Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

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

Further there are cases where a senator sets forth to the senate the reasons which determine him to commit suicide, [*]( Based on a law of Massilia, where the state provided poison for the would-be suicide, provided he could justify himself before the senate. ) in which there is one legal question, namely, whether a man who desires to kill himself in order to escape the clutches of the law ought to be prevented from so doing, while the remaining questions are all concerned with quality. There are also fictitious cases concerned with wills, in which the only question raised is one of quality, as, for instance, in the controversial theme quoted above, [*](VII. i. 38.) where the philosopher, physician and orator all claim the fourth share which their father had left to the most worthy of his sons. The same is true of cases where suitors of equal rank claim the hand of an orphan and the question confronting her relatives is which is the most suitable.

I do not, however, intend to discuss every possible theme,

v7-9 p.131
since fresh ones can always be invented, nor yet to deal with all the questions to which they give rise, since these vary with circumstances. But I cannot help expressing my astonishment that Flavus, [*](i.e. Verginius mentioned in § 24. ) for whose authority I have the highest respect, restricted the range of quality to such an extent in the text-book which he composed for the special guidance of the schools.