Institutio Oratoria

Again, may not the same thing be defined in more than one way, as Cicero does when he says,

What do we mean when we say' commonly ': surely we mean 'by all men'?

[*](Pro Mur. xxxv. 73. ) May it not be given a wide and varied treatment such as is frequently employed by all orators? For it is rare to find orators falling victims to that form of slavery introduced from the practice of the philosophers and tying themselves down to certain definite words; indeed it is absolutely forbidden by Marcus Antonius in the de Oratore [*]( II xxv. 108 sqq. ) of Cicero. For it is a most dangerous practice, since,

if we make a mistake in a single word, we are like to lose our whole case, and consequently the compromise adopted by Cicero in the pro Caecina [*](XV. 42.) is the safest course to follow; this consists in setting forth the facts without running any risks over the exactness of our terminology. These are his words:

Judges, the violence which threatens our lives and persons is not the only kind of violence: there is a much more serious form which by the threat of death fills our minds with panic and often turns them from their natural condition of stability.