus operam, Quirites, ne omnino patres conscripti circumscripti putentur."​75 In this paronomasia the resemblance is closer than in the preceding, yet is not so close as in those above, because some letters are added and some at the same time removed.

 p307  There is a third form of paronomasia, depending on a change of case in one or more proper nouns.​76 31 In one noun, as follows: "Alexander of Macedon with consummate toil from boyhood trained his mind to virtue. Alexander's virtues have been broadcast with fame and glory throughout world. All men greatly feared Alexander, yet deeply loved him. Had longer life been granted Alexander, the Macedonian lances would have flown across the ocean."​77 Here a single noun has been inflected, undergoing changes of case. Several different nouns, with change of case, will produce a paronomasia, as follows:​78 "An undeserved death by violence prevented Tiberius Gracchus, while guiding the republic, from abiding longer therein. There befell Gaius Gracchus a like fate, which of a sudden tore from the bosom of the state a hero and staunch patriot. Saturninus, victim of his faith in wicked men, a treacherous crime deprived of life. O Drusus, your blood bespattered the walls of your home, and your mother's face.​79 They were only now granting to Sulpicius every concession,​80 yet soon  p309 they suffered him not to live, nor even to be buried."81

32 These last three figures — the first based on like case inflections, the second on like word endings, and the third on paronomasia — are to be used very sparingly when we speak in an actual cause, because their invention seems impossible without labour and pains. 23 Such endeavours, indeed, seem more suitable for a speech of entertainment than for use in an actual cause.​82 Hence the speaker's credibility, impressiveness, and seriousness are lessened by crowding these figures together. Furthermore, apart from destroying the speaker's authority, such a style gives offence because these figures have grace and elegance, but not impressiveness and beauty. Thus the grand and beauti­ful can give pleasure for a long time, but the neat and graceful quickly sate the hearing, the most fastidious of the senses.​83 If, then, we crowd these figures together, we shall seem to be taking delight in a childish style;​84 but if we insert them infrequently and scatter them with variations throughout the whole discourse, we shall brighten our style agreeably with striking ornaments.

 p311  33 Hypophora​85 occurs when we enquire of our adversaries, or ask ourselves, what the adversaries can say in their favour, or what can be said against us; then we subjoin what ought or ought not to be said — that which will be favourable to us or, by the same token, be prejudicial to the opposition, as follows: "I ask, therefore, from what source has the defendant become so wealthy? Has an ample patrimony been left to him? But his father's goods were sold. Has some bequest come to him? That cannot be urged; on the contrary he has even been disinherited by all his kin. Has he received some award from a civil action, whether in the older or the more recent form of procedure?​86 Not only is that not the case, but recently he himself lost a huge sum on a wager at law.​87 Therefore, if, as you all see, he has not grown rich by these means, either he has a gold mine in his home, or he has acquired monies from an illicit source."

24 Another example: "Time and time again, men of the jury, have I observed that numerous defendants look for support in some honourable deed which not even their enemies can impeach. My adversary can do no such thing. Will he take refuge in his father's virtue? On the contrary, you have taken your oath and condemned him to death. Or will he turn to his own life? What life, and wherein lived honourably? Why, the life that this man has lived before your eyes is known to all of you. Or will he enumerate his kinsmen, by whom you should be moved? But he has not any. He will produce  p313 friends? But there is no one who does not consider it disgraceful to be called that fellow's friend."​88 Again: "Your enemy, whom you considered to be guilty, you doubtless summoned him to trial? No, for you slew him while he was yet unconvicted. Did you respect the laws which forbid this act? On the contrary, you decided that they did not even exist in the books. When he reminded you of your old friendship, were you moved? No, you killed him nevertheless, and with even greater eagerness. And then when his children grovelled at your feet, were you moved to pity? No, in your extreme cruelty you even prevented their father's burial."​89 34 There is much vigour and impressiveness in this figure because, after having posed the question, "What ought to have been done", we subjoin that that was not done.​90 Thus it becomes very easy to amplify the baseness of the act.

In another form of same figure we refer the hypophora to our own person,​91 as follows: "Now what should I have done when I was surrounded by so great a force of Gauls? Fight? But then our advance would have been with a small band. Furthermore, we held a most unfavourable position. Remain in camp? But we neither had reinforcements to look for, nor the wherewithal to keep alive. Abandon the camp? But we were blocked. Sacrifice the lives of the soldiers? But I thought I had accepted them on the stipulation that so far as possible I should preserve them unharmed for their fatherland and their parents. Reject the enemy's terms? But the safety  p315 of the soldiers has priority over that of the baggage."​92 The result of an accumulation of this kind of hypophora is to make it seem obvious that of all the possibilities nothing preferable to the thing done could have been done.

25 Climax​93 is the figure in which the speaker passes to the following word only after advancing by steps to the preceding one, as follows: "Now what remnant of the hope of liberty survives, if those men may do what they please,​94 if they can do what they may, if they dare do what they can, if they do what they dare, and if you approve what they do?" Again: "I did not conceive this without counselling it; I did not counsel it without myself at once undertaking it; I did not undertake it without completing it; nor did I complete it without winning approval of it."​95 Again: "The industry of Africanus brought him excellence, his excellence glory, his glory rivals."​96 Again: "The empire of Greece belonged to the Athenians; the Athenians were over­powered by the Spartans; the Spartans were overcome by the Thebans; the Thebans were conquered by the Macedonians; and the Macedonians in a short time subdued Asia in war and joined her to the empire  p317 of Greece." 35 The constant repetition of the proceeding word, characteristic of this figure, carries a certain charm.

Definition​97 in brief and clear-cut fashion grasps the characteristic qualities of a thing, as follows: "The sovereign majesty of the republic is that which comprises the dignity and grandeur of the state."​98 Again: "By an injury is meant doing violence to some one, to his person by assault, or to his sensibilities by insulting language, or to his reputation by some scandal."​99 Again: That is not economy on your part, but greed, because economy is careful conservation of one's own goods, and greed is wrongful covetousness of the goods of others." Again: "That act of yours is not bravery, but recklessness, because to be brave is to disdain toil and peril, for a useful purpose and after weighing the advantages, while to be reckless is to undertake perils like a gladiator, suffering pain without taking thought."​100 Definition is accounted useful for this reason: it sets forth the full meaning and character of a thing so lucidly and briefly that to express it in more words seems superfluous, and to express it in fewer is considered impossible.

26 Transition​101 is the name given to the figure which briefly recalls what has been said, and likewise  p319 briefly sets forth what is to follow next, thus: "You know how he has just been conducting himself towards his fatherland; now consider what kind of son he has been to his parents."​102 Again: "My benefactions to this defendant you know; now learn how he has requited me." This figure is not without value for two ends: it reminds the hearer of what the speaker has said, and also prepares him for what is to come.

36 Correction​103 retracts what has been said and replaces it with what seems more suitable, as follows: "But if the defendant had asked his hosts, or rather had only hinted, this could easily have been accomplished." Again: "After the men in question had conquered, or rather had been conquered — for how shall I call that a conquest which has brought more disaster than benefit to the conquerors?" Again: "O Virtue's companion, Envy, who art wont to pursue good men, yes, even to persecute them."​104 This figure makes an impression upon the hearer, for the idea when expressed by an ordinary word seems rather feebly stated, but after the speaker's own amendment it is made more striking by means of the more appropriate expression. "Then would it not be preferable," some one will say, "especially in writing, to resort to the best and choicest word at the beginning?" Sometimes this is not preferable, when, as the change of word will serve to show, the thought is such that in rendering it by an ordinary  p321 word you seem to have expressed it rather feebly, but having come to a choicer word you make the thought more striking. But if you had at once arrived at this word, the grace neither of the thought nor of the word would have been noticed.

