Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

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

Finally it is important to include in our statement anything that can be given a different complexion from that put upon it by our opponent. Otherwise even an exordium will be superfluous in a case of this kind. For what is its purpose if

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not to make the judge better disposed for the investigation of the case? And yet it will be agreed that the exordium is never more useful than when it is necessary to divert the judge from some prejudice that he has formed against us.

Conjectural [*]( For this technical term = cases turning on questions of fact, see III. vi. 30 sqq. ) cases, on the other hand—that is to say questions of fact—require a statement, which will more often deal with the circumstances from which a knowledge of the point at issue may be derived than with the actual point which is under trial. When the accuser states these circumstances in such a manner as to throw suspicion on the case for the defence, and the accused has consequently to dispel that suspicion, the facts must be presented to the judge in quite a different light by the latter.