Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

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

For to my thinking urbanity involves the total absence of all that is incongruous, coarse, unpolished and exotic whether in thought, language, voice or gesture, and resides not so much in isolated sayings as in the whole complexion of our language, just as for the Greeks Atticism means that elegance of taste which was peculiar to Athens.

However, out of respect to the judgment of Marsus, who was a man of the greatest learning, I will add that he divides serious utterances into three classes, the honorific, the derogatory and the intermediate. As an example of the honorific he quotes the words uttered by Cicero in the pro Ligario [*](xii. 35.) with reference to Caesar,

You who forget nothing save injuries.

The derogatory he illustrates by the words used by Cicero of Pompey and Caesar in a letter to Atticus: [*](Ad. Att. VIII. vii. 2. )

I know whom to avoid, but whom to follow I know not.

Finally, he illustrates the intermediate, which he calls apophthegmatic (as it is), by the passage from Cicero's speech against Catiline [*](IV ii. 3.) where he says,

Death can never be grievous to the brave nor premature for one who has been consul nor a calamity to one that is truly wise.

All these are admirable sayings, but what special title they have to be called urbane I do not see.

If it is not merely, as I think, the whole complexion of our oratory that deserves this title, but if it is to be claimed for individual sayings as well, I should give the name only to those sayings that are of the same general character as humorous sayings, without actually being humorous. I will give an

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illustration of what I mean. It was said of Asinius Pollio, who had equal gifts for being grave or gay, that he was

a man for all hours,

and of a pleader who was a fluent speaker extempore, that

his ability was all in ready money.

Of the same kind, too, was the remark recorded by Marsus as having been made by Pompey to Cicero when the latter expressed distrust of his party:

Go over to Caesar and you will be afraid of me.

Had this last remark been uttered on a less serious subject and with less serious purpose, or had it not been uttered by Pompey himself, we might have counted it among examples of humour.

I may also add the words used by Cicero in a letter [*](Now lost. Caerellia was a literary lady.) to Caerellia to explain why he endured the supremacy of Caesar so patiently:

These ills must either be endured with the courage of Cato or the stomach [*](i.e. he must stomach it. ) of Cicero,

for here again the word

stomach

has a spice of humour in it. I felt that I ought not to conceal my feelings on this point. If I am wrong in my views, I shall not, at any rate, lead my readers astray, since I have stated the opposite view as well, which they are at liberty to adopt if they prefer it.