I:30

Neque ego arma squalere situ ac rubigine velim, sed fulgorem in iis esse

qui terreat, qualis est ferri, quo mens simul visusque praestringitur,

non qualis auri argentique, imbellis et potius habenti periculosus.

34

§ 30.

Neque ego velim: ‘and yet I should not like.’ The same

adversative sense of neque = but not (elsewhere strengthened by

_rursus_) is found §80: 5 §5: 7 §4. For _ego_

(_ergo_?) see Crit.

Notes.

arma. De Orat. i. §32 Quid autem tam necessarium quam tenere

semper arma quibus vel tectus ipse esse possis vel provocare improbos

(conj. integer) vel te ulcisci lacessitus? Tac. Dial. 5 quid est tutius

quam eam exercere artem qua semper armatus praesidium amicis, opem

alienis, salutem periclitantibus, invidis vero inimicis metum et

terrorem ultro feras? ... sin proprium periculum increpuit, non hercule

lorica et gladius in acie firmius munimentum quam reo et periclitanti

eloquentia praesidium simul ac telum, quo propugnare pariter et

incessere sive in iudicio sive in senatu sive apud principem possis. So

‘arma facundiae’ ii. 16, 10 and often.

situs, the ‘rust’ or ‘mould’ that comes from _being let

alone_ (sino), as often in Vergil, e.g. segnem patiere situ durescere

campum Georg. i. 72: loca senta situ Aen. vi. 462. So i. 2, 18 quendam

velut in opaco situm ducit: xii. 5, 2.

fulgorem ... qui terreat: viii. 3, 3 nec fortibus modo sed

etiam fulgentibus armis proeliatur. Hor. Car. ii. 1, 19-20 iam fulgor

armorum fugaces terret equos equitumque voltus. Mayor cites also Veget.

ii. 14: a cavalry officer must make his men often scour their cuirasses,

helmets and pikes: plurimum enim terroris hostibus armorum splendor

importat. quis credat militem bellicosum cuius dissimulatione situ ac

rubigine arma foedantur?

ferri: viii. 3, 5 nam et ferrum adfert oculis terroris

aliquid, et fulmina ipsa non tam nos confunderent si vis eorum tantum

non etiam ipse fulgor timeretur.

quo, sc. fulgore.

praestringitur §92. Cic. de Fin.

iv. §37 aciem animorum nostrorum virtutis splendore praestringitis: and

with _ut ita dicam_ to soften the metaphor de Sen. §42 mentis ut

ita dicam praestringit oculos (sc. voluptas.)

auri argentique ... periculosus. The practical speaker would

only prejudice

34

his case by the use of ornament which, as in poetry, makes

_ostentatio_ and _voluptas_ (§28)

its chief object. The commentators cite Livy ix. 17, 16 of Darius: inter

purpuram atque aurum, oneratum fortunae apparatibus suae, praedam verius

quam hostem ... incruentus devicit (sc. Alexander): ib. 40 §4

militem ... non caelatum auro et argento sed ferro et animis fretum: so

Livy x. 39 per ... aurata scuta transire Romanum pilum: cp. Aesch.

Septem c. Th. 397. Curt. iii. 10 §§9, 10 aciem hostium auro

purpuraque fulgentem intueri iubebat, praedam non arma gestantem, irent

et imbellibus feminis aurum viri eriperent.

potius is used pretty much as _saepius_ (‘oftener than

not’) below §32. Krüger takes it closely

with _habenti_ (sc. quam adversario). This is better than Hild’s

_quam utilis_.

I:31

Historia quoque alere oratorem quodam uberi iucundoque suco potest;

verum et ipsa sic est legenda ut sciamus plerasque eius virtutes oratori

esse vitandas. Est enim proxima poetis et

35

quodam modo carmen solutum, et scribitur ad narrandum, non ad probandum,

totumque opus non ad actum rei pugnamque praesentem, sed ad memoriam

posteritatis et ingenii famam componitur; ideoque et verbis remotioribus

et liberioribus figuris narrandi taedium evitat.

§ 31.

Historia §§73-75: §§101-104; ii. 4, 2 apud rhetorem initium sit

historia, tanto robustior quanto verior: ib. 5 §1: 8 §7: iii.

8, 67: xii. 4. Cic. de Orat. i. §201 monumenta rerum gestarum et

vetustatis exempla oratori nota esse (debent): ii. §§51-64, where

Antonius discourses on history: Or. §66 huic generi historia finitima

est, in qua et narratur ornate et regio saepe aut pugna describitur;

interponuntur etiam contiones et hortationes, sed in his tracta quaedam

et fluens expetitur, non haec contorta et acris oratio,—of the

flowing smoothness of ‘historical oratory’ as against the compact and

incisive style of actual public speaking. Pliny Ep. v. 8 §9 habet

quidem oratio et historia multa communia, sed plura diversa in his ipsis

quae communia videntur. Narrat illa, narrat haec, sed aliter: huic

pleraque humilia et sordida et ex medio petita, illi omnia recondita

splendida excelsa conveniunt: hanc saepius ossa musculi nervi, illam

tori quidam et quasi iubae decent: haec vel maxime vi amaritudine

instantia, illa tractu et suavitate atque etiam dulcedine placet.

Postremo alia verba, alius sonus, alia constructio. Nam plurimum refert,

ut Thucydides ait, κτῆμα

sit an ἀγώνισμα; quorum

alterum oratio, alterum historia est.—The relation of this last

passage to the text is discussed by Eussner in Blätter f. d. bayer.

Gymn. xvii. vol. 9, pp. 391-393. He rightly insists (as against de

la Beye) that in Pliny _illa_, _illi_, _illam_ refer to

historia, _haec_, _huic_, _hanc_ to oratio.

suco, ‘sap’: Donatus on Ter. Eun. ii. 3, 7 (‘corpus solidum et

suci plenum’) explains sucus as ‘humor in corpore quo abundant bene

valentes.’ Cicero often uses the same figure: de Or. ii. §93 (Critias

Theramenes Lysias) retinebant illum Pericli sucum, sed erant paulo

uberiore filo: ib. §88: iii. §96: Brut. §36 sucus ille et sanguis

incorruptus: and ad Att. iv. 16 c §10 amisimus ... omnem non modo sucum

ac sanguinem sed etiam colorem et speciem pristinae civitatis.—For

uberi see Crit. Notes.

et ipsa: like poetry in §28:

καὶ αὐτή, ‘likewise.’

For the much debated question whether _et ipse_ was used by Cicero

see the note in Nägelsbach, pp. 366-367, from which it will appear

that no conclusive instance can be cited: Merguet gives only pro Rosc.

Am. §48 qui _et_ ipsi incensi sunt studio, where, however, the

_et_ is now generally disconnected from _ipsi_ and referred to

the following vitam_que_ rusticam arbitrantur. In all other

passages _et_ seems to have been interpolated in conformity with

the later usage.—“Livy often uses _et ipse_ meaning ‘on his

part’ or ‘as well,’ in cases where it is implied that the predicate or

attribute of the subject expressed is common thereto with a subject

unexpressed save in the context, e.g. xxi. 17, 7 Cornelio minus copiarum

datum, quia L. Manlius praetor et ipse cum haud invalido praesidio

in Galliam mittebatur, ‘Manlius was being sent _as well_ (as

Cornelius)’; i. pr. §3 iuvabit tamen rerum gestarum memoriae principis

terrarum populi pro virili parte et ipsum consuluisse. ‘I shall be

glad to have done _my_ part (as well as others) for Roman history.’

In each case the words in question are equivalent to a very strong

_etiam_.”—Fausset on Cic. pro Cluent. §141.—For other

exx. see 5 §§4, 20: 6 §1: 7 §26.

sic ... ut: ‘in reading history we must bear in mind,’

&c.

vitandas: cp. 2 §21. Cic. Or. §68 seiunctus

igitur orator a philosophorum eloquentia, a sophistarum, ab

historicorum,

35

a poetarum, explicandus est nobis qualis futurus sit.

poetis = poetarum operibus. The metonymy here is motived by

Quintilian’s avoidance of _poesis_ (cp. on §28). Many such exx. occur in Cicero: e.g. de Or. ii.

§4 nostrorum hominum prudentiam Graecis (Graecorum prudentiae)

anteferre. In these and similar instances the property of one thing is

compared (by _comparatio compendiaria_), not with the property of

another thing but with the thing itself, to which the property belongs.

So Pliny Ep. i. 16, 3 orationes eius ... facile cuilibet veterum ...

comparabis. Cp. Holden’s note on de Off. i. §76: Madvig §280, obs.

2.—Cp. the passage in Aristotle’s Poetics (ch. ix.) on the

relations of Poetry to History. Dosson refers to Dion. Hal. de Thucyd.

Iud. ch. li. ad fin., and Lucian’s Πῶς δεῖ ἱστορ. συγγρ. 44-79. For est

enim, see Crit. Notes.

solutum, sc. necessitate pedum §29.

opus: the whole class of work: see on §9.

ad actum rei = ad rem agendam, the doing or performance of a

thing. Cp. §27 actu forensi: 6 §1 inter medios rerum actus

(where see note): vii. 2, 41: ii. 18, 1 actus operis. So Plin. Ep. ix.

25, 3 me rerum actus ... distringit: Suet. Aug. §78 residua diurni

actus. In Suet. Aug. §32 actus rerum is used specially of judicial

proceedings: cp. Claud. §15: Nero §17. So _actus_ alone came to

mean the method followed in such proceedings, Trajan ap. Plin. Ep. x. 97

(Nettleship, Lat. Lex.).—Note the chiastic construction, _actum

rei_ corresponding with _ingenii famam_ and _pugnam praes._

with _memor. posteritatis_.

pugnam praesentem §29. So ad

pugnam forensem (ἀγῶνα) v.

12, 17. Cp. what Thucydides says of his history i. 22, 4 κτῆμά τε ἐς ἀεὶ μᾶλλον ἢ ἀγώνισμα ἐς τὸ παραχρῆμα

ἀκούειν ξύγκειται,—referred to in the passage quoted above

from Pliny Ep. v. 8, 9-11.

ad memoriam posteritatis et ingenii famam. Pliny l.c. §1 mihi

pulchrum in primis videtur non pati occidere quibus aeternitas debeatur

aliorumque famam cum sua extendere. In vii. 17, 3 he looks less to the

last element: non ostentationi sed fidei veritatique componitur. Hild

quotes Livy Pr. §3 et si in tanta scriptorum turba mea fama in obscuro

sit, &c.: and Cic. Brut. §92 where Cicero, speaking of some orators,

says memoriam autem in posterum ingenii sui non desiderant.—For

_memoria posteritatis_ cp. §§41, 104: 7 §30: i. 10, 9: vi. 1, 22:

xii. 11, 3: Plin. Ep. v. 8, 2.

remotioribus = ab usu remotis iv. 2 36: viii. 2, 12. Cp.

libertate verborum §28.

evitat, ‘seeks to avoid,’ a present of endeavour.

I:32

Itaque, ut dixi, neque illa Sallustiana brevitas, qua nihil apud aures

vacuas atque eruditas potest esse perfectius, apud occupatum variis

cogitationibus iudicem et saepius ineruditum captanda nobis est, neque

illa

36

Livi lactea ubertas satis docebit eum qui non speciem expositionis, sed

fidem quaerit.

§ 32.

ut dixi. Cp. iv. 2, 45 vitanda est etiam illa Sallustiana ...

brevitas et abruptum sermonis genus: quod otiosum fortasse lectorem

minus fallat, audientem transvolat, nec dum percipiatur expectat, cum

praesertim lector non fere sit nisi eruditus, iudicem rura plerumque in

decurias mittant, de eo pronuntiaturum quod intellexerit. §102 illam immortalem Sallusti velocitatem.—So

Cicero, speaking of Thucydides, says ‘nihil ab eo transferri potest ad

forensem usum et publicum,’ Or. §30: cp. Brut. §287.

vacuas is opposed to ‘occupatum variis cogitationibus,’ just

as _eruditas_ is to ‘saepius ineruditum.’ Cp. _si vacet_ §90: 3 §27. The word is frequently

used in this sense, both in poetry and prose, e.g. Lucr. i. 50: the

opposite _occupatae aures_ occurs Livy xlv. 19, 9: cp. Tac. Hist.

iv. 17 arriperent vacui occupatos.

saepius ineruditum. Since Augustus added to the three ‘iudicum

decuriae’ a fourth to judge of minor cases (quartam ex inferiore censu

quae ... iudicaret de levioribus summis Suet. Aug. 32), this office fell

into disrepute. Caligula afterwards raised the number to five: Calig.

16.

36

As with us, it was not considered necessary that the juror who was to

say ‘Guilty’ or ‘Not Guilty’ (in the _iudicia publica_) should be

learned in the law, or even that he should be an educated man.—Cp.

the quotation above from iv. 2, 45 cum ... iudicem rura plerumque in

decurias mittant. So v. 14, 29 saepius apud omnino imperitos atque

illarum certe ignaros litterarum loquendum est: cp. xii. 10, 53. Mayor

quotes Iuv. vii. 116-7 dicturus dubia pro libertate bubulco iudice,

where see his note.

lactea ubertas: ‘pure, clear, fulness.’ The expression is

evidently chosen to denote the characteristic of Livy’s style mentioned

in §101 (clarissimi candoris): ii. 5, 19

(candidissimum et maxime expositum): it signifies not rich fulness

merely, but fulness combined with clearness and simplicity: cp. Hieron.

