Institutio Oratoria
Quintilian
Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.
Arguments are also drawn from place. With a view to proving our facts we consider such questions as whether a place is hilly or level, near the coast or inland, planted or uncultivated, crowded or deserted, near or far, suitable for carrying out a given design or the reverse. This is a topic which is treated most carefully by Cicero in his pro Milone. [*](pro Mil. xx. )
These points and the like generally refer to questions of fact, but occasionally to questions of law as well. For we may ask whether a place is public or private, sacred or profane, our own or another's, just as where persons are concerned we ask whether a man is a magistrate, a father, a foreigner.
Hence arise such questions as the following.
You have stolen private money, but since you stole it from a temple, it is not theft but sacrilege.
You have killed adulterers, an act permitted by law, but since the act was done in a brothel, it is murder."You have committed an assault, but since the object of your assault was a magistrate, the crime is lèse-majesté.
Similarly it may be urged in defence,
The act was lawful, because I was a father, a magistrate.But such points afford matter for argument when there is a controversy as to the facts, and matter for enquiry when the dispute turns on a point of law. Place also frequently