27 37 Paralipsis​105 occurs when we say that we are passing by, or do not know, or refuse to say that which precisely now we are saying, as follows: "Your boyhood, indeed, which you dedicated to intemperance of all kinds, I would discuss, if I thought this the right time. But at present I advisedly leave that aside. This too I pass by, that the tribunes have reported you as irregular in military service. Also that you have given satisfaction to Lucius Labeo for injuries done him I regard as irrelevant to the present matter. Of these things I say nothing, but return to the issue in this trial."​106 Again: "I do not mention that you have taken monies from our allies; I do not concern myself with your having despoiled the cities, kingdoms, and homes of them all. I pass by your thieveries and robberies, all of them." This figure is useful if employed in a matter which is not pertinent to call specifically to the attention of others, because there is advantage in making only an indirect reference to it, or because the direct reference would be tedious or undignified, or cannot be made clear, or can easily be refuted. As a result, it is of greater advantage to create a suspicion by Paralipsis than to insist directly on a statement that is refutable.107

 p323  Disjunction​108 is used when each of two or more clauses ends with a special verb, as follows: "By the Roman people Numantia was destroyed, Carthage razed, Corinth demolished, Fregellae overthrown. Of no aid to the Numantines was bodily strength; of no assistance to the Carthaginians was military science; of no help to the Corinthians was polished cleverness; of no avail to the Fregellans was fellow­ship with us in customs and in language."​109 Again: "With disease physical beauty fades, with age it dies."​110 In this example we see both clauses, and in the preceding each several clause ending with a special verb.

38 Conjunction​111 occurs when both the previous and the succeeding phrases are held together by place and the verb between them, as follows: "Either with disease physical beauty fades, or with age."

It is Adjunction​112 when the verb holding the sentence together is placed not in the middle, but at the beginning or the end. At the beginning, as follows: "Fades physical beauty with disease or age." At the end, as follows: "Either with disease or age physical beauty fades."

Disjunction is suited to elegant display, and so we shall use it moderately, that it may not cloy; Conjunction is suited to brevity, and hence is to be used more frequently. These three figures spring from a single type.

 p325  28 Reduplication​113 is the repetition of one or more words for the purpose of Amplification or Appeal to Pity, as follows: "You are promoting riots, Gaius Gracchus, yes, civil and internal riots." Again: "You were not moved when his mother embraced your knees? You were not moved?"​114 Again: "You now even dare to come into the sight of these citizens, traitor to the fatherland? Traitor, I say, to the fatherland, you dare come into the sight of these citizens?" The reiteration of the same word makes a deep impression upon the hearer and inflicts a major wound upon the opposition — as if a weapon should repeatedly pierce the same part of the body.

Synonymy or Interpretation​115 is the figure which does not duplicate the same word by repeating it, but replaces the word that has been used by another of the same meaning, as follows: "You have overturned the republic from its roots; you have demolished the state from its foundations." Again: "You have impiously beaten your father; you have cruelly laid hands upon your parent." The hearer cannot but be impressed when the force of the first expression is renewed by the explanatory synonym.

39 Reciprocal Change​116 occurs when two discrepant thoughts are so expressed by transposition that the latter follows from the former although contradictory to it, as follows: "You must eat to live, not live to  p327 eat."​117 Again: "I do not write poems, because I cannot write the sort I wish, and I do not wish to write the sort I can."​118 Again: "What can be told of that man is not being told; what is being told of him cannot be told." Again: "A poem ought to be a painting that speaks; a painting ought to be a silent poem."​119 Again: "If you are a fool, for that reason you should be silent; and yet, although you should be silent, you are not for that reason a fool." One cannot deny that the effect is neat when in juxtaposing contrasted ideas the words also are transposed. In order to make this figure, which is hard to invent, quite clear, I have subjoined several examples — so that, well understood, it may be easier for the speaker to invent.

29 Surrender​120 is used when we indicate in speaking that we yield and submit the whole matter to another's will, as follows: "Since only soul and body remain to me, now that I am deprived of everything else, even these, which alone of many goods are left me, I deliver up to you and to your power. You may use and even abuse me​121 in your own way as you think best; with impunity make your decision upon me, whatever it may be; speak and give a sign  p329 — I shall obey." Although this figure is often to be used also in other circumstances, it is especially suited to provoking pity.

40 Indecision occurs when the speaker seems to ask which of two or more words he had better use, as follows: "At that time the republic suffered exceedingly from — ought I to say — the folly of the consuls, or their wickedness, or both."​122 Again: "You have dared to say that, you of all men the — by what name worthy of your character shall I call you?"123

Elimination​124 occurs when we have enumerated the several ways by which something could have been brought about, and all are then discarded except the one on which we are insisting, as follows: "Since it is established that the estate you claim as yours was mine, you must show that you took possession of it as vacant land, or made it your property by right of prescription, or bought it, or that it came to you by inheritance. Since I was on the premises, you could not have taken possession of it as vacant land. Even by now you cannot have made it your property by right of prescription. No sale is disclosed. Since I am alive, my property could not have come to you by inheritance. It remains, then, that you have expelled me by force from my estate." 41 This figure will furnish the strongest support to conjectural arguments, but unlike most other figures, it is not one  p331 which we can use at will, for in general we can use it only when the very nature of the business gives us the opportunity.

30 Asyndeton​125 is a presentation in separate parts, conjunctions being suppressed, as follows: "Indulge your father, obey your relatives, gratify your friends, submit to the laws." Again: "Enter into a complete defence, make no objection, give your slaves to be examined, be eager to find the truth." This figure has animation and great force,​126 and is suited to concision.

Aposiopesis​127 occurs when something is said and then the rest of what the speaker had begun to say is left unfinished, as follows: "The contest between you and me is unequal​128 because, so far as concerns me, the Roman people — I am unwilling to say it, lest by chance some one think me proud. But you the Roman people has often considered worthy of disgrace." Again: "You dare to say that, who recently at another's home — I shouldn't dare tell, lest in saying things becoming to you, I should seem to say something unbecoming to me."​129 Here a suspicion, unexpressed, becomes more telling than a detailed explanation would have been.130

Conclusion,​131 by means of a brief argument, deduces the necessary consequences of what has been said or  p333 done before, as follows: "But if the oracle had predicted to the Danaans that Troy could not be taken without the arrows of Philoctetes, and these arrows moreover served only to smite Alexander, then certainly killing Alexander was the same as taking Troy."132

31 42 There remain also ten Figures of Diction, which I have intentionally not scattered at random, but have separated from those above, because they all belong in one class. They indeed all have this in command, that the language departs from the ordinary meaning of the words​133 and is, with a certain grace, applied in another sense.

Of these figures the first is Onomatopoeia,​134 which suggests to us that we should ourselves designate with a suitable word, whether for the sake of imitation or expressiveness, a thing which either lacks a name​135 or has an inappropriate name. For the sake of imitation, as follows: our ancestors, for example, said "roar," "bellow," "murmur," "hiss;" for the sake of expressiveness, as follows:  p335 "after this creature attacked the republic, there was a hullabaloo among the first men of the state." This figure is to be used rarely, lest the frequent recurrence of the neologism breed aversion; but if it is used appropriately and sparingly, then the novelty, far from offending, even gives distinction to the style.