Ep. 53, 1 T. Livius lacteo eloquentiae fonte manans. Milk is taken

as the type of natural sweet and simple fare: cp. candens lacteus umor

Lucr. i. 258. It is also nourishing, so that _lactea ubertas_

is not the mere fulness of empty words: ii. 4, 5 quin ipsis quoque

doctoribus hoc esse curae velim ut teneras adhuc mentes more nutricum

mollius alant et satiari velut quodam iucundioris disciplinae lacte

patiantur.—Becher (Phil. Rundschau iii. 15, p. 469) compares

Seneca Controv. vii. pr. 2, p. 268 (Müll.) sententiae, quas optime

Pollio Asinius albas vocabat, simplices, apertae, nihil occultum, nihil

insperatum adferentes, sed vocales et splendidae, and explains _lactea

ubertas_ as ‘eine reine lautere Fülle und keine forcierte, künstlich

aufgebauschte, schwülstige.’

satis docebit, i.e. in narratio §49 (διήγησις). See note on the three _genera dicendi_

§80.

speciem ... fidem. It is not beauty of exposition (species or

splendor) that the juror looks for in _narratio_ or

_expositio_, but truth and credibility (fides): cp. ad narrandum

non ad probandum, of history, §31. For

_fides_ cp. Tac. Ann. iv. 34 Titus Livius eloquentiae ac fidei

praeclarus in primis.

I:33

Adde quod M. Tullius ne Thucydiden quidem aut Xenophontem utiles

oratori putat, quamquam illum ‘bellicum canere,’ huius ‘ore Musas esse

locutas’ existimet. Licet tamen nobis in digressionibus uti vel

historico

37

nonnumquam nitore, dum in his de quibus erit quaestio meminerimus non

athletarum toris, sed militum lacertis _opus_ esse, nec

versicolorem illam, qua Demetrius Phalereus dicebatur uti,

38

vestem bene ad forensem pulverem facere.

§ 33.

Adde quod 2 §§10, 11, 12. See Crit. Notes. Cp. Introd. p. liii.

M. Tullius. Or. §§30, 31, 32 quis porro umquam Graecorum

rhetorum a Thucydide quicquam duxit? ‘at laudatus est ab omnibus,’

fateor; sed ita ut rerum explicator prudens, severus, gravis; non ut in

iudiciis versaret causas, sed ut in historiis bella narraret, itaque

numquam est numeratus orator ... nactus sum etiam qui Xenophontis

similem esse se cuperet, cuius sermo est ille quidem melle dulcior, sed

a forensi strepitu remotissimus. Yet Dion. Hal. tells us that

Demosthenes was especially indebted to Thucydides (Iud. de Thuc. 52).

Cicero saw that ‘Thucydides represents an immature stage in the

development of oratory: his speeches had been superseded by maturer

models’ (Sandys). Cp. Brut. §287-8.—Cp. §73.

Xenophontem §§75, 82. Cic. Brut. §112 complains that while the

Cyropaedia was read the speeches and autobiography of Scaurus were

neglected: ad Quint. Fratr. i. §23.

quamquam with subj. as 2 §21: 7 §17.

bellicum canere: Or. §39 incitatior fertur et de bellicis

rebus canit etiam quodam modo bellicum: his style is a ‘call to arms,’

it stirs like the sound of a war-trumpet §76. Cp. pro Mur. §30: Phil. vii. 3. Quint, ix.

4, 11 non eosdem modos adhibent cum bellicum est canendum et cum posito

genu supplicandum est.

huius ore, &c. Or. §62 Xenophontis voce Musas quasi

locutas ferunt. Diog. Laert. ii. §57 ἐκαλεῖτο δὲ καὶ

Ἀττικὴ Μοῦσα γλυκύτητι τῆς ἑρμηνείας. Cp. §82 below, with the note: Brut. §132 molli et

Xenophonteo genere sermonis: de Or. ii. 58.

in digressionibus: opposed to _in his de quibus erit

quaestio_ below. See the ch. on _Egressio_ iv. 3:

especially §12 hanc partem παρέκβασιν vocant Graeci, Latini egressum vel

egressionem, defined afterwards (§14) as alicuius rei, sed ad utilitatem

pertinentis, extra ordinem excurrens tractatio. Cp. ix. 2, 55. Cic.

de Or. ii.

37

311 sq. digredi tamen ab eo quod proposueris atque agas permovendorum

animorum causa saepe utile est: ib. §80 ornandi aut augendi causa

digredi: Brut. §82: de Inv. i. §97.

historico ... nitore: 5 §15: Plin. Ep. ii. 5, 5

descriptiones locorum, quae in hoc libro frequentiores erunt, non

historice tantum sed prope poetice prosequi fas est: id. vii. 9, 8 saepe

in orationes quoque non historica modo sed prope poetica descriptionum

necessitas incidit. For _nitor_ see on §9 _nitidus_: cp. Cic. Or. §115 quidam orationis

nitor.

dum. Quint. does not use _dummodo_: _dum_ is again

used in this sense in 3 §7: 7 §25. In 3 §5 it occurs without a verb,

sit primo vel tardus dum diligens, stilus: so _modo_ 5 §20.

toris ... lacertis, ‘not the athlete’s swelling thews, but the

sinewy arm of the soldier.’ Cp. the antithesis

_carnis_—_lacertorum_ §77. The primary meaning of

_torus_ seems to be anything _swelling_ or _bulging_,

e.g. the knots of a rope or the protuberance of the muscles. The point

of the antithesis is clearly brought out in xi. 3, 26 adsueta gymnasiis

et oleo corpora, quamlibet sint in suis certaminibus speciosa atque

robusta, si militare iter fascemque et vigilias imperes, deficiant et

quaerant unctores suos nudumque sudorem,—a passage which must have

been suggested by the contrast Plato draws between the sleepy habit of

athletes and the wiry vigour of the soldier: σχέδον γέ τι πάντων μάλιστα (sc.

ἐμποδίζει) ἥ γε περαιτέρω γυμναστικῆς ἡ

περιττὴ αὕτη ἐπιμέλεια τοῦ σώματος‧ καὶ γὰρ πρὸς οἰκονομίας καὶ πρὸς

στρατείας καὶ πρὸς ἑδραίους ἐν πόλει ἀρχὰς δύσκολος Rep. iii.

408. Mayor cites also xii. 10, 41 sicut athletarum corpora, etiam si

validiora fiant exercitatione et lege quadam ciborum (cp. x. 5, 15) non tamen esse

naturalia (sc. putant) atque ab illa specie quae sit concessa hominibus

abhorrere. Cp. Tac. Dial. 21 oratio autem sicut corpus hominis, &c.:

Nepos xv. 2 §4: Pliny v. 8, 10 (quoted on §31 above). For cognate metaphors see Nägelsbach 136,

4 pp. 556-8. From Professor Mayor’s rich list of parallel passages

I select the following: ‘Kleochares ... compared the speeches of

Demosthenes to _soldiers_ διὰ τὴν πολεμικὴν δύναμιν, those of Isokrates

to _athletes_ τέρψιν γὰρ παρέχειν αὐτοὺς θεατρικήν. Plut.

Philopoem. 3 §§3, 4 Philopoemen when recommended to enter upon a

course of athletic training asked whether it did not interfere with

military exercises; and when told that the frame and life, diet and

training of the two were entirely different, the athlete needing much

sleep and food, regular intervals of exercise and rest, and being unable

to bear any change from his habits, while the soldier was inured to

hunger and thirst and sleepless nights; he both in his private capacity

wholly abstained from athletic exercises, and tried to abolish them when

a general. _Id._ Fab. Max. 19 §2 Fabius hoped that Hannibal,

if unopposed, would wear himself out, ὥσπερ ἀθλητικοῦ σώματος τῆς δυναμεως ὑπεργονου γενομένης καὶ

καταπόνου. Lucian Dial. Mort. x. 5 the athlete Damasias, πολύσαρκός τις ὤν,

lest he should sink Charon’s boat by his weight, is forced to strip off

his flesh and crowns.’

lacertis. As opposed to _brachium_, _lacertus_ is

the upper part of the arm, from the shoulder to the elbow. Cp. Cic.

Brut. §64 in Lysia sunt saepe etiam lacerti, sic ut fieri nihil possit

valentius.

versicolorem ... vestem, probably a translation of some Greek

phrase used in reference to Demetrius, to indicate a style too

ornamental for the forum: cp. viii. pr. 20 similiter illa translucida et

versicolor quorundam elocutio res ipsas effeminat, quae illo verborum

habitu vestiantur. For Demetrius see on §80. ‘His style, like his life, was elegantly

luxurious; but in becoming ornate it became nerveless; there is no

longer, says Cicero, “sucus ille et sanguis incorruptus,” the sap, the

fresh vigour, which had hitherto been in oratory; in their place there

is “fucatus nitor,” an artificial gloss,’ Jebb, Att. Or. ii.

p. 441. _Vestis_ is more than a mere metaphor here: Demetrius

was as foppish in dress as he was in his style. The main feature of the

latter is generally indicated by _floridus_ and similar terms: e.g.

Cic. Brut. §285: _dulcis_ de Off. i. §3 (cp. Or. §94),

_suavis_ Brut. §38: it was over-coloured (like his dress), being

intended only to please. For the figure suggested

38

cp. Tac. Dial. 26: adeo melius est orationem vel hirta toga induere quam

fucatis et meretriciis vestibus insignire.

dicebatur, i.e. by his contemporaries.

bene ad ... facere: 5 §11 in hoc optime facient

infinitae quaestiones. This construction is common in Ovid; e.g. Her.

xvi. 189 ad talem formam non facit iste locus: cp. ib. vi. 128: and with

dat. Prop. iii. 1, 19 non faciet capiti dura corona meo. “It is also

occasionally used absolutely: so Ovid, complaining in his exile, says

Trist.(?) ‘Nec caelum nec aquae faciunt nec terra nec imber’: ‘do not

agree with me.’ It is thus used especially in medicine. Cp. Colum. viii.

17, Facit etiam ex pomis adaperta ficus: ‘is serviceable.’” Palmer on

Ov. Her. ii. 39.

pulverem. Cp. Cic. Brut. §37 (quoted on §80 inclinasse): and for a different judgment de

Legg. iii. §14 a Theophrasto Phalereus ille Demetrius ... mirabiliter

doctrinam ex umbraculis eruditorum otioque non modo in solem atque in

pulverem, sed in ipsum discrimen aciemque produxit.

I:34

Est et alius ex historiis usus et is quidem maximus, sed non ad

praesentem pertinens locum, ex cognitione rerum exemplorumque, quibus in

primis instructus esse debet orator, ne omnia testimonia exspectet a

litigatore, sed pleraque ex vetustate diligenter sibi cognita sumat, hoc

potentiora, quod ea sola criminibus odii et gratiae vacant.

§ 34.

historiis: for the plural see on §75. Cp. note on _lectionum_ §45.

alius usus ... ex cognitione, &c. Crassus in the de Or. i.

§48 insists on this: neque enim sine multa pertractatione omnium rerum

publicarum, neque sine legum, morum, iuris scientia ... in his ipsis

rebus satis callide versari et perite potest (sc. orator): cp. ib. §18

tenenda praeterea est omnis antiquitas exemplorumque vis: §158

cognoscendae historiae: §256: Brutus §322: Tac. Dial. 30 nec in

evolvenda antiquitate ... satis operae insumitur. In Quint. cp. ii. 4,

20 multa inde cognitio rerum venit exemplisque, quae sunt in omni genere

causarum potentissima, iam tum instruitur, cum res poscet, usurus: iii.

8, 67: v. 11 ‘de exemplis’—παράδειγμα quo nomine et generaliter usi sunt in

omni similium adpositione et specialiter in iis quae rerum gestarum

auctoritate nituntur: xii. 4, 10: cp. §17

rerum cognitio cotidie crescit, et tamen quam multorum ad eam librorum

necessaria lectio est, quibus aut rerum exempla ab historicis aut

dicendi ab oratoribus petuntur.

et is quidem. Cic. de Fin. i. §65 Epicurus una in domo, et ea

quidem angusta, quam magnos ... tenuit amicorum greges. In 5 §7 we have _et quidem_ with

the pronoun omitted: cp. Cic. Phil. ii. 43 et quidem immunia: and often

in Pliny, e.g. Ep. i. 6, 1 ego ille quem nosti apros tres et quidem

pulcherrimos cepi.

non ad praesentem ... locum, because here he is speaking of

the advantage of reading history only from the point of view of

_elocutio_: his subject is _copia verborum_. For the material

benefit to be obtained from the study of history see the passages cited

above: esp. xii. 4: v. 11, 36 sq.

testimonia. Cp. v. 7, 1 ea dicuntur aut per tabulas aut a

praesentibus. The advocate is not to confine himself to these.

litigatore, the client, from whom the essential facts of the

case must be learned: xii. 8 §§6-8.

cognita (with _vetustate_), of the result rather than the

process. Before _sumat_ supply _ut_.

hoc quod ... vacant §15. Cp. v.

11, 36-37 Adhibebitur extrinsecus in causam et auctoritas ... si quid

ita visum gentibus, populis, sapientibus viris, claris civibus,

inlustribus poetis referri potest. Ne haec quidem vulgo dicta et recepta

persuasione populari sine usu fuerint. Testimonia sunt enim quodam modo

vel potentiora etiam, quod non causis accommodata sunt, sed liberis odio

et gratia mentibus ideo tantum dicta factaque, quia aut honestissima aut

verissima videbantur. Cp. Cic. pro Marcello §29: Tac. Hist. i. 1: Ann.

i. 1.

I:35

A philosophorum vero lectione ut essent multa nobis petenda

39

vitio factum est oratorum, qui quidem illis optima sui operis parte

cesserunt. Nam et de iustis, honestis, utilibus iisque quae sunt istis

contraria, et de rebus divinis maxime dicunt et argumentantur acriter

_Stoici_, et altercationibus atque interrogationibus oratorem

futurum optime Socratici praeparant.

