Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

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

As to addressing another in place of the judge, it may be a means of making a point with greater brevity and give it greater force. On this subject I hold the same view that I expressed in dealing with the exordium, as I do on the subject of impersonation. This artifice however is employed not only by Servius Sulpicius in his speech on behalf of Aufidia, when he cries

Am I to suppose that you were drowsed with sleep or weighed down by some
v4-6 p.109
heavy lethargy?

but by Cicero [*](Verr. v. xlv. 118. ) as well, when in a passage which, like the above, belongs to the statement of facts, in speaking of the ships' captains he says,

You will give so much to enter, etc.

Again in the pro Clueniio [*](pro Clu. xxvi. ) does not the conversation between Staienus and Bulbus conduce to speed and enhance the credibility of the statements ? In case it should be thought that Cicero did this without design (quite an incredible supposition in his case), I would point out that in the Partitiones [*](ix. 31.) he lays it down that the statement of facts should be characterised by passages which will charm and excite admiration or expectation, and marked by unexpected turns, conversations between persons and appeals to every kind of emotion.