Antonomasia​136 or Pronomination designates by a kind of adventitious epithet a thing that cannot be called by its proper name; for example, if some one speaking of the Gracchi should say: "Surely the grandsons of Africanus did not behave like this!"; or again, if some one speaking of his adversary should say: "See now, men of the jury, how your Sir Swashbuckler​137 there has treated me." In this way we shall be able, not without elegance, in praise and in censure, concerning physical attributes, qualities of character, or external circumstances,​138 to express ourselves by using a kind of epithet in place of the precise name.139

32 43 Metonymy​140 is the figure which draws from an object closely akin or associated an expression suggesting the object meant, but not called by its own name. This is accomplished by substituting the name of the greater thing for that of the lesser, as if one speaking of the Tarpeian Rock should term it "the Capitoline"; . . . ; or by substituting the name of the thing invented for that of the inventor, as if one should say "wine" for "Liber," "wheat" for "Ceres";​141 ". . . ;" or the instrument for the possessor, as if one should refer to the Macedonians  p337 as follows: "Not so quickly did the Lances get possession of Greece," and likewise, meaning the Gauls: "nor was the Transalpine Pike so easily driven from Italy"; the cause for the effect, as if a speaker, wishing to show that some one has done something in war, should say: "Mars forced you to do that"; or effect for cause, as when we call an art idle because it produces idleness in people, or speak of numb cold because cold produces numbness.​142 Content will be designated by means of container as follows: "Italy cannot be vanquished in warfare nor Greece in studies"; for here instead of Greeks and Italians the lands that comprise them are designated. Container will be designated by means of content:​143 as if one wishing to give a name to wealth should call it gold or silver or ivory. It is harder to distinguish all these metonymies in teaching the principle than to find them when searching for them, for the use of metonymies of this kind is abundant not only amongst the poets and orators but also in everyday speech.

Periphrasis​144 is a manner of speech used to express a simple idea by means of a circumlocution, as follows: "The foresight of Scipio crushed the power of Carthage." For here, if the speaker had not designed to embellish the style, he might simply have said "Scipio" and "Carthage."

44 Hyperbaton​145 upsets the word order by means either of Anastrophe​146 or Transposition. By Anastrophe,  p339 as follows: "Hoc vobis deos immortales arbitror dedisse virtute pro vestra."​147 By Transposition, as follows: "Instabilis in istum plurimum fortuna valuit. Omnes invidiose eripuit bene vivendi casus facultates."​148 A transposition of this kind, that does not render the thought obscure, will be very useful for periods, which I have discussed above;​149 in these periods we ought to arrange the words in such a way as to approximate a poetic rhythm,​150 so that the period can achieve perfect fullness and the highest finish.

33 Hyperbole​151 is a manner of speech exaggerating the truth, whether for the sake of magnifying or minifyingº something. This is used independently, or with comparison. Independently, as follows: "But if we maintain concord in the state, we shall measure the empire's vastness by the rising and the setting of the sun." Hyperbole with comparison  p341 is formed from either equivalence or superiority. From equivalence, as follows: "His body was as white as snow, his face burned like fire."​152 From superiority, as follows: "From his mouth flowed speech sweeter than honey."​153 Of the same type is the following: "So great was his splendour in arms that the sun's brilliance seemed dim by comparison."

Synecdoche​154 occurs when the whole is known from a small part or a part from the whole. The whole is understood from a part in the following: "Were not those nuptial flutes reminding you of his marriage?" Here the entire marriage ceremony is suggested by one sign, the flutes. A part from the whole, as if one should say to a person who displays himself in luxurious garb or adornment: "You display your riches to me and vaunt your ample treasures." 45 The plural will be understood from the singular, as follows: "To the Carthaginian came aid from the Spaniard, and from that fierce Transalpine. In Italy, too, many a wearer of the toga shared the same sentiment." In the following the singular will be understood from the plural: "Dread disaster smote his breasts with grief; so, panting, from out his lungs' very depth he sobbed for anguish." In the first example more than one Spaniard, Gaul, and Roman citizen are understood, and in this last only one breast and one lung.​155 In the former the quantity is minified for the sake of elegance, in the latter exaggerated for the sake of impressiveness.

 p343  Catachresis​156 is the inexact use of a like and kindred word in place of the precise and proper one, as follows: "The power of man is short," or "small height," or "the long wisdom in the man," or "a mighty speech,"​157 or "to engage in a slight conversation." Here it is easy to understand that words of kindred, but not identical, meaning have been transferred on the principle of inexact use.

34 Metaphor​158 occurs when a word applying to one thing is transferred to another, because the similarity seems to justify this transference. Metaphor is used for the sake of creating a vivid mental picture, as follows: "This insurrection awoke Italy with sudden terror"; for the sake of brevity,​159 as follows: "The recent arrival of an army suddenly blotted out the state"; for the sake of avoiding obscenity, as follows: "Whose mother delights in daily marriages";​160 for the sake of magnifying, as follows: "No one's grief or disaster could have appeased this creature's enmities and glutted his horrible cruelty";​161 for the sake of minifying, as follows: "He boasts that he was of great help because, when we were in difficulties, he lightly breathed a favouring breath";​162 for the sake of embellishment, as follows: "Some day the prosperity of the republic,  p345 which by the malice of wicked men has withered away, will bloom again by the virtue of the Conservatives." They say that a metaphor ought to be restrained,​163 so as to be a transition with good reason to a kindred thing, and not seem an indiscriminate, reckless, and precipitate leap to an unlike thing.

46 Allegory​164 is a manner of speech denoting one thing by the letter of the words, but another by their meaning. It assumes three aspects: comparison, argument, and contrast. It operates through a comparison when a number of metaphors originating in a similarity in the mode of expression are set together, as follows: "For when dogs act the part of wolves, to what guardian, pray, are we going to entrust our herds of cattle?" An Allegory is presented in the form of argument when a similitude is drawn from a person or place or object in order to magnify or minify, as if one should call Drusus a "faded reflection of the Gracchi."​165 An Allegory is drawn from a contrast​166 if, for example, one should mockingly call a spendthrift and voluptuary frugal and thrifty. Both in this last type, based on a contrast, and in the first above, drawn from a comparison, we can through the metaphor make use of argument. In an Allegory operating through a comparison, as follows: "What says this king — our Agamemnon, or rather, such is his cruelty, our Atreus?" In an Allegory drawn from a contrast: for example, if we should call some unduti­ful man who has beaten his father  p347 "Aeneas,"​167 or an intemperate and adulterous man "Hippolytus."168

This is substantially all I have thought it necessary to say on the Figures of Diction. Now the subject itself directs me to turn next to the Figures of Thought.


The Loeb Editor's Notes:

1 κατασκευή (sometimes κόσμος), which includes also gravitas (μεγαλοπρέπεια) and suavitas (τὸ ἡδύ), as is made clear in 4.lvi.69 below; see also Cicero, De Inv. 2.xv.49. Ornamentation, worked out exclusively by Figures, dominates our author's theory of Style. The Atticists opposed this kind of domination; see Cicero, Orator 23.78‑24.79.

2 σχήματα (see note on 4.viii.11 above) λέξεως and σχήματα διανοίας. The distinction, here met for the first time, is best discussed by Quintilian, 9.1.10 ff. Fortunatianus, 3.10 (Halm, pp126‑7), divides figures of diction into the grammatical (λέξεως) and the rhetorical (λόγου), probably following a Stoic author. The ancients regarded Gorgias of Leontini (fifth century B.C.) as the inventor of σχήματα. Our author's treatment is the oldest extant formal one, yet represents a period preceding that of complete systematization (that of Quintilian and Phoebammon). Tropes are considered at 4.xxxi.42 below; the figures of thought begin at 4.xxxv.47. The ancient rhetoricians differ sometimes greatly, sometimes slightly, in their definitions of figures, which became excessively numerous as refinements were made in distinguishing them. The line of demarcation between tropes and figures, and that between figures of thought and figures of diction were often vague. See Quintilian, Bks. 8 and 9, especially 9.1.1 ff.; Julius Rufinianus, De Schem. Dian. 1, in Halm, pp59‑60; Willy Barczat, De figurarum disciplina atque auctoribus, diss. Göttingen, 1904; Hermann Schrader in Hermes 39 (1904), 563‑603; Kroll, "Rhetorik," coll. 1108‑12; Volkmann, pp415 ff., 456 ff.; Cousin, Études sur Quintilien, 1.437‑517, and vol. 2.

3 ἐπαναφορά. ἐπιβολή in Rutilius Lupus, 1.7 (Halm, p6) is the same figure but also allows the use of synonyms instead of repeating the precise word.