§ 35.

philosophorum: §§81-84: §§123-131. We have the same complaint, that the

orator has ‘abandoned the fairest part of his province’ to the

philosopher in Book i. pr. §§9-18: esp. neque

39

enim hoc concesserim, rationem rectae honestaeque vitae ... ad

philosophos relegandam, cum vir ille vere civilis et publicarum

privatarumque rerum administrationi accommodatus, qui regere consiliis

urbes, fundare legibus, emendare iudiciis possit, non alius sit profecto

quam orator.... Fueruntque haec, ut Cicero apertissime colligit,

quemadmodum iuncta natura, sic officio quoque copulata, ut idem

sapientes atque eloquentes haberentur. Scidit deinde se studium atque

inertia factum est ut artes esse plures viderentur. Nam ut primum lingua

esse coepit in quaestu institutumque eloquentiae bonis male uti, curam

morum qui diserti habebantur reliquerunt. Cp. xii. 2 §§4-10, esp.

§8 id quod est oratori necessarium nec a dicendi praeceptoribus traditur

ab iis petere nimirum necesse est apud quos remansit: evolvendi penitus

auctores qui de virtute praecipiunt, ut oratoris vita cum scientia

divinaram rerum sit humanarumque coniuncta. Quintilian’s frequent

statement of the argument that philosophy, especially moral philosophy,

is an essential part of the orator’s equipment is a corollary to his

main thesis, ‘non posse oratorem esse nisi virum bonum’: i. pr. §9: xii.

1: cp. rationem dicendi a bono viro non separamus. Cp. Introd. p. xxv. In the Orator §§11-19

Cicero places a philosophical training among the first requisites of the

ideal orator: esp. §14 nam nec latius neque copiosius de magnis

variisque rebus sine philosophia potest quisquam dicere: ib. §118: cp.

de Or. i. §87: ib. iii. §§56-73 hanc, inquam, cogitandi pronuntiandique

rationem vimque dicendi veteres Graeci sapientiam nominabant ... §61

hinc (from the separation of eloquence and philosophy made by Socrates)

discidium illud exstitit quasi linguae atque cordis, absurdum sane et

inutile et reprehendendum, ut alii nos sapere, alii dicere docerent.

Cicero has told us himself what he owed to philosophy: xii. 2, 23

M. Tullius non tantum se debere scholis rhetorum quantum Academiae

spatiis frequenter (e.g. Or. §12, Brut. 315) ipse testatus est: Tac.

Dial. §31 sq.

operis: see on §9. So ea iure

vereque contenderim esse operis nostri. i. pr. §11.

cesserunt: for this constr. with dat. and abl. cp. Cic. pro

Mil. §75 nisi sibi hortorum possessione cessissent.

de iustis, &c.: cp. i. pr. §§11, 12.

de rebus divinis. The Stoic definition of σοφία included this—ἐμπειρία τῶν θείων καὶ ἀνθρωπίνων καὶ τῶν τούτου αἰτιῶν,

transl. by Cicero, de Off. ii. 5: cp. Tusc. iv. 57: Sen. Ep. xiv.

1, 5. They made this σοφία the foundation of every virtue: it is ‘speculative

wisdom’ as distinguished from ‘practical wisdom’ (φρόνησις).

maxime = potissimum.

Stoici: §84: xii. 2, 25 Stoici

... nullos aut probare acrius aut concludere subtilius contendunt.

_Stoici_ was first inserted by Meister. Hirt (Berl. Wochenschrift

v. p. 629) objects, on the ground that Quintilian is only giving

here the general idea that eloquence and philosophy were at first

mutually inclusive: cp. de Or. iii. §54. See Crit. Notes.

altercationibus. The essence of the _altercatio_ is that

it was conducted in the way of short answers or retorts: it is specially

used of a dispute carried on in this way between two speakers in the

senate, or in a court of law, or in public. A famous instance in

the senate is the dialogue between Cicero and Clodius (ad Att. i.

16, 8): Clodium praesentem fregi in senatu cum oratione perpetua

plenissima gravitatis, tum altercatione, &c. Tac. Dial. 34 ut

altercationes quoque exciperet et iurgiis interesset. The

_altercatio_ (actio brevis atque concisa vi. 4, 2) is opp. to

_perpetua_ or _continua oratio_: e.g. Liv. iv. 6, 1 res a

perpetuis orationibus in altercationem vertisset: Tac. Hist. iv. 7

paulatim per altercationem ad continuas et infestas orationes provecti

sunt.—As to the construction, both words are generally taken as

ablatives of instrument; _not_ ‘for debates and examinations of

witnesses.’ By _interrogationibus_ is then meant the Socratic ἔλενχος: cp. v. 7, 28 in

quibus (dialogis) adeo scitae sunt interrogationes ut, cum plerisque

bene respondeatur, res tamen ad id quod volunt efficere perveniat. But

see Crit. Notes.

40

Socratici: §83. The writers of

the Socratic form of dialogue are meant, Plato, Xenophon, and Aeschines

Socraticus: v. 11, 27 etiam in illis interrogationibus Socraticis ...

cavendum ne incante respondeas. Their practice of fashioning the

imagined objections of their opponents in such a manner as to make them

easy of refutation would render them good models: cp. xii. 1, 10 ne more

Socraticorum nobismet ipsi responsum finxisse videamur.

I:36

Sed

40

his quoque adhibendum est simile iudicium, ut etiam cum in rebus

versemur isdem non tamen eandem esse condicionem sciamus litium ac

disputationum, fori et auditorii, praeceptorum et periculorum.

§ 36.

his quoque, sc. philosophis—as well as with the poets and

historians §§28, 31.

ut ... sciamus, consecutive, expressing result, not final: tr.

by participle ‘remembering,’ &c.: cp. ut sciamus after _sic_ in

§31. Not all the instances of the

introduction of a subordinate clause by this consecutive _ut_ cited

by Herbst are exactly apposite: cp. 2 §28: 4 §4: 5 §§6, 9: 6 §3: 7 §10.

in rebus isdem: ‘on the same topics,’ viz. questions of right

and wrong, &c., which are common to philosophy and law.

litium ac disputationum: ‘lawsuits and philosophical

discussions’: vii. 3 §13 sed de his disputatur non

litigatur: xi. 1, 70 inter eos non forensem contentionem, sed studiosam

disputationem crederes incidisse: Cic. de Off. i. §3 illud forense

dicendi et hoc quietum disputandi genus: de Fin. i. §28 neque enim

disputari sine reprehensione, nec cum iracundia aut pertinacia recte

disputari potest: Brut. §118 iidem (Stoici) traducti a disputando ad

dicendum inopes reperiantur: cp. Or. §113. There is a similar antithesis

in foro ... in scholis v. 13, 36.

fori ... periculorum: note the chiasmus. For the antithesis

_fori ... auditorii_ cp. §79

auditoriis ... non iudiciis. Tac. Dial. 10 nunc te ab auditoriis et

theatris in forum et ad causas et ad vera proelia voco. For

_auditorium_ used of the lecture-room, or generally a place for

public prelections, literary and philosophical, cp. ii. 11, 3: v. 12,

20: Suet. Aug. 85. These _auditoria_ were the scene of the

_recitationes_ of which we hear so much in this age: §18.

periculorum: law-suits, actions-at-law, referring, as often in

Cicero, to the issues at stake for the defendant in such actions. Cp. 7 §1: iv. 2, 122 capitis

aut fortunarum pericula: vi. 1, 36 (where ‘pericula’ and ‘privatae

causae’ are contrasted). Etymologically periculum is from the root PER-, seen in πεῖρα, περάω: it denotes ‘trial’ and, in view of

possible failure, ‘danger.’ Cp. Reid on Cic. pro Arch. §13: the English

‘danger’ (Low Latin dangiarium from dominium, Old Fr. dongier, feudal

authority) was originally a legal term: Shakesp. Merchant of Venice iv.

1, ‘You stand within his danger.’ Chaucer, Prol. 663. See Skeat’s Etym.

Dict.

I:37

Credo exacturos plerosque, cum tantum esse utilitatis in legendo

iudicemus, ut id quoque adiungamus operi, qui sint _legendi_, quae

in auctore quoque praecipua virtus. Sed persequi singulos infiniti

fuerit operis.

§ 37.

This paragraph forms a transition from the general consideration of

oratory (§20), poetry (§27), history (§31), and

philosophy (§35) to the characterisation of

individual representatives of each of these four departments. Quintilian

now begins to discourse on the ‘Choice of Books,’ or the ‘Best Hundred

Authors,’ both in Greek and Latin. His list does not however aim at

completeness: it is conditioned by the object which he has in view, viz.

the reading of what is profitable for the formation of style (ad

faciendam φράσιν §42), and he constantly reminds the reader that he

is merely giving a sample of the best authors (§§44: 56-60: 74: 80: 104: 122). Cp. Plin. Ep. vii.

9 §§15-16.

qui sint legendi: see Crit. Notes.

auctore: see on §24.

persequi singulos: ‘to notice all individually’: §118 sunt alii multi diserti quos persequi longum

est.

fuerit: cp. superaverit §46:

dixerim §14: maluerim §26: dederit §85:

cesserimus §86: quos viderim §98: cesserit §101:

opposuerim §105: abstulerit

41

§107: ne hoc ... suaserim 2 §24: nemo dubitaverit 3 §22: contulerit 5 §4: ne ... contrarium fuerit 5 §15.

I:38

Quippe cum in Bruto M. Tullius

41

tot milibus versuum de Romanis tantum oratoribus loquatur et tamen de

omnibus aetatis suae, [quibuscum vivebat], exceptis Caesare atque

Marcello, silentium egerit, quis erit modus si et illos et qui postea

fuerunt et Graecos omnes _persequamur_ [et philosophos]?

§ 38.

Quippe cum, only here in Quint.: cp. §76.

versuum: often in Quint. of ‘lines’ of prose: §41: 3 §32: 7 §11: xi. 2, 32 (but §39 opp.

to prosam orationem): vii. 1, 37 multis milibus versuum scio apud

quosdam esse quaesitum, &c. Hor. Sat. ii. 5, 53-4, of a will, quid

prima secundo cera velit versu. Cic. Rab. Post. vi. §14 ut primum versum

(legis) attenderet: ad Att. ii. 16, 3: Plin. Ep. iv. 11, 16.

Romanis ... oratoribus. One of Cicero’s motives in writing the

_Brutus_ was to do justice to the earlier Roman orators, and to

trace the development of the art down to his own time. Hild cites Fronto

(de elog. p. 235 ed. Rom.) oratores quos ... Cicero eloquentiae

civitate gregatim donavit, as showing that the writer thought that

Cicero wished to exalt his own style by contrast with the ruder efforts

of his predecessors.

aetatis suae. Frieze remarks that this expression, taken by

itself, would embrace either the whole career of Cicero as an orator,

about 35 years, to the date of the Brutus (B.C. 46), or else his life from the time when he

began to hear the orators of the forum as a student (B.C. 90), a period of over 44 years: Brut. §303 hoc

(Hortensio) igitur florescente, Crassus est mortuus, Cotta pulsus,

iudicia intermissa bello, nos (Cicero) in forum venimus.—The rule

which Cicero imposed on himself in the Brutus is given §231: in hoc

sermone nostro statui neminem eorum qui viverent nominare.

[quibuscum vivebat]: see Crit. Notes.

Caesare atque Marcello. These exceptions were made at the

request of Brutus himself §248. Brutus eulogises Marcellus, while the

account of Caesar is mainly put into the mouth of Atticus: then at §262

Cicero returns to the dead,—sed ad eos, si placet, qui vita

excesserunt revertamur.—For Caesar see on §114. M. Claudius Marcellus, consul B.C. 51, was a Pompeian who, after Pharsalus,

retired to Mitylene, where he studied under Cratippus. His friends

procured the pardon which he would not himself sue for, and Cicero in

the pro Marcello (B.C. 46) expresses

his satisfaction at the event. On his way home in the following year

Marcellus was assassinated at Athens. Cp. Sen. ad Helviam ix. §§4-8.

quis ... modus. When _quis_ is used adjectivally, as here

and in §50, it does not mean ‘what kind of’

(as _qui_), but rather ‘will there be any?’ &c. Cp. quis locus

= ‘where is the spot?’ vii. 2, 54 quis testis? quis iudex? ... quod

pretium? quis conscius? For the reading see Crit. Notes.

I:39

Fuit igitur brevitas illa tutissima quae est apud Livium in epistula ad

filium scripta, ‘legendos Demosthenen atque Ciceronem, tum ita, ut

quisque esset Demostheni et Ciceroni simillimus.’

§ 39.

brevitas illa = brevis illa sententia, introducing the clause in

acc. c. inf. Hirt compares Cic. Tusc. iv. §83 et aegritudinis et

reliquorum animi morborum una sanatio est, omnes opinabiles esse et

voluntarios. For fuit see Crit. Notes.

apud Livium. Cp. ii. 5, 20 Cicero ... et iucundus

incipientibus quoque et apertus est satis, nec prodesse tantum, sed

etiam amari potest: tum, quemadmodum Livius praecipit, ut quisque erit

Ciceroni simillimus. In viii. 2, 18 there is a reference probably to the

same source: Livy is made the authority for the story of a teacher ‘qui

discipulos obscurare quae dicerent iuberet, Graeco verbo utens σκότισον.’ Sen. Ep. 100 Nomina

adhuc T. Livium. scripsit enim et dialogos, quos non magis

philosophiae adnumerare possis quam historiae, et ex professo

philosophiam continentes libros. The son is mentioned again in Plin.

N. H. i. 5 and 6. See Teuffel, Rom. Lit. 251 §4.

Demostheni et Ciceroni: §§105-112: Iuv. x. 114. Note the pointed repetition

of the names.

I:40

Non est dissimulanda nostri quoque iudicii

42

summa. Paucos enim vel potius vix ullum ex his qui vetustatem

pertulerunt existimo posse reperiri, quin iudicium adhibentibus

adlaturus sit utilitatis aliquid, cum se Cicero ab illis quoque

vetustissimis auctoribus, ingeniosis quidem, sed arte carentibus,

plurimum fateatur adiutum.

