Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

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

When engaged in forensic disputes I made it a point to make myself familiar with every circumstance connected with the case. [*](cp iv. iv. 8; IV. ii. 28. ) (In the schools, of course, the facts of the case are definite and limited in number and are moreover set out before we begin to declaim: the Greeks call them themes, which Cicero [*](Top., 21. ) translates by propositions. ) When I

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had formed a general idea of these circumstances, I proceeded to consider them quite as much from my opponent's point of view as from my own.

The first point which I set myself to determine (it is easy enough to state, but is still all-important) was what each party desired to establish and then what means he was likely to adopt to that end. My method was as follows. I considered what the prosecutor would say first: his point must either be admitted or controversial: if admitted, no question could arise in this connexion.