4 Cf. the epanaphora of tu in the passage from the speech (Cicero, De Oratore 2.55.226) delivered by L. Licinius Crassus pro Plan(c)io against M. Junius Brutus c. 91 B.C.: "You dare behold the light of day? You dare look these people in the face? You dare present yourself in the forum, within the City, in the plain view of the citizens? You do not tremble in fear of that corpse, you do not tremble in fear of the very images [of your ancestors]?"

5 ἀντιστροφή. ἐπιφορά in Rutilius Lupus 1.8 (Halm, pp6‑7). Cf. Disjunction, 4.xxvii.37 below.

6 A free paraphrase of Aeschines, Adv. Ctes. 198: "Whoever, then, on the question of the penalty asks for your vote, is asking for the remission of your anger; but whoever in the first speech asks for your vote, is asking for the surrender of your oath, is asking for the surrender of the law, is asking for the surrender of the democratic constitution." The Greek original likewise illustrates Antistrophe.

7 συμπλοκή. Cf. Aeschines, Adv. Ctes. 202: "Against yourself you are calling him, against the laws you are calling him, against the democratic constitution you are calling him." Cf. also the complexio (Résumé of an argument) of 2.xviii.28 above.

8 Quintilian, 9.3.31, also cites the example, but without naming the figure. The passage might have come from a debate of the sort engaged in by Cato the Elder and Publius Scipio Nasica; see note on 3.ii.2 above.

9 πλοκή, ἀντιμετάθεσις, σύγκρισις.

10 Cf. Alexander Numenii (first half of second Christian century), De Schemat., in Spengel 3.37: "It is noble to live if one but learns how one ought to live."

11 This passage may belong to the controversia concerning the murder of Sulpicius, 1.xv.25 above. Cf. Euripides, Androm. 590‑1: "Youman, most cowardly even of cowards? Where have you any claim to consideration as a man?"; Philemon, fragm. 119, in Kock, Com. Att. Fragm. 2.515: "Tell me, have you any right to speak? You go prattling among men as though you were a man?"

12 ἀντανάκλασις. διαφορά in Rutilius Lupus 1.12 (Halm, p8). Akin to Paronomasia, 4.xxi.29 below.

13 Lit., "To be loved would be pleasant, if only we should take care that there is no bitterness in that love." Quintilian, 9.3.69‑70, considers this a flat pun even when used in jest, and quotes the example as something to be avoided, not imitated. Cf. Lucretius 4.1133 ff.

14 Lit., "I would come to you if the Senate should grant me permission." Cf. the Pompeian distich, Corp. Inscr. Lat. 4.4971:

Sei quid Amor valeat nostei, sei te hominem scis,

Commiseresce mei, da veniam ut veniam.

"If you have learned the power of Love, if you know that you are human, pity me; give me leave to come."

15 4.xiii.19‑xiv.21.

16 ἀντίθεσις, ἀντίθετον, contrapositum (Quintilian, 9.3.81). In Cicero, Part. Orat. 6.21, a feature of the agreeable (suave) style. See 4.xlv.58 below, and cf. contrarium, 4.xviii.25 below.

17 Cf. the saying assigned to Critias (leading spirit of the Thirty Tyrants) in Stobaeus, 3.14.2: "He who so bears himself towards his friends that he does everything to oblige them, renders hateful for the future that which is a pleasure for the nonce"; also Alexis, fragm. 295, in Kock, Com. Att. Fragm. 2.402: "Avoid a pleasure which brings harm in its wake."

18 Cf. Sophocles, Antig. 88: "You have a hot spirit for cold business"; Horace, Ars Poet. 465: "Empedocles . . . coolly leapt into burning Aetna"; Alexander Numenii, De Schemat., in Spengel 3.36‑7: "They bathe the chilled men in hot springs."

Cf. with our author's last example of Antithesis Anth. Pal. 11.305: "Among grammarians you are a Platonist; but if asked about the doctrines of Plato, you are again a grammarian."

19 Cf.  Horace, Serm. 2.7.28: "At home you long for the country; in the country, fickle man, you extol to heaven the distant city."

20 ἀποστροφή, ἐκφώνησις. Quintilian, 9.2.27, considers as a figure only that kind of exclamatio which is simulated and artfully composed, and in 9.3.97 assigns exclamatio to the figures of thought; cf. also 9.2.38, 9.3.24‑6, and 4.1.63.

21 Cornelia, daughter of the elder Scipio Africanus, was the mother of the Gracchi.

22 Cf. the passage, often used by rhetoricians, in Aeschines, Adv. Ctes. 133: "But Thebes, Thebes our neighbour-state, has in one day been swept from the midst of Hellas." After M. Fulvius Flaccus' bill granting Roman franchise to the Italian allies failed to pass, Fregellae revolted and was destroyed in 125 B.C. See 4.ix.13 and 4.xxvii.37.

23 Probably addressed to the public informers (quadruplatores).

24 A consideration of propriety, τὸ πρέπον. See note on 4.x.15 above.

25 ἐρώτημα. Rogatio in Cicero, De Oratore 3.53.203. Assigned by Quintilian, 9.3.98, to the figures of thought; see also 9.2.7 on the "rhetorical question."

26 Cf. Demosthenes, De Corona 71, on Philip: "By these acts was he, or was he not, committing wrong, breaking treaty, and violating the terms of peace? And was it, or was it not, right that some man of the Hellenes should come forth to stop these incursions?" This passage was a favourite of the rhetoricians. It may well be that our author has in mind Q. Varius Hybrida, speaking on behalf of his law de maiestate (90 B.C.); see 4.ix.13 above, and note.

27 αἰτιολογία, ἐξετασμός. Assigned by Quintilian, 9.3.98, to the figures of thought. Cf. sibi ipsi responsio in Cicero, De Oratore 3.54.207 and Quintilian, 9.3.90, and 4.xxiv.34 below, with note; also ἀπόφασις in Julius Rufinianus 8 (Halm, p40; cf. ἀπόφασις [infitiatio] in 1.xvii.27 above). To be distinguished from ratiocinatio, the Type of Issue (Reasoning from Analogy), 1.xi.19 above.

28 The same argument is used in Seneca, Contr. 7.3(18).6.

29 Cf. Quintilian, 5.11.39: "Would not an adulteress on trial for poisoning be regarded as condemned by the judgement of Marcus Cato, who said that every adulteress was the same as a poisoner?"

30 This was true, e.g., of Perseus and Syphax, but not strictly of Jugurtha.

31 For the sentiment cf. Cicero, De Offic. 1.11.35 ff.; Horace, Carm. Saec. 51 f.; Virgil, Aeneid 6.853.

32 γνώμη. Aristotle, Rhet. 2.21 (1394A‑1395B), offers the classic treatment of maxims. On the virtue of brevity in maxims, see Demetrius, De Elocut. 9. Sententia is excluded from the figures by Quintilian (9.3.98).

33 Cf. Cicero, Paradoxa Stoic. 5.35: "All wicked men are therefore slaves — slaves, I say!"; Diogenes Laertius 7.21; Philo, Quod Omnis Probus Liber Sit.

34 A saying of Epicurus: "nothing is 'enough' to him who deems 'enough' to be 'too little' " (C. Wotke in Wiener Studien 10 [1888], 197, No. 68).

35 Attributed to Pythagoras (Stobaeus, 3.1.29, and Plutarch, De exilio 8, 602C).

36 Cf. the Stoic principle assigned to Pythagoras in Stobaeus, 3.1.29: "This is God's law: Virtue is the strong and stable thing; all else is nonsense." Cf. also 4.xix.27 below.

37 The experience, for example, of Timon of Athens (the Misanthrope). For the sentiment see Otto, s.v. "amicus," p22, and Caesar, Bellum Civ. 3.104.1.

38 ἄνευ αἰτίας or ἐπιλόγου.