§ 40.

nostri iudicii summa: ‘my

42

opinion in general,’ as opposed to the criticism of each writer

individually. What the gist of this opinion is he states in the next

sentence, with _enim_: see Crit. Notes.—For _summa_ cp.

§48: 3 §10.

vix ullum, &c.: §57. Mayor

compares Plin. Ep. iii. 5 §10 (of the elder Pliny) nihil enim legit

quod non excerperet: dicere enim solebat nullum esse librum tam malum ut

non aliqua parte prodesset. It would be hard to be so charitable

now!

vetustatem pertulerunt: ‘have stood the test of time.’ The

phrase is properly used of wine,—wine that will ‘keep,’ as we

should say (aetatem ferre): Cic. de Amic. §67 ut ea vina quae vetustatem

ferunt: ii. 4, 9 musta ... et annos ferent et vetustate proficiunt: Cat.

de R. R. 114, 2 vinum in vetustatem servare. So Ovid, of his own

works, scripta vetustatem si modo nostra ferent, Trist. v. 9, 8.

For _vetustas_ (lapse of time) cp. Cic. Brut. §258.—There is

a sort of antithesis between the class of authors here referred to and

the _vetustissimi auctores_ mentioned below. In the former he

includes Cato and the Gracchi, ii. 5, 21: the latter are those who were

hardly read at all in Quintilian’s day. In general he uses

_veteres_ or _antiqui_ in contradistinction to those who were

to him _novi_, i.e. the writers of the post-Augustan period:

including in the former Cicero himself as well as his predecessors. ii.

5, 23 et antiquos legere et novos: v. 4, 1 orationes veterum ac novorum:

ix. 3, 1 omnes veteres et Cicero praecipue: Plin. Ep. ix. 22, 1, of

C. Passennus Paullus, in litteris veteres aemulatur ... Propertium

in primis: Tac. Dial. 17, 18.

iudicium adhibentibus: §131: §72.

ingeniosis ... carentibus: i. 8, 8 multum autem veteres etiam

Latini conferunt, quamquam plerique plus ingenio quam arte valuerunt.

Ov. Amor. i. 15, 14, of Callimachus, quamvis ingenio non valet, arte

valet: Tr. ii. 424 Ennius ingenio maximus arte rudis. Mayor quotes also

from Munro’s Lucretius: vol. ii. p. 18 ‘At this period when the

νεώτεροι, as Cicero

calls them, were striving to bring the Alexandrine style into fashion,

there seems to have been almost a formal antithesis between the rude

genius of Ennius and the modern art.’

ingeniosis quidem. Here again (cp. on §34) Cicero would have used the

pronoun,—ingeniosis illis quidem. Cp. §§88, 124: i. 10,

17.

Cicero ... fateatur. The Brutus contains e.g. a eulogy of

Cato, who is said to be rough, but excellent, like the early statues and

paintings and poems: §§61-66: Or. §109. Mayor cites Seneca apud Gell.

xii. 2 (Fragmenta 111) Apud ipsum quoque Ciceronem invenies etiam in

prosa oratione quaedam ex quibus intelligas illum non perdidisse operam

quod Ennium legit.

I:41

Nec multo aliud de novis sentio; quotus enim quisque inveniri tam demens

potest,

43

qui ne minima quidem alicuius certe fiducia partis memoriam posteritatis

speraverit? Qui si quis est, intra primos statim versus deprehendetur,

et citius nos dimittet quam ut eius nobis magno temporis detrimento

constet experimentum.

§ 41.

multo aliud: cp. _quanto aliud_ §53. _Aliud_ here serves for a comparative. So

ix. 4, 26 multo optimum: §72 multo

foedissimum, and in Plin. N. H. _multo_ very often for the

more usual _longe_. Spald.

novis: the writers subsequent to Cicero; viii. 5, 12: ix.

2, 42.

quotus quisque: ‘each unit of what whole number’ = ‘one in how

many,’ and so ‘how small a proportion,’ ‘how few.’ In the nom. sing.

masc. it occurs several times in Cicero, and frequently in Pliny’s

letters. Ovid, A. A. iii. 103, has the fem., Forma dei munus. Forma

quota quaeque superbit. The dat. quoto cuique Plin. Ep. iii. 20 §8:

the acc. quotum quemque Tac. Dial. 29.

tam demens ... qui: §48 nemo erit

tam indoctus qui non ... fateatur: on the other hand §57 tam ... ut non. Herbst cites Pliny, Ep. viii. 14,

3 quotus enim quisque tam patiens ut velit discere quod in usu non sit

habiturus: cp. ib. ii. 19, 6: Panegyr. 15: Xen. Anab. ii. 5, 12 τίς οὕτω μαίνεται ὅστις οὐ σοὶ βούλεται φίλος

εἶναι; ib. vii. 1, 28 ἔστι τις οὕτως ἄφρων

ὅστις οἴεται ἂν ἡμᾶς περιγενέσθαι;; Cic. Phil. ii. §33, where

Mayor quotes Dem. Mid. p. 536, 6 §66 τίς οὕτως ἀλόγιστος ... ἔστιν ὅστις ἑκὼν ἂν ... ἐθελήσειεν

ἀναλῶσαι; and

‘Lives there a man with soul so dead

_Who_ never to himself has said...?’

43

alicuius fiducia partis: ‘with even the smallest confidence at

least in some portion or other (of his writings).’ For the obj. gen. cp.

iv. 2, 113: ix. 3, 51.

memoriam posteritatis: see on §31.

versus: §38.

detrimento: vi. 3, 35 nimium enim risus pretium est si

probitatis impendio constat. The word occurs less commonly than some of

its synonyms with the genitive: here its etymological meaning

(detero–tempus ‘terere’) makes it very appropriate.

I:42

Sed non quidquid ad aliquam partem scientiae pertinet, protinus ad

faciendam φράσιν, de qua

loquimur, accommodatum.

Verum antequam de singulis loquar, pauca in universum de varietate

opinionum dicenda sunt.

§ 42.

protinus: ‘at once,’ ‘as a matter of course.’ See on §3: cp. statim §24.

ad faciendam φράσιν: ‘for the formation of style’: cp. §87 phrasin ... faciant: viii. 1, 1 igitur quam

Graeci φράσιν vocant,

Latine dicimus elocutionem. For the whole expression cp. §65 ad oratores faciendos aptior: xii. 8, 5 cur non

sit orator quando ... oratorem facit: x. 3, 3 vires ... faciamus: ib. §10 qui robur aliquod in

stilo fecerint: ib. §28

faciendus usus: also i. 10, 6: ii. 8, 7: xii. 7, 1.

_Faciendam_ must have belonged to the original text: see Crit. Notes.—Hild reminds us that

we must always keep this point of view in mind in estimating the

literary judgments pronounced by Quintilian in this book: he is

concerned mainly with _form_, in its relation to oratorical style.

In the same way, §87, he does not insist on

the study of Macer and Lucretius: legendi quidem sed non ut φράσιν, id est corpus eloquentiae,

faciant. M. Seneca opposes φράσις to ἕξις (§1): non ἕξις magna sed φράσις (of Albucius) Contr. vii. pr. §2:

elsewhere he has (Excerpt. Contr. iii. pr. §7) habebat ... phrasin non

vulgarem nec sordidam, sed lectam.

in universum: Tac. Germ. 6 in universum aestimanti: ib. 27

_in commune_ opp. to _singuli_.

de varietate opinionum. Dosson refers to Hipp. Rigault,

Histoire de la querelle des anciens et des modernes, vol. i. 1859. In

the third cent. B.C. the question of

the superiority of the ancients over the moderns was discussed between

the supporters and the opponents of Demetrius of Phalerum: in Cicero’s

day it had become confused with the quarrel between the true and the

false Atticists (cp. Brut. §283 sq.): Horace treated it in the first

Epistle of the Second Book: in Quintilian’s own time it was still

discussed, as may be seen from this passage and from the Dialogus de

Oratoribus.

I:43

Nam quidam solos veteres legendos putant neque in ullis aliis esse

naturalem eloquentiam et robur viris dignum arbitrantur, alios recens

haec lascivia

44

deliciaeque et omnia ad voluptatem multitudinis imperitae composita

delectant.

§ 43.

solos veteres. Here again (see on §40) _veteres_ includes the writers of the

Augustan age: cp. §§118, 122, 126: 2 §17. See also ii. 5, 21 sq.,

where Quintilian says that in the case of young people both extremes

should be avoided:—the ancients (such as the Gracchi and Cato),

fient enim horridi atque ieiuni: the moderns, with their depraved taste,

‘ne recentis huius lasciviae flosculis capti voluptate prava

deleniantur.’

robur viris dignum: ii. 5, 23 ex quibus (sc. antiquis) si

adsumatur solida ac virilis ingenii vis deterso rudis saeculi squalore,

tum noster hic cultus clarius enitescet: i. 8, 9 sanctitas certe et, ut

sic dicam, virilitas ab iis (i.e. the veteres Latini) petenda est,

quando nos in omnia deliciarum vitia dicendi quoque ratione defluximus:

v. 12, 17.

recens haec lascivia deliciaeque: ‘the voluptuous and affected

style of our own day’ opp. to rectum dicendi genus, below. Cp. ‘recentis

huius lasciviae flosculi,’ quoted above, also ‘deliciarum vitia.’ Mayor

cites Sen. Ep. xxxiii. 1 non fuerunt circa flosculos occupati: totus

contextus

44

illorum virilis est. See on lascivus §88.

Seneca is probably aimed at here: cp. §125

sq., and Introd. p. xxv. sqq.

I:44

Ipsorum etiam qui rectum dicendi genus sequi volunt, alii pressa demum

et tenuia atque quae minimum

45

ab usu cotidiano recedant, sana et vere Attica putant; quosdam

46

elatior ingenii vis et magis concitata et plena spiritus capit; sunt

etiam lenis et nitidi et compositi generis non pauci amatores. De qua

differentia disseram diligentius, cum de genere dicendi quaerendum erit:

interim summatim, quid et a qua lectione petere possint qui confirmare

facultatem dicendi volent, attingam: paucos enim, qui sunt

eminentissimi, excerpere in animo est.

§ 44.

rectum dicendi genus: the true standard of style (cp. §89), natural and unaffected, and imitating neither

the rude archaism of the ancients nor the bad taste of the moderns. In

ii. 5, 11 it is called sermo rectus (‘straight,’ i.e. direct and

natural) et secundum naturam enuntiatus: and in ix. 3, 3, simplex

rectumque loquendi genus: the style which aims above everything at the

clear and effective expression of thought, apart from all ornament and

trickery. Though termed here a _genus_, it is itself divided into

three _genera_: (1) the simple, terse, concise (ἰσχνόν, tenue, subtile, pressum ...

quod minimum ab usu cotidiano recedit); (2) the grand, broad,

lofty, stirring, passionate (ἁδρόν, uber, grande, amplum, elatum, concitatum);

(3) the flowing, plastic, polished, smooth, melodious, intermediate

(ἀνθηρόν, lene, nitidum,

suave, compositum, medium).

This threefold division of style, ascribed to Theophrastus, was

generally recognised in Greece after the latter part of the 4th century

B.C. Gellius (vi. 14, 8) tells us

that Varro recognised it, employing _uber_, _gracile_, and

_mediocre_ to represent ἁδρόν, ἰσχνόν, and μέσον; and Mr. Nettleship (J. of Philol. xviii.

p. 232) thinks that his treatise περὶ χαρακτήρων bore on this subject. It is

adopted in Cornif. ad Herenn. iv. §§11-16, and is carefully explained by

Cicero in the Orator §§20-21 (where see Sandys’ notes): tria sunt omnino

genera dicendi quibus in singulis quidam floruerunt, peraeque autem, id

quod volumus, perpauci in omnibus. Quintilian evidently considers that

Cicero (see §108) came up to his own ideal

standard in all three styles: Or. §100 is est enim eloquens qui et

humilia subtiliter et magna graviter et mediocria temperate potest

dicere.

Dion. Hal. (probably following Theophrastus περὶ λέξεως) has the same division,

distinguishing as the τρία πλάσματα τῆς λέξεως or γενικώτατοι χαρακτῆρες the χαρακτὴρ ὑψηλός (_genus

grande_), ἰσχνός

(_genus tenue, subtile_), and μέσος (_medium, mediocre_): de Dem. 33 and 34. In

xii. 10, 58 Quintilian repeats this: discerni posse etiam recte dicendi

genera inter se videntur. Namque unum _subtile_, quod ἰσχνόν vocant, alterum _grande_

atque robustum, quod ἁδρόν

dicunt, constituunt; tertium alii _medium_ ex duobus, alii

_floridum_ (namque id ἀνθηρόν appellant) addiderant. In the next section he

goes on to connect this triple division with the three functions of the

orator as laid down in iii. 5, 2: tria sunt item quae praestare debeat

orator, ut doceat, moveat, delectet. The ‘plain’ style is especially

adapted for teaching and explaining: the ‘grand’ for moving the

feelings; while of the ‘middle’ he says ‘ea fere ratio est ut ...

delectandi sive conciliandi praestare videatur officium.’ Cp. Arist.

Rhet. i. 2 p. 1356 _a_ 2 τῶν δὲ διὰ τοῦ λόγου ποριζομένων πίστεων τρία

εἴδη ἐστίν‧ αἱ μὲν γάρ εἰσιν ἐν τῷ ἤθει τοῦ λέγοντος (those which

conciliate good-will—the _medium_, _lene_, _compositum

genus_), αἱ δὲ ἐν τῷ τὸν ἀκροατὴν διαθεῖναί πως (those

which stir the passions—the _grande genus_), αἱ δὲ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ λόγῳ διὰ τοῦ δεικνύναι ἢ φαίνεσθαι

δεικνύναι (those which are addressed to the intellect—the

_genus subtile_). Further on (xii. 10 §64) he says that the

three classes are typified by the oratory of Menelaus, Nestor, and

Ulysses: cp. ii. 17, 8 and Gellius, vi. 14.

