Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

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

II. It is a most natural and frequently necessary proceeding, that after preparing the mind of the judge in the manner described above we should indicate the nature of the subject on which he will have to give judgment: that is the statement of facts.

In dealing with this question I shall deliberately pass over the divisions made by certain writers, who make too many classes and err on the side of subtlety. For

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they demand an explanation dealing not only with the facts of the case which is before the court, but with the person involved (as in the sentence, [*](Sall. Hist. iv. 25. )
Marcus Lollius Palicanus, a Picentine of humble birth, a man gifted with loquacity rather than eloquence
) or of the place where an incident occurred (as in the sentence [*]( Cic. Verr. xxiv. 63. )
Lampsacus, gentlemen, is a town situated on the Hellespont
), or of the time at which something occurred (as in the verse [*]( Verg. G. i. 43. )
  1. In early spring, when on the mountains hoar
  2. The snows dissolve),
or of the causes of an occurrence, such as the historians are so fond of setting forth, when they explain the origin of a war, a rebellion or a pestilence. Further they style some statements of fact
complete,
and others
incomplete,
a distinction which is self-evident. To this they add that our explanation may refer to the past (which is of course the commonest form), the present (for which compare Cicero's [*](pro Rosc. Am. xxii. 60. ) remarks about the excitement caused among the friends of Chrysogonus when his name was mentioned), or of the future (a form permissible only to prophets): for hypotyposis or picturesque description cannot be regarded as a statement of facts.