Institutio Oratoria

We are even given the means of realising the extraordinary stature of the heroes of old by the description of their weapons, such as the shield of Ajax [*](Il. vii. 219. ) and the spear-shaft of Achilles [*](Il. xvi. 140. ) hewn in the forests of Pelion. Virgil [*]( Aen. iii. 659. ) also has made admirable use of this device in his description of the Cyclops. For what an image it gives us of the bulk of that body

1. Whose hand was propped by a branchless trunk of pine.

So, too, what a giant must Demoleos [*](Aen. v. 264. ) have been,

Whose

1. corselet manifold
2. Scarce two men on their shoulders could uphold

And yet the hero buckled it upon him and

1. Drave the scattering Trojans at full speed.

And again, Cicero [*](Phil. ii. 27. ) could hardly even have conceived of such luxury in Antony himself as he describes when he says,

You might see beds in the chambers of his slaves strewn with the purple coverlets that had once been Pompey's own.

Slaves are using purple coverlets in their chambers, aye, and coverlets that had once been Pompey's! No more, surely, can be said than this, and yet it leaves us to infer how infinitely greater was the luxury of their master.

This form of amplification is near akin to emphasis: but emphasis derives its effect from the actual words, while in this case the effect is produced by inference from the facts, and is consequently far more impressive, inasmuch as facts are more impressive than words.

Accumulation of words and sentences identical in meaning may also be regarded under the head of amplification. For although the climax is not in this case reached by a series of steps, it is none the less attained by the piling up of words. Take the following example: [*](Pro Lig. iii. 9. )