In anticipation of the rest of the section the main features of each

of the three styles may here be resumed. The ‘grand’ is distinguished by

a careful avoidance of everything familiar and ordinary: it seeks to

rise above the common idiom by a sustained dignity both of thought and

language, and employs a profusion of ornament of every kind. The ‘plain’

style is marked by simplicity and clearness: it may employ the aid of

art, but it is an art that conceals itself in the avoidance of

everything unfamiliar and in the artistic use of the language of

ordinary life. The ‘middle’ style has more charm than force: while not

distinguished for the excellencies of the other species it has a grace

and sweetness of its own, whence its alternative designation

_floridum_ (ἀνθηρόν) in Quintilian, quoted above: see note on §80.

pressa ... et tenuia, &c., i.e. the _subtile genus_,

or ‘plain style.’ Pressus is used in Quintilian both of a writer and of

his style: it means ‘concise’ (premo), ‘terse,’

45

and the juxtaposition of _tenuis_ here shows that ‘plain

straightforwardness’ is the quality referred to. Cp. xii. 10, 38

tenuiora haec ac pressiora: Cic. de Orat. ii. §96, where oratio pressior

is opp. to luxuries quaedam quae stilo depascenda est: Brut. §201

attenuate presseque dicere opp. to sublate ampleque: Quint. viii. 3, 40

dicere abundanter an presse ... magnifice an subtiliter: ii. 8, 4 presso

limatoque genere dicendi: §15 non enim satis est dicere presse tantum

aut subtiliter aut aspere. _Pressum_ is well defined by Mayor on

this passage: ‘pruned of all rankness, concise, quiet, moderate,

self-controlled; opposed to extravagance, heat, turgidity, redundance’:

cp. premere tumentia 4 §1. To writers _pressus_

is applied §§46, 102: 2 §16: cp. xii. 10, 16 (Attici)

pressi et integri ... (Asiani) inflati et inanes: Brut. §51 parum pressi

et nimis redundantes: ib. §202 cavenda presso illi oratori inopia et

ieiunitas: Tac. Dial. 18 inflatus et tumens nec satis pressus sed supra

modum exultans.—In Cic. de Or. ii. §56 Wilkins thinks that

_pressus_ (verbis aptus et pressus—of Thucydides) means

‘precise,’ not ‘concise’: comparing de Fin. iv. 10, 24 mihi placet agi

subtilius et pressius: Tusc. iv. 7, 14 definiunt pressius: Cic. Hortens.

Fragm. 46 (Baiter) ‘pressum, subtile, M. Tullius in Hortensio, quis

te aut est aut fuit unquam in partiundis rebus, in definiendis, in

explicandis pressior?’ Cp. Quint, iv. 2, 117 pressus et velut adplicitus

rei cultus.—The word frequently occurs in Pliny: see Mayor on iii.

18, 10.

tenuia: §64: 2 §19. The Greek equivalents are

ἰσχνός, λιτός,

ἀφελής. Cp Or. §20, where Sandys says “The primary meaning of

_tenuis_ is ‘thin’; its metaphorical use as an epithet of style is

derived, not from the notion of slimness and slenderness of form (like

ἰσχνός and

_gracilis_), but from thinness and fineness of texture (§124 ‘tenuis causa,’ ‘tenue argumentandi filum’;

Quint. ix. 4, 17 illud in Lysia dicendi textum tenue atque rasum,

_al._ rarum). Cp. _subtilis_ and _simplex_.” The word is

used in a depreciatory sense xii. 8, 1 neque enim quisquam tam ingenio

tenui reperietur qui, cum omnia quae sunt in causa diligenter cognoverit

ad docendum certe iudicem non sufficiat. In this sense Hor. Car. ii. 16,

38 is generally interpreted: spiritum Graiae tenuem Camenae.—For

atque quae, see Crit. Notes.

demum, 3 §13: 6 §5: = ‘only,’ for

_tantum_, _dumtaxat_, with no indication of time, though

Frieze says the use implies ‘that some conclusion has been reached as

the only thing that remains to be accepted after every alternative has

been considered.’ So i. pr. 3 plusquam imponebatur oneris sponte

suscepi, ... simul ne vulgarem viam ingressus alienis demum vestigiis

insisterem: ii. 15, 1 bonis demum (haec) tribui volunt. Suet. Aug. 24:

Traian. ad Plin. E. 10, 33.—It is, of course, frequent in Latin of

every period with pronouns, to give emphasis, like _adeo_: ei demum

oratori, Cic. de Or. ii. §131.

usu cotidiano: xii. 10, 40 Adhuc quidam nullam esse naturalem

putant eloquentiam nisi quae sit cotidiano sermoni simillima: viii. pr.

23 sunt optima minime arcessita et simplicibus atque ab ipsa veritate

profectis similia, §25 atqui satis aperte Cicero praeceperat ‘in dicendo

vitium vel maximum esse a vulgari genere orationis ... abhorrere’: xi.

1, 6 neque humile atque cotidianum sermonis genus ... epilogis dabimus.

Mayor cites Dion. Hal. ad Cn. Pomp. de Plat. p. 758 R: id. de

Lys. 3: de Isocr. 2 and 11.

sana et vere Attica. Those who take this view interpret the

term ‘Attic’ too narrowly: it comprehends the best examples of all three

_genera_. Quintilian protests against this misrepresentation in

xii. 10, 21 sq. quapropter mihi falli multum videntur qui solos esse

Atticos credunt tenues et lucidos et significantes, sed quadam

eloquentiae frugalitate contentos ac semper manum intra pallium

continentes: §25 quid est igitur cur in iis demum qui tenui venula per

calculos fluunt Atticum saporem putent, ibi demum thymum redolere

dicant? ib. §26 melius de hoc nomine sentiant credantque Attice dicere

esse optime dicere. The discussion of the true and the false Atticism

holds a place also in the Brutus of Cicero: see esp. §201 sq. and

§§283-292, the criticism of Calvus and his school: cp. ib. §51 illam

salubritatem Atticae dictionis et quasi sanitatem ... Asiatici oratores

... parum pressi et nimis redundantes. Rhodii saniores et Atticorum

similiores. Or. §90: de Opt. Gen. Or. §8 imitemur ... eos potius qui

incorrupta sanitate sunt, quod est proprium Atticorum: ib. §§11, 12.

Tac. Dial. 25 omnes (Calvus, Asinius, Caesar, Brutus, Cicero) eandem

sanitatem eloquentiae prae se ferunt: cp. 26 illam ipsam quam

46

iactant sanitatem non firmitate sed ieiunio consequuntur: Quint. ii. 4,

9 macies pro sanitate: xii. 10, 15 hi sunt enim qui suae imbecillitati

sanitatis appellationem, quae est maxime contraria, obtendunt. So ὑγιές in Greek: cp. bona

valetudo, Brut. §64.

elatior ingenii vis, as in the _grave genus_, or ‘grand

style’: Cic. Orat. §§97-99. Cp. nihil elatum vi. 2, 19: ib. §§20-24. For

the compar. cp. _tersior_ §94.

et magis concitata. Frequently in Quintilian a comparative is

followed by the positive with _magis_: cp. §§74, 77, 88, 94, 120. For _concitata_ cp. §§73, 90, 114, 118: 2 §23: xii. 10, 26.

plena spiritus: see on §27: cp.

§§16, 61, 104: 3 §22.—In ix. 3, 1

Quintilian observes that in his time _plenus_ was generally used

with the abl., while in Cicero it usually has the gen. He himself has

both.

lenis et nitidi et compositi generis, i.e. the ‘middle’ style:

see above, and on §121 (with quotation

from Cic. Or. §21: cp. ib. §91 and §§95-96). Cp. xii. 10, 60: and 67

illud lene aut ascendit ad fortiora aut ad tenuiora summittitur. The

constant antithesis of such words as _vehemens_, _acer_,

&c. makes it probable that _lenis_ is the right reading here,

not _levis_ (see Crit.

Notes): cp. esp. Cic. de Or. ii. §211, where lenis atque summissa

(oratio) is opposed to intenta ac vehemens (quae suscipitur ab oratore

ad concitandos animos atque omni ratione flectendos): de Or. i. §255

sermonis lenitas ... vis et contentio: Brut. 317 alter remissus et lenis

... alter acer, verborum et actionis genere commotior: ‘lenis’ opposed

to ‘vehemens’ de Or. ii. §§58, 200, 211, 216 and similarly to asper §64:

ib. iii. 7, 28: Or. §127: Quint. iii. 8, 51: vi. 3, 87.

nitidi: see on §9.

compositi: see on §79

compositione. It means ‘harmonious,’ ‘rhythmical,’ referring to the

careful arrangement of words, §§52, 66: 2 §1. This is a special feature

of the ‘middle’ style: compositione aptus xii. 10, 60.—(Dosson

renders ‘tranquille,’ unimpassioned,—a common use of the word, but

perhaps not so appropriate here.)

de genere dicendi: see xii. 10, §§63-70, where he teaches that

every variety of style in oratory has its place and use.

confirmare facultatem dicendi = i.e. acquire the _firma

facilitas_ of §1.

I:45

Facile est autem studiosis, qui sint his simillimi, iudicare, ne

quisquam queratur omissos forte aliquos quos ipse valde probet; fateor

enim plures legendos esse quam qui a me nominabuntur. Sed nunc genera

ipsa lectionum, quae praecipue convenire intendentibus ut oratores fiant

existimem, persequar.

47

§ 45.

paucos enim explains _summatim_, ‘for _only_ a few.’

See Mayor on Iuv. x. 2: and cp. §§3, 8, 27, 31, 35, 42, 67, 87 for a similar limitation. See Crit. Notes.

studiosis, used absolutely (cp. studendum 3 §29), of students of

literature, or (most commonly) of students of rhetoric. So i. pr. 23:

ii. 10, 15: xii. 10, 62: and (with _iuvenis_) 3 §32: xii. 11, 31. Cp. Cic. de

Opt. Gen. Or. §13 (possibly with _dicendi_): Plin. Ep. iii. 5, 2

(where see Mayor’s note): ib. iv. 13, 10: Tac. Dial. 21.

ne quisquam queratur: i.e. quod commemoro propterea, ne ... ‘I

say this, lest,’ &c.—For qui a me, see Crit. Notes.

genera ipsa: here and in §104

_genera_ = classes or kinds, as represented by their characteristic

or typical writers.—“For _ipsum_ in the sense of ‘merely’ cp.

de Or. ii. §§109, 219, 306: ib. iii. §222: pro Balb. §33: ad Quint.

Fratr. i. 3, 6: Val. Max. iii. 2, 7: Quint. ix. 2, 44: x. 1,

103.”—Reid, on Orator (Sandys), §181.

lectionum: ‘what is to be read.’ For the passive use cp. Sen.

Tranq. i. 12 ubi lectio fortior erexit animum et aculeos

47

subdiderunt exempla nobilia. The plural occurs only here in Quintilian:

elsewhere the word is singular, with an abstract meaning: but cp. §19.—Note the accumulation of verbs at

the end of the sentence.

ANALYSIS OF THE ARGUMENT (46-84)

§§ 46-84. GREEK LITERATURE.

§§ 46-72. Greek Poetry.

§§46-61. _Epic, didactic, pastoral,

elegiac, iambic, and lyric poetry proper._

The praise of Homer, §§46-51: ‘it is much to understand, impossible

to rival, his greatness.’ Hesiod is rich in moral maxims, and a master

of the ‘middle style’: Antimachus, Panyasis, Apollonius, Aratus,

Theocritus, and others, §§52-57. A word in passing about the

elegiac poets, represented by Callimachus and Philetas, §58. Of

_iambographi_ the typical writer is Archilochus, §§59-60. The chief

lyric poets are Pindar (§61), Stesichorus (§62), Alcaeus (§63), and

Simonides (§64).

§§65-72. _Dramatic poetry._

The Old Comedy (§§65-66) with its pure Attic diction and freedom of

political criticism is more akin to oratory and more fitted to form the

orator than any other class of poetry,—always excepting Homer.

Tragedy (§§67-68) is represented by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and

Euripides: of the latter two Euripides is more useful for the orator. He

was imitated by Menander (§§69-72), the ‘mirror of life,’ who might

alone suffice to form the orator. Menander’s superiority to all other

comic dramatists.

§§73-75. Greek Historians.

The pregnant brevity of Thucydides, the charm and transparency of

Herodotus. Theopompus: Philistus (‘the little Thucydides’): Ephorus, and

others.

§§76-80. Greek Orators.

Demosthenes the standard of eloquence, in whom there is nothing

either too

3

much or too little. Aeschines more diffuse: ‘more flesh, less muscle.’

Hyperides is pleasing, but more at home in less important causes. Lysias

resembles a clear spring rather than a full river. Isocrates belongs to

the gymnasium rather than to the field of battle: in arrangement

punctilious to a fault. Demetrius of Phalerum the last Athenian worthy

of the name of orator.

§§81-84. Greek Philosophers.

Both in respect of reasoning power and for beauty of style, Plato

holds the first place. Of Xenophon’s artless charm it might be said that

‘Persuasion herself perched upon his lips.’ Aristotle is famous alike

for knowledge, productiveness, grace of style, invention, and

versatility. Theophrastus owed even his name to the divine splendour of

his language. The Stoics were the champions of virtue, and showed their

strength in defending their tenets: the grand style they did not

affect.

I:46

Igitur, ut Aratus ab Iove incipiendum putat, ita nos rite coepturi ab

Homero videmur. Hic enim, quem ad modum ex Oceano dicit ipse

omnium _fluminum_ fontiumque cursus initium capere, omnibus

eloquentiae partibus exemplum et ortum dedit.