39 For the topic of anticipating evil, see Posidonius in Galen, De plac. Hipp. et Plat. 4.7 (Diels, 6th ed., 2.13‑14), Cicero, Tusc. Disp. 3.14.29, and Plutarch, Ad Apollon. 21 (112D), together with the lines of Euripides (fragm. 964D) they cite.

40 μετ’ αἰτίας or ἐπιλόγου. Perhaps a Stoic development of sententia.

41 Cf. the Adelphoe of Terence, in which both theories of education, in extreme form, are applied with equally bad results.

42 Cf. Aristotle, Rhet. 2.21 (1395B): "Hearers are delighted when a speaker succeeds in expressing as a universal truth the opinions they hold about particular cases."

43 ἐνθύμημα, σχημα ἐκ τοῦ ἐναντίου. See Quintilian, 5.10.2: "There are some who call a conclusion from consequents an epicheireme, while you would find that a majority are of opinion that an enthymeme is a conclusion from incompatibles. And that is why Cornificius calls it Reasoning by Contraries;" 9.3.99: "I shall pass by those authors who have set almost no limit to the invention of technical terms, and have even assigned to figures what really belongs under arguments." Cf. the topos a fortiori in Aristotle, Rhet. 2.23 (1397B); contentio (ἀντίθετον) in 4.xv.21 above and 4.xlv.58 below.

44 Cf. Isocrates, Ad Callim. 56: "One who is so base where the interests of others are concerned — what would he not dare where his own are concerned?"

45 κῶλον. The concept originated in comparison with the human body; it came into rhetoric from the art of music. The doctrine of Colon, Comma, and Period is Peripatetic; cf. Aristotle, Rhet. 3.9 (1409A ff.). Quintilian, 9.3.98, excludes Colon and Comma from the list of figures. See A. du Mesnil, Begriff der drei Kunstformen der Rede: Komma, Kolon, Periode, nach der Lehre der Alten, in Zum zweihundertjährigen Jubiläum des königl. Friedrichs-Gymnas., Frankfurt on O., 1894, pp32‑121.

46 τρίκωλον. Note the dichorees (A macronA breveA macronA breve over a macron): consulebas, and below, restitisti, per)terruisti, sustulisti, conlocavit, ob)esse possit, contulerunt, domi)nationem (as also those in the example of Isocolon [compar], 4.xx.27 below). This cadence was a favourite of the Asian orators. Cicero, Orator 63.215, discusses the dangers resulting from its use: "First it is recognized as rhythm, next it cloys, and then when it is seen to be an easy device it is despised." Longinus, De Sublim. 41, disapproves of the agitated movement dichorees give to language: "For all overrhythmical writing is at once felt to be affected and finical and wholly lacking in passion owing to the monotony of its superficial polish" (tr. W. Rhys Roberts). See notes on 4.viii.12 and 4.xxxii.44.

Thayer's Note: It's this same jerky, sing-song rhythm that makes long stands of trochaic meter in English poetry so wearing, and Longfellow's Hiawatha so tempting to parody: Cicero and Longinus were right.

47 κόμμα. Cicero, Orator 62.211, translates the word literally by incisum; note caesa oratione in our author's definition. Lit., articulus = "part joined on." Commata, rather than cola, are required in the forcible style (χαρακτὴρ δεινός), according to Demetrius, De elocut. 5.241.

48 περίοδος. For other Latin equivalents of this term see Cicero, Orator 61.204, De Oratore 3.48.186; Quintilian, 9.4.22.

49 ἐνθύμημα. See 4.xviii.25 above.

50 For the theme cf. 4.xvii.24 above. Our author, unlike other post-Aristotelian rhetoricians, does not say that the Period is comprised of membra, yet this example seems to contain four — the upper limit usually allowed; see, e.g., Cicero, Orator 66.222, and Demetrius, De Elocut. 1.16, but also Quintilian, 9.4.125. On the theory of the Period see esp. Aristotle, Rhet. 3.9 (1409A ff.); Demetrius, op. cit., 1.10 ff., 5.244, 303; Cicero, Orator 62.211 ff.; and Josef Zehetmeier, "Die Periodenlehre des Aristoteles," Philologus 85 (1930), 192‑208, 255‑284, 414‑436. Aristotle recognized only periods of either one or two cola, and in fact the division into cola was not of primary importance in his theory.

51 ἰσόκωλον. Sometimes classed as a variety of πάρισον, παρίσωσις, parallelism in structure. The next three figures (cf. also Alliteration, 4.xii.18 above) represent παρόμοιον, παρομοίωσις, parallelism in sound. Together with Antithesis (4.xv.21 above) this and the next three figures comprise the so‑called Gorgianic figures. Isocrates exemplifies the extensive and effective use of Isocolon.

52 4.xix.26.

53 Note the phrase and metrical clausula, esse videatur (A macronA breve|A breveA breveA macronA breve over a macron) favoured by Cicero. See Tacitus, Dial. de Orator. 23 (ed. Gudeman, pp29 and 247 f.); Quintilian, 10.2.18 and 9.4.73; Rufinus, in Halm, pp575 and (citing Probus) 583.

54 ὁμοιόπτωτον. Cf. 4.xii.18 above.

55 "Am I to praise a man abounding in good luck, but lacking in virtue?"

56 "This man places all his hope in money; from wisdom is his soul withdrawn. Through diligence he acquires riches, but through negligence he corrupts his soul. And yet, living so, he counts no one any one before himself." Cf. neclegentiam . . . diligentiam in Terence, Andria 20 f.

57 ὁμοιοέλευτον. For a study of our author's theory of Homoeoptoton and Homoeoteleuton see Karl Pohlheim, Die lateinische Reimprosa, Berlin, 1925, pp161 ff.; on the influence of the theory, see p463 ff.

58 Note in the Latin examples of this figure the correspondences in the endings of the verb forms as well as in those of the adverbs.

59 "A most depraved principle it is — to seek love and to shun self-respect, to esteem beauty and to slight one's own good name."

60 πτωτικά.

61 ἄπτωτα.

62 καταλήξεις.

63 παρονομασία. Cicero, Orator 25.84, warns the speaker of the Attic plain style against the kind of Paronomasia which is produced by the change of a letter; yet cf. De Oratore 2.63.256 on Paronomasia in verbal witticisms. See Eduard Wölfflin, "Das Wortspiel im Lateinischen," Sitzungsb. Bayer. Akad. der Wiss. (philos.-philol. und histor. Classe), 1887 (2), pp187‑208.

64 Our author knows four parts of speech: proper name, or noun (nomen, ὄνομα), verb (verbum, ῥῆμα), common noun, or appellative (vocabulum, προσηγορία), conjunction (coniunctio, σύνδεσμος); "noun" would include "adjective," as in No. 7 below.

65 συστολή. Cf. the figure complexio 4.14.20 above.

66 "That man who carries himself with a lofty bearing and makes a display of himself was sold as a slave before coming to Rome;" venīt is a contraction of veniit, and precedes the tenue (venĭt).

67 "Those men from whom he wins in dice he straightway binds in chains;" tenue precedes plenius (vincītvinciit).

68 "The sweet song of the birds draws us from here into pathless places." Quintilian, 9.3.69‑71, quotes this pun, and the play upon amari in 4.xiv.21 above, as examples to be avoided, not imitated, being flat even when used in jest; he marvels that this artifice is included in the textbooks. Virgil, Georg. 2.328, puns on the same words. Note in connection with the problem of author­ship of our treatise that the example here used for admonitio is, according to Quintilian, called an example of traductio by Cornificius; cf. 4.xiv.20 above.

