Institutio Oratoria

And yet Apollodorus is not very far off this definition when he asserts that the first and all-important task of forensic oratory is to persuade the judge and lead his mind to the conclusions desired by the speaker. For

even Apollodorus makes the orator the sport of fortune by refusing him leave to retain his title if he fails to persuade.

Some on the other hand pay no attention to results, as for example Aristotle, [*](Rhet. i. 2. ) who says

rhetoric is the power of discovering all means of persuading by speech.

This definition has not merely the fault already mentioned, but the additional defect of including merely the power of invention, which without style cannot possibly constitute oratory.