Institutio Oratoria

Consequently when it is possible to say

I have a young son,

Being desirous of children I took a wife, a son was born whom I acknowledged and reared and brought up to manhood.

Personally, when I use the word brevity, I mean not saying less, but not saying more than occasion demands. As for repetitions and tautologies and diffuseness, which some writers of textbooks tell us we must avoid, I pass them by;

But we must be equally on our guard against the obscurity which results from excessive abridgment, and it is better to say a little more than is necessary than a little less. For though a diffuse irrelevance is tedious, the omission of what is necessary is positively dangerous.

We must therefore avoid even tile famous terseness of Sallust (though in his case of course it is a merit), and shun all abruptness of speech, since a style which presents no difficulty to a leisurely reader, flies past a hearer and will not stay to be looked at again; and whereas the reader is almost always a man of learning, the judge often comes to his panel from the country side and is expected to give a decision on what he can understand. Consequently we must aim, perhaps everywhere, but above all in our statement of facts, at striking the happy mean in our language, and the happy mean may be defined as saving just what is necessary and just what is sufficient.

By

just what is necessary

And I would never carry my desire for brevity so far as to refuse admission to details which may contribute to the plausibility of our narrative. Simplify and curtail your statement of facts in every direction and you will turn it into something more like a confession. Moreover, the

We must do what we can to make it less long by postponing some points, taking care however to mention what it is that we propose to postpone. Take the following as an example.

As regards his motives for killing him, his accomplices and the manner in which he disposed his ambush, I will speak when I come to the proof.

Fulcinius died; there are many circumstances which attended that event, but as they have little bearing on this case, I shall pass them by.

I will tell you first what preceded this affair, then what occurred in its actual development, and finally you shall hear its sequel.

Such a division will give the impression of three short statements rather than of one long one. At times it will be well to interrupt our narrative by interjecting some brief remark like the following:

You have heard what happened before: now learn what follows.