48

Hunc nemo in magnis rebus sublimitate, in parvis proprietate

superaverit. Idem laetus ac pressus, iucundus et gravis, tum copia tum

brevitate mirabilis, nec poetica modo, sed oratoria virtute

eminentissimus.

§ 46.

ab Iove incipiendum. Phaenom. 1 ἐκ Διὸς ἀρχώμεσθα. Cic. de Rep. i. §36 imitemur

(al. mitabor ergo) Aratum qui magnis de rebus dicere exordiens a Iove

incipiendum putat ... rite ab eo dicendi principium capiamus. So Theocr.

xvii. 1 Ἐκ Διὸς ἀρχώμεσθα καὶ ες Δία λήγετε

Μοῖσαι—imitated by Vergil, Ecl. iii. 60 Ab Iove principium

musae: cp. Hor. Od. i. 12, 13 quid prius dicam solitis parentis

laudibus?—For Aratus see on §55

rite. Cp. §85 ut apud illos

(Graecos) Homerus sic apud nos Vergilius auspicatissimum dederit

exordium. “Such a commencement will be a sort of consecration of the

whole course; it is the solemn and auspicious order of

proceeding.”—Mayor.

coepturi ... videmur: sc. nobis: cp. §56: Cic. de Off. i. §§1, 2: ii. §5.—For the

participle instead of the fut. inf. cp. v. pr. §5 eius praecepta sic

optime divisuri videmur: ib. 7 §13: i. 2, 2: ii. 5, 3: vi. pr. §1

hanc optimam partem relicturus hereditatis videbar: ib. 4, 1: vii.

2, 42. Becher (Quaest. Gramm. p. 16) explains the usage by

assuming an ellipse, so that ‘rite coepturi ab Homero videmur’ = ‘nos ab

Homero coepturi rite coepisse videmur’; but this is unnecessary, and the

collocation of _coepturi_ and _coepisse_ in fact

impossible.

ab Homero. So in the schools i. 8, §5 ideoque optime

institutum est ut ab Homero atque Vergilio lectio inciperet: cp. Plin.

Ep. ii. 14, §2.

ex Oceano. Il. xxi. 195-197 Ὠκεανοῖο ἐξ οὗπερ πάντες ποταμοὶ καὶ πᾶσα

θάλασσα καὶ πᾶσαι κρῆναι καὶ φρείατα μακρὰ νάουσιν.—Dion.

Hal. uses the same image de Comp. Verb. 24 Κορυφὴ μὲν οὖν

ἁπάντων καὶ σκοπός, ἐξ οὗπερ πάντες ποταμοὶ καὶ πᾶσα θάλασσα καὶ πᾶσαι

κρῆναι δικαίως ἂν Ὅμηρος λέγοιτο. Cp. Ovid, Amor. iii. 9, 25

Aspice Maeoniden, a quo, ceu fonte perenni, Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur

aquis.

omnium fluminum fontiumque. For the reading see Crit. Notes: cp. §78.

omnibus eloquentiae partibus. Eustathius pr. ad Odys.

p. 1379 τὸν πάσης τῆς ἐν λόγοις τέχνης καθηγητήν, ἐξ οὗ

οἷα τινὸς ὠκεανοῦ πάντες ποταμοῖ καὶ πᾶσαι λογικῶν μεθόδων πηγαί:

Manilius, Astr. ii. 8 Cuiusque ex ore profusos Omnis posteritas latices

in carmina duxit Amnemque in tenues ausa est diducere rivos Unius

fecunda bonis. Cp. the references to Homer in the various departments of

literature dealt with by Quintilian: §§62,

65, 81, 85, 86. So xii.

11, 21 in quo (sc. Homero) nullius non artis aut opera perfecta aut

certe non dubia vestigia reperiuntur. Cic. Brut. §40 ornatus in dicendo

et plane orator. Homer’s influence on all later culture is a

common-place in ancient writers. Specially in regard to oratory, the

speeches of his three heroes were taken as types of three styles of

rhetoric: xii. 10, 64: ii. 17, 8. The eulogy here pronounced on him

is systematically arranged with reference to the essential elements of

practical oratory. After alluding to (1) the three kinds of oratory

(see notes on §44) in the terms

_sublimitas_, _proprietas_, _pressus_, _laetus_ (§46), he passes (2) to the two classes of

practical speeches, judicial and deliberative (_litium ac

consiliorum_) (§47): and then refers to

(3) the mastery of the emotions (_adfectus_) (§48): (4) the constituent parts of a regular

forensic speech—(_prooemium_, _genera probandi ac

refutandi_, _epilogus_) (§§48, 49, 50):

(5) well-chosen terms, well-put thoughts, lively figures, and

everywhere clear arrangement (_dispositio_) (§50). “In this notice of Homer and in that of Cicero

(§105 sqq.) and of Seneca (§125 sqq.) Quintilian introduces more of detail than

in his brief remarks on the rest of the authors in his sketch. In

general his plan, as indicated above in §§44, 45, is to mention

the typical writers of different departments of literature best adapted

to the purposes of the orator or forensic advocate, and in a few words

to point out their characteristics with particular reference to their

fitness as exemplars of oratorical style, or φράσις. As this is his sole aim, so distinctly

stated, the strictures of some critics on the brevity and meagreness of

these notices show that they have failed to comprehend the purpose of

the author.”—Frieze.

48

sublimitate: §27: viii. 6,

§11.

proprietate. Here this word furnishes a sort of antithesis to

_sublimitas_, and means ‘suitability,’ ‘simplicity,’ ‘naturalness’:

cp. the definition given at viii. 2, 1 sua cuiusque rei appellatio. In

the same sense §64 sermone proprio, of an

easy and unaffected style. A different use of _proprius_ will

be found at §6 (where see note): §29: 5 §8.

superaverit. For this subj. of modified assertion cp. on

_fuerit_ §37.

laetus, ‘flowery,’ i.e. rich, ornate, exuberant. Cp. 2 §16: xii. 10, 80: xi.

1, 49. This use is akin to that by which the word is employed as a

metaphor to denote richness of vegetation: Verg. Georg. i. 1 and 74 (cp.

note on 5 §14): and

also of the sleek condition of well-fed cattle: Aen. iii. 220. Cp. Cic.

de Orat. iii. §155.—There is no need for Francius’s conj.

_latus_ or Kraffert’s _latior_ (cp. xii. 10, 23), or

Gustaffson’s _elatus_ (4 §1).

pressus, pruned, trimmed down, ‘chaste,’ ‘concise’: see on §44.

iucundus et gravis, ‘sprightly and serious.’ So §119 iucundus et delectationi natus: and iucunditas

§§64, 82: 2 §23. Mayor cites Plin.

Ep. iv. 3, 2 nam severitatem istam pari iucunditate condire summaeque

gravitati tantum comitatis adiungere non minus difficile quam magnum

est: ib. v. 17, 2 (of Calpurnius Piso) excelsa depressis, exilia plenis,

severis iucunda mutabat.

tum ... tum: a usage (frequent in Cicero) which Quintilian

sought to revive. Wölfflin, Archiv f. Lexikogr. ii. p. 241.

I:47

Nam ut de laudibus, exhortationibus,

49

consolationibus taceam, nonne vel nonus liber, quo missa ad Achillen

legatio continetur, vel in primo inter duces illa contentio vel dictae

in secundo sententiae omnes litium ac consiliorum explicant artes?

§ 47.

Nam ut, &c. This sentence contains the proof of Homer’s

_oratoria virtus_: he furnishes models of the three recognised

styles of rhetoric, (1) genus demonstrativum (ἐπιδεικτικόν) or _laudativum_:

(2) genus deliberativum sive suasorium (συμβουλευτικόν): and (3) genus iudiciale

(δικανικόν). Cp.

iii. 4. Cope Arist. Rhet. introd. 118-123, and the notes on

13 §1: Cic. de Inv. i. §§7, 8, 12: ii. §§12, 13: Orat. Part.

§§10-14, 69-138: de Orat. i. §141 and Wilkins’ introd. p. 56.

In the words ut ... taceam, Quintilian passes lightly over the

main features of the γένος ἐπιδεικτικόν (set speeches aiming at

display—ἐπίδειξις, ‘ostentatio declamatoria’ iv. 3, 2),

in order to dwell more specially on the appropriateness of the study of

Homer with reference to forensic and legislative debates (litium ac

consiliorum). In doing so, he no doubt wishes to indicate the relative

importance of the three kinds for the practical training of the orator,

just as Cicero (Or. §§37-42) restricts his portraiture of the perfect

orator to the _practical_ oratory of public life, i.e. the

deliberative and forensic branches, to the exclusion of the γένος ἐπιδεικτικόν.

laudibus. These belong distinctly to the epideictic branch,

for which see iii. 4, 12: Tac. Dial. 31 in laudationibus de honestate

disserimus. So ἔπαινοι

and ἐγκώμια: see

Volkmann, Rhet. §33. As examples of _laudationes_ may be cited

Cicero’s Eulogy on Cato (Or. §35) and his sister Porcia (ad Att. xiii.

37, 3): and in Greek the Evagoras and Helenae Encomium of

Isocrates.

exhortationibus might in itself (like _consolationibus_:

cp. xi. 3, 153) be used of the _genus deliberativum_, which

included the _suasoriae_ (Tac. Dial. 35)—‘consilium dedimus

Sullae privatus ut altum dormiret’, Iuv. i. 16; and in order to find a

reference in each of the three items enumerated to the three kinds of

rhetoric, Kraffert proposed to read _consultationibus_ for

_consolationibus_ (cp. controversiae Tac. Dial. 35), so that

_laudibus_ should = laudativum genus, _exhortationibus_ =

deliberativum, and _consultationibus_ = iudiciale. But this is a

misunderstanding of Quintilian’s meaning. _Exhortatio_ and

_consolatio_ may easily enter into a λόγος ἐπιδεικτικός, a speech written for

display and not for delivery in public, just as _suasio_ does in

the passage of the _Orator_ referred to above: laudationum et

historiarum et ... suasionum ... reliquarumque scriptionum formam, quae

absunt a forensi contentione, eiusque totius generis, quod Graece ἐπιδεικτικόν nominatur ...

non complectar hoc tempore (§37). Cp. Quint. iii. 4, 14 an quisquam

negaverit Panegyricos ἐπιδεικτικούς esse? atqui formam suadendi habent,

&c.

49

legatio of Odysseus, Aias, and Phoenix: contentio

between Achilles and Agamemnon: dictae ... sententiae: the

council of war (Agamemnon, Ulysses, Nestor, Thersites) Il. ii.

40-394.—The selection from a poet of such passages as seemed to

bear most closely on the training of a student of rhetoric was a

familiar process in ancient schools.

litium ac consiliorum. These words contain a distinct

reference to the _genus iudiciale_ and the _genus

deliberativum_, respectively,—to the exclusion of the _genus

demonstrativum_, i.e. the ‘epideictic’ or non-practical kind of

speeches. Cp. Cic. de Orat. i. §22 Graecos ... video ... seposuisse a

ceteris dictionibus eam partem dicendi quae in forensibus

disceptationibus iudiciorum aut deliberationum versaretur: cp. suasoriae

et controversiae Tac. Dial. 35. The prominence given to _litium ac

consiliorum_ shows that Professor Mayor is wrong in seeing in

_exhortationibus_ and _consolationibus_ above a specific

reference to the ‘genus deliberativum’: that would involve a duplicate

enumeration.

artes: the ‘rules of art,’ or technical precepts of the

rhetoricians. See on §15 exempla potentiora

... ipsis quae traduntur artibus.

I:48

Adfectus quidem vel illos mites vel hos concitatos nemo erit tam

indoctus qui non in sua potestate hunc auctorem habuisse fateatur. Age

vero, non utriusque operis sui ingressu in paucissimis versibus legem

prooemiorum non dico servavit, sed constituit? Nam benevolum auditorem

invocatione dearum

50

quas praesidere vatibus creditum est, et intentum proposita rerum

magnitudine, et docilem summa celeriter comprehensa facit.

§ 48.

Adfectus quidem, &c. In the passage which Quintilian may have

had in view. Dionysius, after showing, as Quintilian has done, that

Homer is admirable in every respect, and not in one only, goes on to say

that he is a master in particular of the ἤθη and πάθη,

of μέγεθος (rerum

magnitudine §48) and of οἰκονομία (in dispositione totius

operis §50): τῆς μὲν οὖν Ὁμηρικῆς

ποιήσεως οὐ μίαν τινὰ τοῦ σώματος μοῖραν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκτύπωσαι τὸ σύμπαν, καὶ

λάβε ζῆλον ἠθῶν τε τῶν ἐκεῖ καὶ παθῶν καὶ μεγέθους, καὶ τῆς οἰκονομίας

καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἀρετῶν ἁπασῶν εἰς ἀληθῆ τὴν παρὰ σοὶ μίμησιν ἠλλαγμένων:

περὶ μιμήσεως 2 (Usener, p. 19). See what Quintilian says of

_adfectus_ in vi. 2 §§8-10: esp. adfectus igitur concitatos

πάθος, mites atque

compositos ἦθος esse

dixerunt: and cp. §§73 and 101 below. _Illos ... hos_ indicates what was a

well-known antithesis. The former (ἤθη) were habitual and characteristic conditions of

individual minds: the latter (πάθη) for the most part occasional (temporale vi.

2, 10), and more moving (perturbatio ib.).

tam ... qui: see on §41.

auctorem: ‘master,’ ‘teacher.’ Cp, on §24.

Age vero: ‘and further,’ a formula of transition generally

leading to something more important. Here it introduces the five

constituent parts of an oration, exordium (προοίμιον), narratio, probatio, refutatio (διήγησις, πίστις or

ἀπόδειξις or κατασκευή, λύσις or

ἀνασκευή §49), peroratio (ἐπίλογος). Cp. Cic. Or. §122 and de Orat. ii. §80 with

Sandys’ and Wilkins’ notes: de Inv. i. §19: Cornif. ad Herenn. i.

