Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

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

Some young men who were in the habit of making merry together decided to dine on the sea-shore. One of their party failed to put in an appearance, and they raised a tomb to him and inscribed his name thereon. His father on his return from overseas chanced to land at this point of the shore, read the name and hung himself. It is alleged that the youths were the cause of his death.

The definition produced by the accuser will run as follows:

The man whose act leads to another's death is the cause of his death.

The definition given by the accused will be,

He who wittingly commits an act which must necessarily lead
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to another's death, is the cause of his death.

Without any formal definition it would be sufficient for the accuser to argue as follows:

You were the cause of his death, for it was your act that led to his death: but for your act he would still be alive.