69 "Does this man, although he seems desirous of public honour, yet love the Curia [the Senate-house] as much as he loves Curia?" The M group of MSS. reads Curiam meretricem. On this and the next three types of Paronomasia cf. in Phoebammon (Spengel 3.45 ff.) the four principles governing the formation of all figures: lack, superabundance, transposition, interchange (ἔνδεια, πλεονασμός, μετάθεσις, ἐναλλαγή); in Quintilian, 1.5.6 and 1.5.38 ff., the four ways of committing barbarisms and solecisms, and, in 6.3.53, the poor jests formed by punning in these ways; in Philo, De aetern. mundi 22.113, the four ways (Peripatetic doctrine) in which corruption occurs: addition (πρόσθεσις), subtraction (ἀφαίρεσις), transposition (μετάθεσις), and transmutation (ἀλλοίωσις); and H. Usener, Sitzungsb. Bayer. Akad. der Wiss. (philos.-philol.-hist. Cl.), 1892, pp628‑631. Cf. also Cicero, Part. Orat. 6.19, on the causes of obscurity in words and periods.

70 "This man could rule himself, if only he did not prefer to submit to love."

71 "If he had avoided panders as though they were lions, he would have devoted himself to life;" the text is corrupt. Tertullian, Apol. 50.12, puns on the same words.

72 "See, men of the jury, whether you prefer to trust an industrious man or a vainglorious one."

73 "You ought to choose such a one as you would wish to love." A form of the saying attributed to Theophrastus, that one must not first love and then judge, but first judge and then love (οὐ φιλοῦντα δεῖ κρίνειν ἀλλὰ κρίναντα φιλεῖν); see Plutarch, De fraterno amore 8 (482B); Rutilius Lupus 1.6 (Halm, p6); Seneca, Epist. 3.2, De Moribus 48; Cicero, De Amic. 22.85; Publilius Syrus 134 (ed. J. Wight Duff and A. M. Duff); Stobaeus, 4.27.14; Sidonius Apollinaris, Epist. 5.11.1. In modern form: "If you suspect a man, do not employ him; if you employ a man, do not suspect him."

74 "Why I come, who I am, whom I accuse, whom I am helping, what I ask for you will soon know." Cf. Plautus, Poen. 992:

adei atque appella quid velit, quid venerit,

qui sit, quoiatis, unde sit.

"Go up to him and ask him what he wants, why he has come, who he is, of what country, and whence he comes."

75 "Let us see to it, fellow-citizens, that the Conscript Fathers be not thought to have been utterly duped." Quintilian, 9.3.72, considers this kind of paronomasia as producing the very worst of trivial effects. Seneca, Suas. 7.11, reproves for bad taste a speaker who punned on scripsit and proscripsit. It has been conjectured (see Kroehnert, p31) that Crassus may have uttered these words when speaking on behalf of the Servilian law; see note on 4.iii.5.

76 Polyptoton (πολύπτωτον).

77 Unlike a normal English word order, the Latin permits the proper noun in each of its cases to be placed at the beginning of the sentence.

78 Note that in the two examples the cases are Greek, lacking the Latin ablative, and that, unlike the disposition in the second, Roman, example, the cases in the first example come in a definite order (the accusative preceding the dative). Alexander's career was favourite material with the rhetoricians. The common suasoria concerned his deliberation whether, having conquered Asia and India, he should navigate the ocean (when he had heard the voice say: "Quousque invicte?"); cf. e.g., Seneca, Suas. 1.1, Contr. 7.7.19, Quintilian, 3.8.16.

79 Irmentraud Haug, Würzburger Jahrb. für die Altertumswissenschaft 2 (1947), 113, argues that the reference is to the bust of Drusus' father.

80 When in 88 B.C. the quarrel between populares and optimates grew serious, Sulla suspended the iustitium, and fled to his army. Then Sulpicius, in control, put through his measures granting the new Italian citizens a fuller share in political power, and transferring the command in the East to Marius.

81 The sentiments are those of the Marian party. Ti. Sempronius Gracchus was clubbed to death by Scipio Nasica and his followers in 133 B.C. (see 4.lv.68 below); C. Sempronius Gracchus was killed in flight after the consul Opimius and his band had stormed the Aventine, in 121 B.C.; L. Appuleius Saturninus was stoned and torn to pieces by a mob in the Senate-house, in 100 B.C.; M. Livius Drusus was, according to Velleius Paterculus, 2.14, stabbed by an assassin in the area before his house, in 91 B.C.; on the death, in 88 B.C., of P. Sulpicius Rufus see note on 1.xv.25 above. Cicero, De Harusp. Resp.  19.41 and 20.43, in which all the above except Drusus are used as exempla, and Seneca, Octavia 882‑9, in which the fates of the Gracchi and Drusus are joined, may have used the same source as did our author; cf. also Seneca, Ad Marc. de Cons. 16.3 f.

82 These figures serve epideictic better than judicial or deliberative oratory. Cicero warns the speaker of the Attic plain style against the use of these three figures (and of Isocolon, Orator 25.84), but allows them in epideictic discourse (Orator 12.38, Part. Orat. 21.72); Quintilian, 8.3.12, also justifies the full use of ornamentation in epideictic.

83 Cf. Cicero, Orator 44.150, and De Oratore 3.25.97 ff.; also Longinus, De Sublim., ch. 7, and Plutarch, De recta ratione audiendi 7 (41E).

84 μειρακιώδης λέξις.

85 ὑποφορά, ἀνθυποφορά. Assigned by Quintilian, 9.3.98, to the figures of thought. The figure subiectio is to be distinguished from the subiectio of 2.xviii.28 and 4.xvii.24.

86 Whether by legis actio or by the formula procedure. See Wenger, Institutes of the Roman Law of Civil Procedure, pp22 f., 123 ff., 132 ff.

87 The sponsio in a civil suit was an agreement by the litigants that the loser of the case would pay a certain sum of money.

88 This example bears a very close resemblance to Demosthenes, Adv. Aristogeit. 1.76 ff.

89 This passage may perhaps belong to the controversia on the murder of Sulpicius in 1.xv.25 above.

90 Cf., in Quintilian, 9.2.106, προέκθεσις, "which means telling what ought to have been done and then what has been done"; also προέκθεσις (divisio), 1.x.17 above.

91 Cf. sibi ipsi responsio in Quintilian, 9.3.90, there adjudged a figure of thought rather than of diction; ratiocinatio, 4.xvi.23 above.

92 Popilius is speaking; see 1.xv.25 above.

93 κλίμαξ. Also ἐπιπλοκή, ascensus, and catena. This figure joins with Epanaphora, Antistrophe, Interlacement, Transplacement, and Antanaklasis (4.xiii.19‑xiv.21 above) to form a complete theory of Repetition.

94 For a like word-play on libet and licet cf. Aquila Romanus 27 (Halm, pp30‑31) under Paronomasia (see 4.xxi.29 above); Cicero, Pro Quinctio 30.94; Calpurnius Flaccus 16.

95 Quintilian, 9.3.55, and others cite, and our author in this example imitates, Demosthenes, De Corona 179: "I did not say this and then fail to make the motion; I did not make the motion and then fail to act as an ambassador; I did not act as an ambassador and then fail to persuade the Thebans." Cf. Rom. 10.14; Rosalind in Shakespeare, As You Like It 5.2: "For your brother and my sister no sooner met but they looked; no sooner looked but they loved; no sooner loved but they sighed; no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason; no sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy; and in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marriage"; St. Augustine, Confessions 7.10: O aeterna veritas et vera caritas et cara aeternitas!; also Lane Cooper, Sewanee Rev. 32 (1924), 32‑43.

96 Quintilian, 9.3.56, uses the same example, representing it as from a Latin author.

97 ὁρισμός. Cf. Definition, the subtype of Legal Issue, 1.xi.19, 1.xii.21, and 2.xii.17 above. Quintilian, 9.3.91, unlike "Cornificius and Rutilius," excludes finitio from the figures of diction. The figure goes back to Prodicus' Correct Use of Terms (ὀρθότης ὀνομάτων); see Radermacher, Artium Scriptores, pp67 ff.

