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
Further arguments drawn from place may serve to secure approval or the reverse. Ajax for instance in Ovid [*](Met. xiii. 5. Ajax had saved the ships from being burned by the Trojans. The dispute as to whether the arms of Achilles should be awarded to him or to Ulysses is being tried there. Ajax's argument is, Can you refuse me my due reward on the very spot where I saved you from disaster? ) says:—
Again one of the many charges brought against Milo was that he killed Clodius on the monument of his ancestors. [*](pro Ail. vii. 17. i.e. on the Appian Way constructed by one of Clodius' ancestors. )
- What! do we plead our cause before the ships?
- And is Ulysses there preferred to me?
Such arguments may also carry weight in deliberative oratory, as may those drawn from time, which I shall now proceed to discuss. Time may, as I have said elsewhere, [*](III. vi. 25.) be understood in two different senses, general and special. The first sense is seen in words and phrases such as
now,
formerly,
in the reign of Alexander,
in the days of the siege of Troy,and whenever we speak of past, present or future. The second sense occurs when we speak either of definite periods of time such as
in summer,
in winter,
by night,
by day,or of fortuitous periods such as
in time of pestilence,
in time of war,
during a banquet.
Certain Latin writers have thought it a sufficient distinction to call the general sense
time,and the special
times.In both senses time is of importance in advisory speeches and demonstrative oratory, but not so frequently as in forensic.
For questions of law turn on time, while it also determines the quality of actions and is of great importance in questions of fact; for instance, occasionally it provides irrefragable