§4.

ingressu: see Crit.

Notes.

non dico ... sed. So 7 §2: cp. i. 10, 35.

legem prooemiorum ... constituit: iv. 1, 34 docilem sine dubio

et haec ipsa praestat attentio, sed et illud, si breviter et dilucide

summam rei, de qua cognoscere debeat, iudicaverimus: quod Homerus atque

Vergilius operum suorum principiis faciunt: ib. §42 ut sit in principiis

recta benevolentiae et attentionis postulatio: Hor. Ars Poet. 140.

benevolum ... intentum ... docilem. The orator’s first task is

to gain the good-will of his hearers, and to secure their attention. Cp.

iv. i, 5 causa principii (i.e. prooemii, exordii) nulla alia est quam ut

auditorem, quo sit nobis in ceteris partibus accommodatior, praeparemus.

Id fieri tribus maxime rebus inter auctores plurimos constat, si

benevolum attentum docilem fecerimus: iii. 5, 2: xi. 1, 6. Cic. de

Orat. ii. §115 and

50

322-3: Brut. §185. Mayor cites Dion. Hal. de Lysia 17 οὔτε γὰρ εὔνοιαν κινῆσαι

βουλόμενος, οὔτε προσοχήν, οὔτε εὐμάθειαν, ἀτυχήσειέ ποτε τοῦ

σκοποῦ.

invocatione dearum. Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, and Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα.

vatibus: ‘bards,’ instinctis divino spiritu vatibus xii. 10,

24: Verg. Eclog. ix. 32 me fecere poetam Pierides ... me quoque dicunt

vatem pastores. Tac. Dial. 9 Saleium nostrum, egregium poetam, vel si

hoc honorificentius est, praeclarissimum vatem. _Poeta_, which is

sometimes used slightingly of verse-makers (Cic. in Pis. 29 ut

assentatorem, ut poetam: Tusc. i. 2 quod in provinciam poetas duxisset),

had not the same solemn associations as _vates_.

creditum est: as at 4 §1: cp. ii. 15, 7. The

perfect is continuous = νενόμισται. The personal construction occurs at §125. For the impersonal cp. Tac. Ann. ii.

69. ‘Tacitus appears to prefer the personal construction when a single

personal subject is spoken of, and the impersonal in other cases, but

even this rule is by no means without exceptions’ Furneaux, Introd. to

Annals, p. 45.

intentum ... magnitudine. Cic. de Inv. i. §23 attentos autem

faciemus si demonstrabimus ea quae dicturi erimus magna nova

incredibilia esse.

docilem: ‘receptive’; iv. 1, 34 (cited above on _legem

prooemiorum_), ad Herenn. i. §7 dociles auditores habere poterimus,

si summam causae breviter exponemus.

comprehensa: cp. xi. 1, 51: ix. 3, 91 comprehensa breviter

sententia. So Lucr. vi. 1083 sed breviter paucis praestat comprendere

multa: Cic. de Orat. i. §34. So that _celeriter_ here almost =

breviter.

I:49

Narrare vero quis brevius quam qui mortem nuntiat Patrocli, quis

significantius potest quam qui Curetum Aetolorumque proelium exponit?

Iam similitudines, amplificationes, exempla, digressus, signa rerum et

argumenta ceteraque _genera_ probandi

51

ac refutandi sunt ita multa ut etiam qui de artibus scripserunt plurima

earum rerum testimonia ab hoc poeta petant.

§ 49.

narrare: iv. 2, 31 eam (narrationem) plerique scriptores ...

volunt esse lucidam, brevem, veri similem: Cic. de Inv. i. §28 brevis,

aperta, probabilis.

qui ... nuntiat: Antilochus, Il. xviii. 18. His κεῖται Πάτροκλος seems to have

become proverbial: Pliny Ep. iv. 11, 12.

significantius: ‘more graphically,’ or ‘with more force of

expression.’ Cp. significantia §121.

qui ... exponit, Phoenix, in Il. ix. 529 sqq.

iam, transitional particle, as often in Cicero: §§98, 111.

similitudines. v. 11, 1 tertium genus ex iis quae extrinsecus

adducuntur in causam Graeci vocant παράδειγμα, quo nomine et generaliter usi sunt in

omni similium adpositione et specialiter in iis quae rerum gestarum

auctoritate nituntur. Nostri fere _similitudinem_ vocare maluerunt

quod ab illis παραβολή

dicitur, hoc alterum _exemplum_: viii. 3, 72 praeclare ad

inferendam rebus lucem repertae sunt similitudines (i.e. the use of

simile).

amplificationes = αὐξήσεις (Cic. Or. §125). The various rhetorical means

of expanding and developing an idea in expression are discussed in viii.

4, 3 under the heads of _incrementum_, _comparatio_,

_ratiocinatio_, and _congeries_. Ad Herenn. ii. 47

amplificatio est res quae per locum communem instigationis auditorum

causa sumitur.

exempla: v. 11, 6 potentissimum autem est inter ea quae sunt

huius generis exemplum, id est rei gestae aut ut gestae utilis ad

persuadendum id quod intenderis commemoratio: ib. 2 §1: Cic. de

Inv. i. §49. The stock illustration is that given in Aristotle’s

Rhetoric: “if a man has asked for a bodyguard, and the speaker wishes to

show that the aim is a tyranny, he may quote the ‘instances’ (παραδείγματα) of Dionysius

and Pisistratus.”

digressus, ‘episodes’: cp. on §33.

signa rerum et argumenta: the ‘evidence of material facts’ and

‘inferences.’ In the former we have sensible proof of things (e.g.

cruenta vestis, clamor, livor, &c. v. 9, 1); in the latter

logical deductions from circumstantial facts: v. 10, 11 cum sit

argumentum ratio probationem praestans, qua colligitur aliquid per

aliud, et quae quod est dubium per id quod dubium non est confirmat. To

distinguish _signa_ from _argumenta_ Quintilian says v. 9, 1

nec inveniuntur ab oratore

51

sed ad eam cum ipsa cansa deferuntur: and again, signa sive indubitata

sunt, non sunt argumenta, quia, ubi illa sunt, quaestio non est,

argumento autem nisi in re controversa locus esse non potest: sive dubia

non sunt argumenta, sed ipsa argumentis egent: Cic. de Inv. §48. For

_argumenta_ see v. 10, 1 hoc ... nomine complectimur omnia quae

Graeci ἐνθυμήματα, ἐπιχειρήματα, ἀποδείξεις vocant: ib.

§§10-12.

ceteraque genera: see Crit. Notes.

probandi. After _narratio_ comes _probatio_ or (as

more commonly in Cicero, e.g. de Inv. i. §34) _confirmatio_ (see on

5 §12). So ii. 17, 6

narrent, probent, refutent. Cp. iv. 2, 79 aut quid inter probationem et

narrationem interest, nisi quod narratio est probationis continua

propositio, rursus probatio narrationi congruens confirmatio? For the

_probationes artificiales_ (ἔντεχνοι πίστεις) see v. chs. 8-12: for the

_probationes inartificiales_ ἄτεχνοι πίστεις ib. chs. 1-7.

refutandi. For Quintilian’s definition see v. 13, 1 sq., and

cp. note on _destructio_ 5 §12. Cicero often uses

_refellere_: de Orat. ii. §163 aut ad probandum aut ad refellendum.

For _refutare_ cp. ib. §80 nostra confirmare argumentis ac

rationibus, deinde contraria refutare: §§203, 307, 312.—In de

Prov. Cons. §32 and de Har. Resp. §7 (conatum refutabo) the word is used

in the sense of _repellere_.

artibus, the ‘principles of rhetoric’: §§15 and 47.

testimonia, ‘illustrations,’ confirmatory examples. Cp. i.

8, 12. ‘Homerus’ in the index to most Greek and Latin authors will

supply evidence of the truth of Quintilian’s statement. Cic. ad Att. i.

16, 1 respondebo tibi ὕστερον πρότερον

Ὀμηρικῶς: Plin. Ep. iii. 9, 28 praepostere ... facit hoc Homerus

multique illius exemplo.

I:50

Nam epilogus quidem quis umquam poterit illis Priami rogantis Achillen

precibus aequari? Quid? In verbis, sententiis, figuris, dispositione

totius operis nonne humani ingenii modum excedit? ut magni sit virtutes

eius non aemulatione, quod fieri non

52

potest, sed intellectu sequi.

§ 50.

nam. See on §12: cp. §§9, 50.

epilogus = peroratio: see note on §107. The advocate will find many pathetic and

moving passages in Homer such as will be serviceable for his closing

appeal, which is generally addressed to the feelings and hearts of his

hearers; vii. 4, 19 epilogi omnes in eadem fere materia versari solent:

vi. 1, 1 eius (perorationis) duplex ratio est, posita aut in rebus aut

in adfectibus. Cicero uses _conclusio_ as a synonym, de Inv. i.

§98, where he says it has three parts, _enumeratio_,

_indignatio_, and _conquestio_, defining the last (§106) as

oratio auditorum misericordiam captans. in hac primum animum auditoris

mitem et misericordem conficere oportet.—For Priam’s entreaty see

Il. xxiv. 486 sqq.

Quid? ... nonne: cp. Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. §119. So with

_non_ §56 below, and 2 §25.

verbis, sententiis, figuris: xii. 9, 6 verborum quidem

dilectus, gravitas sententiarum, figurarum elegantia. For _figurae_

see on §12. _Sententiis_ = γνώμαις §§52, 60, 68, 90, 102, 129, 130: 2 §17: 5 §4. See viii. 5, 1 sq.

consuetudo iam tenuit ut mente concepta sensus vocaremus, lumina autem

praecipueque in clausulis posita sententias ... antiquissimae sunt quae

proprie, quamvis omnibus idem nomen sit, sententiae vocantur, quas

Graeci γνώμας appellant:

utrumque autem nomen ex eo acceperunt quod similes sunt consiliis aut

decretis. est autem haec vox universalis, quae etiam citra complexum

causae possit esse laudabilis, &c.

dispositione = οἰκονομίᾳ: see on _adfectus_ §48. Cp. 5 §14.

humani ingenii modum: §86 ut illi

naturae caelesti atque immortali cesserimus.

ut magni sit. There has been some controversy over this. The

text is best explained by supplying _ingenii_ out of what

immediately precedes. Others supply _viri_, which is actually given

in some of the later MSS.: while others again take _magni_ as a

gen. of price ‘of great value,’ or ‘worth much.’ Wrobel thinks it can

stand alone, as _res magni est_: i.e. it ‘takes a good deal’ even

to appreciate Homer’s excellences. Kiderlin supposes that

_spiritus_ has fallen out, and compares i. 9, 6. See Crit. Notes.

52

intellectu sequi: ii. 5, 21 neque vim eorum adhuc intellectu

consequentur.

I:51

Verum hic omnes sine dubio et in omni genere eloquentiae procul a se

reliquit, epicos tamen praecipue, videlicet quia clarissima in materia

simili comparatio est.

§ 51.

sine dubio: see Introd. p. liii.

clarissima comparatio: ‘the contrast is most striking.’

I:52

Raro adsurgit Hesiodus magnaque pars eius in nominibus est

occupata, tamen utiles circa praecepta sententiae levitasque verborum et

compositionis probabilis, daturque ei palma in illo medio genere

dicendi.

§ 52.

adsurgit: cp. insurgit §96: 2 §23: i. 8, 5 sublimitate

heroi carminis animus adsurgat.—If Hesiod ‘seldom soars’ it is

because in him epic poetry has descended to the sphere of common life.

Homer was the bard of ‘warriors and noble men’ in the brave days of old.

Hesiod is the poet of the people, earning their daily bread in the

labour of the field.

pars eius: metonymy for _pars carminum eius_; cp. on §31 poetis.—Gemoll proposes to read

_operis eius_: cp. §§35 and 63.

in nominibus: specially in the Theogony: e.g. 226 sqq., 337 sqq.

circa: ‘in regard to’: 2 §14: 5 §§5, 6. Such uses of _circa_ (like

περί, ἀμφί, c. acc.)

are very frequent in Quintilian and later writers: ii. 16, 14 circa quae omnia multus hominibus labor: iii. 11, 5 circa verba dissensio. Also with verbs Pr. §20 circa ima subsistere: vii. 1, 54 circa patrem quaerimus; and for ‘in the time of’ (like κατά) ii. 4, 41 circa Demetrium Phalerea. It is also used absolutely ix. 2, 45 omnia circa fere recta sunt: cp. 7 §16 below. For exx. from other writers see Hand, Turs. ii. pp. 66-8.

praecepta. Lindner translates ‘Lehrvorschriften.’ The reference is to Hesiod’s proverbial philosophy: ‘maxims of moral wisdom.’

sententiae: §50. See Duncker’s Greece, vol. i. p. 485: Cic. ad Fam. vi. 18, 5 Lepta suavissimus ediscat Hesiodum et habeat in ore τῆς δ᾽ ἀρετης ἱδρῶτα et cetera: Brut. §15 illud Hesiodium laudatur a doctis, quod eadem mensura reddere iubet qua acceperis, aut etiam cumulatiore, si possis. Cp. Crit. Notes.

levitas verborum et compositionis. Here Quintilian is again in exact agreement with Dion. Hal. περὶ μιμήσεως 2 (Usener, p. 19), Ἡσίοδος μὲν γὰρ ἐφρόντισεν ἡδονῆς καὶ ὀνομάτων λειότητος καὶ συνθέσεως ἐμμελοῦς. It is also to be noted that Dionysius names Hesiod, Antimachus, and Panyasis after Homer.—Mayor cites Demetrius περὶ ἑρμηνείας §176, who ‘calls that ὄνομα λεῖον which has many vowels,

as Αἴας,—opp. to τραχύ as βέβρωκε; ib. §299 he defines ἡ λειότης ἡ περὶ σύνθεσιν, such as the school of Isocrates cultivated, the painful avoidance of hiatus.’ Cic. de Orat. iii. §171 struere verba sic ut neve asper eorum concursus neve hiulcus sit, sed quodam modo coagmentatus et levis: cp. §172: Or. §20: Quint, ii. 5, 9 levis et quadrata ...

compositio: viii. 3, 6.—For _compositio_ (the combination of words) see on §79: and cp.