98 See note on 1.xii.21 above.

99 For iniuria in Roman law, see Mommsen, pp784‑808; P. F. Girard, Mélanges de droit romain (Paris, 1923), 2.385‑411.

Thayer's Note: For a more accessible primer, see the article Injuria in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.

100 The last two examples may also illustrate distinctio (παραδιαστολή); see Quintilian, 9.3.65: "But this depends wholly on definition, and so I doubt whether it is a figure," and 9.3.82.

101 A figure combining the functions of the enumeratio of 2.xxx.47 above (ἀνάμνησις, ἀνακεφαλαίωσις, παλιλλογία) and propositio (προέκθεσιςpropositio quid sis dicturus in Cicero, De Oratore 3.53.203 and Orator 40.137; cf. the expositio [ἔκθεσις] of 1.x.17 above). Cf. in Anon. Seg. 12 (Spengel-Hammer 1[2].354) ἀνανέωσις, a means used in the Proem to induce receptiveness — "we recall the points previously made, and mark out those we intend to discuss," and the second type of the figure μετάβασις in Rutilius Lupus 2.1 (Halm, pp12 f.). Quintilian, 9.3.98, without defining transitio, classes it as a figure of thought; transitus in 9.2.61 is rejected as a figure.

102 Cf. Demosthenes, De Corona 268, and (cited by Anon. Seg. 12, in illustration of ἀνανέωσις) Aeschines, Adv. Timarch. 116.

103 ἐπιδιόρθωσις, ἐπανόρθωσις, related to μετάνοια.

104 Cf.  Horace, Serm. 2.3.13: "Are you preparing to appease envy by forsaking virtue?" Insector is the frequentative form of insequor.

105 παράλεψις, ἀντίφρασις, praeteritio, and sometimes παρασιώπησις, which Quintilian, 9.3.99, excludes from the figures. Occultatio is assigned by Quintilian in 9.3.98 to the figures of thought. Cf. praecisio, 4.xxx.41 below, and Cicero's reticentia ( De Oratore 3.53.205, and Orator 40.138).

106 Speaker, opponent, and Labeo all are unknown. The date may perhaps be assigned to the time of the Marsic war, about 90 B.C.; see Friedrich Muenzer, P.‑W. 12.245.

107 Cf. Quintilian, 9.2.75.

108 διεζευγμένον. Quintilian, 9.3.64, says that devices like this and the two following are so common that they cannot lay claim to the art which figures involve.

109 Only the first sentence of this translation preserves the Disjunction, which cannot be rendered throughout without violating normal English word order.

110 Cf. Isocrates, Ad Demonicum 6: "For beauty is spent by time or wasted by disease." The saying was popular among Greek Patristic writers; see Engelbert Drerup, Isocratis Opera Omnia, Leipzig, 1906, 1.95.

111 συνεζευγμένον. To be distinguished, of course, from coniunctio (σύνδεσμος), the part of speech (4.xxx.41).

112 ἐπεζευγμένον.

113 ἀναδίπλωσις. In Quintilian, 9.3.28, adiectio. For the first example cf. Demosthenes, De Corona 143, a favourite passage with the rhetoricians: "War it is that you are bringing into Attica, Aeschines, an Amphictyonic war."

114 This passage may perhaps belong to the controversia on the murder of Sulpicius in 1.xv.25 above.

115 συνωνυμία. Quintilian, 9.3.98, denies that this is a figure.

116 ἀντιμεταβολή.

117 Ascribed to Socrates. See the Stoic C. Musonius Rufus (first Christian century) in Stobaeus, 3.18.37; Plutarch, Quomodo adulesc. poet. aud. deb. 4 (21E); Gellius 19.2; Athenaeus 4, 158F; Diogenes Laertius 2.34; Stobaeus, 3.17.21 ("Socrates, when asked in what respect he differed from the rest of men, replied: 'Whereas they live in order to eat, I eat in order to live.' "); Macrobius, Sat., 2.8.16. Cf. also Quintilian, 9.3.85; Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 2.1, and Strom. 7.14; Isidore, Etym. 2.21.11.

118 Porphyrio on Horace, Epist. 2.1.257, attributes this saying to Aristarchus of Samothrace (first half, second century B.C.), the editor and critic of Homer. Cf. Anth. Pal. 6.1: "For I [Lais] do not wish to see myself as I am, and cannot see myself as I used to be."

119 The saying is ascribed to Simonides (sixth century B.C.) in Plutarch, De glor. Athen. 3 (346F); see also Quaest. Conviv. 9.15 (748A), Quomodo adulesc. poet. aud. deb. 3 (17F), Quomodo adulat. ab amic. internosc. 15 (58B), De vita et poes. Hom. 216 (ed. Bernardakis, 7.460). Cf. Cicero, De Leg. 3.1.2: "It can truly be said that the magistrate is a speaking law, the law on the other hand a silent magistrate"; Horace, Ars Poet. 361: "A poem is like a painting"; Anth. Pal. 11.145; and Lessing, Laokoon, Preface.

120 ἐπιτροπή.

121 Varro in Priscian (Keil, Gramm. Lat. 2.381) makes a similar play upon utamur and abutamur.

122 ἀπορία, διαπόρησις. Quintilian, 9.3.88, uses virtually the same example, after making the point that Indecision can belong to either the figures of thought or the figures of diction. Cf. Demosthenes, De Corona 20: "Now what helped him . . . ? The cowardice, ought I to say, or the stupidity, or both, of the other Greek states."

123 Cf. Demosthenes, De Corona 22: "Why, you — what would be the correct name for one to call you?"

124 Now called the Method of Residues when used in Refutation. Quintilian, 5.10.66 ff. and 7.1.31 ff., considers this argumentorum genus ex remotione under Proof and Refutation, not under the Figures; see also Cicero, De Inv. 1.xxix.45 (enumeratio), and Quintilian, 9.3.99, in note on 4.xvii.25 above. Cf. in Aristotle, Rhet. 2.23 (1398A), the topos from logical division (ἐκ διαιρέσεως).

125 ἀσύνδετον. Variously also διάλυσις, solutum, dissolutio. Aristotle, Rhet. 3.12 (1413B): "Asyndeta . . . are rightly condemned in the literary style, but in the controversial style speakers do indeed use them because of their dramatic effect." Cf. dissolutum, the slack style (4.xi.16 above).

126 The quality of σφοδρότης. Plutarch, De vita et poes. Hom. 40 (ed. Bernardakis, 7.355), assigns to Asyndeton the qualities of rapidity and emotional emphasis.

127 ἀποσιώπησις. Sometimes ἀποκοπή, obticentia, interruptio (Quintilian, 9.2.54, who here also identifies Cicero's reticentia with Aposiopesis; see note on occultatio, 4.xxvii.37 above). With the first example cf. Demosthenes, De Corona 3, a close parallel.

128 For the commonplace cf. Aeschylus in Aristophanes, Frogs 867; Lysias, Adv. Eratosth. 81; Fronto, ed. Naber, p42.

129 Cf. Demosthenes, De Corona 129: "I hesitate, lest in saying things becoming to you, I may be thought to have chosen things to say that are unbecoming to me."

130 Demetrius, De Elocut. 253, makes a like observation.

131 Like συμπέρασμα in logic. Quintilian, 9.3.98, denies that conclusio is a figure. Cf. the conclusio of 1.iii.4 and the duplex conclusio of 2.xxiv.38 above.

132 Philoctetes killed Paris with the bow and arrows of Heracles, and thus fulfilled the oracle revealed by the Trojan seer Helenus that only by means of those weapons could Troy be taken.

133 These ten figures of diction are tropi (τρόποι, tropes), a term our author does not use; cf. Quintilian, 8.6.1: "A trope is an artistic change of a word or phrase from its proper signification to another." Tropes were at first, as here, not separated from figures of thought and diction (σχήματα). Cicero, Brutus 18.69, tells us that the division was of Greek origin. Even in the time of Quintilian (see 9.1.1‑9) the line of demarcation was not always clear.