§§44, 66, 118: 2 §13: 3 §9: viii. ch. 4, esp. §22 in

omni porro compositione tria sunt genera necessaria, ordo, iunctura,

numerus: ad Herenn. iv. §18 compositio est verborum constructio quae

facit omnes partes orationis aequabiliter perpolitas.

medio genere. See on §44. Dion.

Hal. de Comp. Verb. 23, p. 173 R. ἐποποιῶν μὲν οὖν ἔγωγε μάλιστα νομίζω τουτονὶ τὸν

χαρακτῆρα (sc. τὸν

ἀνθηρόν or _medium_ Quint, xii. 10, 58) ἐπεξεργάσασθαι

Ἡσίοδον.—From the point of view of oratory, the _medium

genus_ was the Rhodian school (xii. 10, 18), which stood between the

_genus Atticum_ and _Asianum_, ‘quod velut medium esse atque

ex utroque mixtum volunt: neque enim Attice pressi neque Asiane sunt

abundantes’ (sc. Rhodii).

I:53

Contra in Antimacho vis

53

et gravitas et minime vulgare eloquendi genus habet laudem. Sed quamvis

ei secundas fere grammaticorum consensus deferat, et adfectibus et

iucunditate et dispositione et omnino arte deficitur, ut plane manifesto

appareat quanto sit aliud proximum esse, aliud secundum.

§ 53.

Antimachus of Colophon (or rather Claros by Colophon) flourished

about B.C. 405. He wrote a Thebaid, an

epic narrative of the wars of the Seven against Thebes and of the

Epigoni: Cic. Brut. §191. Fragments of his poems have been preserved. He

also edited a critical text of Homer. Antimachus served as a model for

Statius, and for the emperor Hadrian: Spartian §15 Catachanas libros

53

obscurissimos Antimachum imitando scripsit. For the criticism _vis ...

laudem_ cp. Dion. Hal. l.c. Ἀντίμαχος δ᾽ εὐτονίας (ἐφρόντισεν) καὶ ἀγωνιστικῆς

τραχύτητος καὶ τοῦ συνήθους τῆς ἐξαλλαγῆς.

minime vulgare: viii. pr. §25: Arist. Poet. §22 λέξεως δὲ

ἀρετῆ σαφῆ καὶ μὴ ταπεινὴν εἶναι. An uncommon elevation of style

was evidently one of his characteristics.

habet laudem = ἔχει ἔπαινον. Xen. Anab. vii. 6, 33: Plin. xxxvii. §65:

xxxvi. §164.

secundas: sc. partes, after Homer: §58. So Cic. Or. §18 cui (Pericli) primae sine

controversia deferebantur: Brut. §84: ad Att. i. 17, 5. The phrase

is probably borrowed from the theatre: primas agere Brut. §308: Hor.

Sat. i. 9, 46. On the other hand primas ferre (Brut. §183) suggests

πρωτεῖα

φέρεσθαι. Tac. Ann. xiv. 21 eloquentiae primas nemo tulit, sed

victorem esse Caesarem pronuntiatum.

grammaticorum consensus. For this sense of _grammatici_

(‘literary critics,’ ‘professors of literature’ Hor. A. P. 78) cp.

ii. 1, 4 grammatice, quam in Latinum transferentes litteraturam

vocaverunt ... cum praeter rationem recte loquendi non parum alioqui

copiosam prope omnium maximarum artium scientiam amplexa sit.—The

phrase is one more indication of the second-hand character of

Quintilian’s criticism of Greek authors: cp. §27, where he specially refers to Theophrastus: §52 datur ei palma: §54 putant: §58 princeps

habetur and confessione plurimorum: §59

Aristarchi iudicio: §72 consensu omnium: §73 nemo dubitat. No doubt Quintilian and

Dionysius were both indebted to the lists of the Alexandrian

bibliographers.

adfectibus ... deficitur: ‘he fails in pathos’: §48. His lament for Lyde (nec tantum Clario Lyde

dilecta poetae Ovid, Tr. i. 6, 1) contained a catalogue of the

misfortunes of all the mythical heroes who had lost their loves. Λύδη καὶ

παχὺ γράμμα καὶ οὐ τόρον Callim. fr. 441.

iucunditate: see on §46.

dispositione: §50. Catull. 95, 10

At populus tumido gaudeat Antimacho.

arte: ‘poetical skill.’

plane: see Introd. p. lii.

proximum ... secundum. Cp. Verg. Aen. v. 320 proximus huic

longo sed proximus intervallo insequitur Salius. _Secundus_ here

means much less than _proximus_ (‘very near’): it only means ‘prior

tertio et reliquis.’ Cp. Corn. Nep. Pelop. iv. 2 haec fuit altera

persona Thebis sed tamen secunda ita ut proxima esset Epaminondae: §85 below, secundus ... est Vergilius, propior

tamen primo quam tertio, i.e. Vergil is _proximus_ to Homer as well

as _secundus_.—This is the usual explanation, motived

probably by the recurrence of _secundum_ so soon after

_secundas_ above (cp. §§58, 72, 85). The difficulty

is that it is exactly the reverse of the well-known passage in Horace,

Car. i. 12, 18 nec viget quidquam simile (Iovi) aut secundum: proximos

illi tamen occupavit Pallas honores, where the idea is that Pallas is

what sportsmen call a ‘bad second,’—_proximus_ meaning ‘next’

(however far apart), while _secundus_ (sequor) implies contiguity.

The two passages could be reconciled by supposing that Quintilian has

negligently omitted to note the repetition _secundas ... secundum_,

and that he means ‘what a difference there is between a bad (proximum)

and a good second (secundum)’—between being second and

coming near the first. Cp. Cic. Brut. §173 Duobus igitur summis, Crasso

et Antonio, L. Philippus proximus accedebat, sed longo intervallo

tamen proximus; itaque eum, etsi nemo intercedebat qui se illi

anteferret, neque secundum tamen neque tertium dixerim. If Quintilian is

conscious of the recurrence of _secundus_, he may mean that the

Greek critics would have been nearer the truth if they had called

Antimachus _next_ (proximus) rather than _second_ to

Homer.—Cp. Crit. Notes.

I:54

Panyasin, ex utroque mixtum, putant in

54

eloquendo neutrius aequare virtutes, alterum tamen ab eo materia,

alterum disponendi ratione superari. Apollonius in ordinem a

grammaticis datum non venit, quia Aristarchus atque Aristophanes

poetarum iudices neminem sui temporis in numerum redegerunt; non tamen

contemnendum reddidit opus aequali quadam mediocritate.

§ 54.

Panyasin. Panyasis of Halicarnassus, the uncle of Herodotus,

wrote a Heracleia in fourteen books, fragments of which are quoted by

Stobaeus and

54

Athenaeus. He also composed six books of ‘Ionica,’—elegiac poems

on the Ionic migration. Suidas describes him as “an epic poet, who

fanned into a flame the smouldering embers of epic poetry, ὁς σβεσθεῖσαν

τὴν ποίησιν ἐπανήγαγε. Among the poets he is ranked after Homer;

according to some, _also after Hesiod and Antimachus_” (Mayor).

Panyasis flourished circ. B.C.

480.

ex utroque mixtum. Dion. Hal. l.c. Πανύασις δὲ τὰς

τ᾽ ἀμφοῖν ἀρετὰς ἠνέγκατο καὶ αὐτῶν (εἰσηνέγκατο καὶ αὐτός—Usener)

πραγματείᾳ (materia)

καὶ τῇ κατ᾽ αὐτὸν (αὐτὴν?) οἰκονομίᾳ διήνεγκεν.

putant. Mr. Nettleship (Journ. Phil. xviii. p. 259) notes

that Quintilian ‘while saying evidently much the same as Dionysius, says

not _putat Dionysius_ but _putant_,’ showing that both

Dionysius and he followed the _grammatici_, i.e. probably

Aristarchus and Aristophanes. Cp. Usener, p. 110 sq., and see

Introd. p. xxxii.

alterum ... materia: Hesiod, the ‘singer of Helots.’ “The

labours of Herakles supply a more varied and attractive theme than the

pedigrees of a Theogony or the homely Tusser-like maxims of the ‘Works

and Days.’” Mayor.

Apollonius, surnamed Rhodius, because he was honoured with the

freedom of the city of Rhodes, after having retired thither from

Alexandria. Returning to Alexandria he succeeded Eratosthenes as

librarian. He was a pupil of Callimachus, and flourished circ. 220 B.C. For a sympathetic account of the

Argonautica see Mahaffy’s Greek Lit. vol. i. ch. ix. It was

rendered into Latin by Atacinus Varro (§87) and Valerius Flaccus

(§90).

ordinem a grammaticis datum. The lists of approved authors

drawn up by the critics of Alexandria constituted what they called κανόνες (_indices_, here

called _ordo_). See Usener, p. 134 sq. Cp. venire, redigi,

recipi in ordinem or numerum. So i. 4 §3 ut ... auctores alios in

ordinem redegerint alios omnino exemerint numero. See Introd. p. xxxv.

Aristarchus, of Samothrace, lived and taught at Alexandria

about the middle of the second cent. B.C. His name is inseparably associated with the

text of the Homeric poems: see Wolf’s _Prolegomena_, Lehrs de

Aristarchi Studiis Homericis (3rd edit. 1882), and Pierron’s Introd. to

Homer, p. xxxv. sq. It became a synonym for rigorous criticism:

Cic. ad Att. i. 14, 3 meis orationibus quarum tu Aristarchus es: Hor.

A. P. 450 fiet Aristarchus.—See Mahaffy’s Grk. Lit.

ch. iii. §32 sq.

Aristophanes, of Byzantium, was librarian at Alexandria before

Aristarchus, having succeeded Apollonius Rhodius. He died about 180

B.C. He revised his master Zenodotus’s

edition of Homer, and was the first to reject the end of the Odyssey

after xxiii. 296. He also left critical and exegetical commentaries on

the lyric and dramatic poets, and compiled _argumenta_ or prefaces

to the individual plays.

poetarum iudices. This looks like a gloss: see Crit.

Notes.

in numerum redegerunt: cp. above on in ordinem a grammaticis

datum. The phrase represents the Greek ἐγκρίνειν.—With the exception of the official

eulogy of Domitian (§91), Quintilian followed this rule himself.

reddidit. Though it would be hard to find an exact parallel,

this use of _reddo_ seems not impossible, especially in Quintilian.

It must be explained either by the analogy of the use in which land is

said to ‘produce’ the expected crop (cp. tibiae sonum reddunt xi.

3, 20), or less probably with reference to the use which describes

such physical processes as dum nimis imperat voci ... sanguinem reddidit

Plin. v. 19, 6. In Cicero such an expression could only have been

explained on the analogy of ‘placidum reddere’ for ‘placare’: cp. omnia

enim breviora reddet ordo et ratio et modus xii. 11, 13.—But see

Crit. Notes.

aequali quadam mediocritate: §86

aequalitate pensamus. No disparagement

55

is implied: the meaning is that Apollonius keeps pretty uniformly to the

_genus medium_ (see on §44), neither

rising on the one hand to the _genus grande_ nor on the other

descending to the _genus subtile_. So in the περὶ ὕψους 33 §4 he receives the

epithet ἄπτωτος. For this

sense of _mediocritas_ cp. Gellius 7 §14 of Terence: Hor. Car.

ii. 10, 5.—“This is a fair criticism of the greatest of the

Alexandrine poems; it is learned and correct, tells the story of the

Argonauts with a due regard to proportion, and has many minor idyllic

beauties, but wants epic unity and inspiration.” Mayor.

I:55

Arati materia motu caret, ut

55

in qua nulla varietas, nullus adfectus, nulla persona, nulla cuiusquam

sit oratio; sufficit tamen operi cui se parem credidit. Admirabilis in

suo genere Theocritus, sed musa illa rustica et pastoralis non

forum modo, verum ipsam etiam urbem reformidat.

§ 55.

Arati. Aratus was born at Soli in Cilicia, and lived at the court

of Antigonus Gonatas, king of Macedonia, circ. B.C. 270. At the request of the latter he composed

Φαινόμενα καὶ

Διοσημεῖα, a didactic epic on the heavenly bodies and

meteorology, which was translated into Latin verse by Cicero and

afterwards by Germanicus. Avienus also made a rendering of it, probably

late in the fourth century. See Teuffel §259 §6 and §394 §2,

and Munro on Lucr. v. 619 (cp. vol. ii. pp. 3, 9, 299: J. B.

Mayor on Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. §104).

ut in qua. Törnebladh (‘de coniunctionum causalium apud Quint.

usu’) has collected ten additional examples of this construction in

Quint.,—_ut qui_ i. 2, 19: x. 1,

57 and 74: xi. 3, 53 (sing.): v. 14, 28

(plur.): _ut quae_ (sing.) iii. 5, 9: xii. 2, 20; _ut quod_

viii. 3, 12: 4, 16: _ut quorum_ x. 2, 13. For _ut cum_ see

on §76. It is incorrect to say that the

usage does not occur in Cicero: see Draeger, Hist. Syn. ii.

p. 509.

Theocritus lived at Syracuse (probably his native place) under

Hiero, and spent some time also at the court of Ptolemy Philadelphus,

where he wrote his 14th, 15th, and 17th idylls about the year 259 B.C. Vergil’s obligations to him in the

Eclogues are well known: cp. Sicelides Musae iv. 1: Arethusa x. 1.