134 ὀνοματοποιία. Cf. Julius Caesar in Gellius, 1.10.4: "Avoid, as you would a rock, an unheard‑of and unfamiliar word." Cicero admits unusual (old-fashioned), new, and metaphorical words, although recognizing that these are allowed more freely in poetry than in oratory; see De Oratore 3.38.152 ff., Orator 20.68 and 24.81, and also the advice which Horace, Ars Poet. 46 ff. and Epist. 2.2.119‑121, gives to poets to use neologisms, but with restraint. Quintilian likewise tolerates neologism despite the danger in their use, but does not allow Roman speakers the imitative type of onomatopoeia, although this was "held as one of the highest virtues by the Greeks;" see 1.5.71 f., 8.6.31 f., 8.3.35‑37. Cf. also Gellius, 11.7.1: "But as for me I think it more objectionable and censurable to use words that are new, unknown, and unheard‑of than to use those that are hackneyed and mean."

135 See note on Metaphor, 4.xxxiv.45 below.

136 ἀντονομασία.

137 Lit., "flat of the blade."

138 Cf. 3.vi.10 above.

139 Pro nomine, hence the name for the figure, Pronominatio.

140 μετωνυμία.

141 Liber and Ceres are common metonyms; see Cicero, De Oratore 3.42.167, advising the frequent use of this kind of figure, and De Natura Deorum 2.23.60, citing Terence, Eunuch. 732; Quintilian, 8.6.24: "It would be too bold for the severe style of the forum to tolerate our saying 'Liber' for 'wine' and 'Ceres' for 'bread.' "

142 This last illustration is used also by the grammarians Charisius (ed. Barwick, p360) and Diomedes (Keil, Gramm. Lat. 1.458).

143 Quintilian, 8.6.24‑5, approves the substitution of container for content, but allows the converse only to poetic practice.

144 περίφρασις. When faulty, it is περισσολογία (Quintilian, 8.6.61).

145 ὑπερβατόν. See 4.xii.18 above.

146 ἀναστροφή, Reversal of order. Quintilian, 8.6.55, defines ἀναστροφή as a transposition confined to two words.

147 "This I deem the immortal gods have vouchsafed to you in reward for your virtue." The strictly correct order would have been pro vestra virtute; virtūtĕ prō vēstrā gives the most favoured clausula.

148 "Unstable Fortune has exercised her greatest power on this creature. All the means of living well Chance has jealously taken from him." Here the adjectives are separated from the nouns they modify; fortūnă vălŭĭt and especially casūs făcūltātēs were favoured clausulae (see note next above). Our author employs the dichoree (A macronA breveA macronA breve over a macron) most. See the study of the cadences in A. W. de Groot, Der antike Prosarhythmus, Groningen and The Hague, 1921, pp106‑7; in Henri Bornecque, Les Clausules Métriques Latines, Lille, 1907, pp542 ff., 579 f.; and in Burdach, Schlesich-böhmische Briefmuster, pp110 ff.; also the notes on 4.viii.12 and 4.xix.26, and the next note here below.

149 4.xix.27. The doctrines of rhythm were not taught as part of the regular curriculum by the Atticizing rhetoricians (Cicero, De Oratore 3.49.188); our author does not mention Rhythm under Composition in 4.xii.18 above, save indirectly in his reference to concinnity in Hyperbaton. Here, however, he is under Asian influence. Cf. Cicero, Orator 69.229: "We must not transpose words in an obvious manner for the sake of achieving a better cadence or a more flowing rhythm"; Dionysius Halic., De Composit. Verb., ch. 4; and Blass, Die Rhythmen der asian. und röm. Kunstprosa, pp33 ff. Our author in his rhythms represents the transition between Asian rules and those followed by Cicero; see Bornecque, op. cit., p546. On our author's generally ambivalent position with respect to Asianism, see Burdach, op. cit., pp96 ff.

150 Cicero, Orator 56.187 f.: "It is, then, quite clear that prose should be tightened up by rhythm, but be free of metre . . . There are, to be sure, no rhythms other than those used in poetry"; Crassus in De Oratore 1.33.151: "Good collocation and good arrangement of words are perfected in writing by means of a certain rhythm and measure not poetical, but oratorical." Thrasymachus of Chalcedon (fifth century B.C.) was the inventor of prose rhythm, and Isocrates excelled in its use (Cicero, Orator 52.175).

Thayer's Note: For the lives and works of Thrasymachus and Isocrates, see Dobson's Greek Orators.

151 ὑπερβολή. Aristotle, Rhet. 3.11 (1413A), says that the use of Hyperbole is a juvenile characteristic, betraying vehemence. Cf. Quintilian, 8.6.67 ff.

152 Cf., for example, Homer, Il. 1.104: Agamemnon's eyes "were flashing fire"; in 10.437 the horses of Rhesus are "whiter than snow" (Hyperbole with comparison formed from superiority.

153 Homer, Il. 1.249, on Nestor. On the popularity of this passage in antiquity see Otto, pp242, 216 f.

154 συνεκδοχή.

155 In ancient physiology the lungs were considered to be the right and left halves of a single organ, with the windpipe as the common outlet; cf., for example, Aristotle, De Part. Animal. 3.6‑7 (668B ff.), Hist. Animal. 2.17 (507 A19).

156 κατάχρησις.

157 Cf. Aristophanes, Birds 465: μέγα καὶ λαρινὸν ἔπος τι ("a stalwart and brawny oration," tr. B. B. Rogers).

158 μεταφορά. Cf. Aristotle, Rhet. 3.2 (1405A) ff., Poet., ch. 21; Demetrius, De Elocut. 2.78 ff.; Quintilian, 8.6.4 ff. According to Cicero, Orator 27.92, metaphor is used for the sake of charm (suavitas) or because of the lack (inopia) of a proper word; cf. also De Oratore 3.38.155. Quintilian, 8.6.6, says that we use metaphor from necessity or because it achieves greater expressiveness or beauty. Cf. translatio criminis, 2.xv.22 above, and translatio, the subtype of Legal Issue, 1.xii.22.

159 Quintilian, 8.6.8, terms Metaphor a shorter Simile.

160 Cf. Plautus, Cist. 43: "She is married to a husband every day, indeed she is;" and Demosthenes, De Corona 129, addressing Aeschines: "Or how your mother practised nuptials in open daylight in the outhouse."

161 This may perhaps belong to the controversia concerning the murder of Sulpicius, 1.xv.25 above.

162 Cf. Cicero, Leg. Agr. 2.5.13, on the unintelligible speech of the once truculent Rullus: "The keener-witted persons standing in the Assembly suspected that he had meant to say something or other about an agrarian law"; Quintilian, 8.4.28, quotes this sentence of Cicero in illustration of ratio minuendi.

163 Cicero, De Oratore 3.41.165, makes the same point; cf. also Aristotle, Rhet. 3.2 (1405A), Cicero, Epist. ad Fam. 16.17 (Theophrastus' verecunda tralatio), Longinus, De Sublim. 32.2, Quintilian, 8.3.37.

164 ἀλληγορία.

165 The text is corrupt. With Lindemann (ed. Leipzig, 1828, p343) and others I take Graccum as a genitive plural. The policy of M. Livius Drusus, tr. pl. in 91 B.C., finds a parallel in that of C. Gracchus; see Hugh Last in Cambr. Anc. History 9.177‑84. With Allegory per argumentum cf. Antonomasia, 4.xxxi.42 above.

166 Cf. Quintilian, 8.6.54 ff. (ironia, illusio); Rhet. ad Alex. ch. 21, 1434A (εἰρωνεία); Anon., De Trop., in Walz 8.722 (ἀντίφρασις).

167 Called pius for his devotion to Anchises, his father.

168 Rejected the advances of his stepmother Phaedra.

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