Institutio Oratoria

It is also possible to heighten our style less obviously, but perhaps yet more effectively, by introducing a continuous and unbroken series in which each word is stronger than the last, as Cicero [*](Phil. I. xxv. 63. ) does when he describes how Antony vomited

before an assembly of the Roman people, while performing a public duty, while Master of the Horse.

Each phrase is more forcible than that which went before. Vomiting is an ugly thing in itself, even when there is no assembly to witness it; it is ugly when there is such an assembly, even though it be not an assembly of the people; ugly even though it be an assembly of the people and not the Roman people; ugly even though he were engaged on no business at the time, even if his business were not public business, even if lie were not Master of the Horse.

Another might have broken up the series and lingered over each step in the ascending scale, but Cicero hastens to his climax and reaches the height not by laborious effort, but by the impetus of his speed. Just as this form of amplification rises to a climax, so, too, the form which depends on comparison seeks to rise from the less to the greater, since by raising what is below it must necessarily exalt that which

is above, as, for example: in the following passage: [*](Phil. II. xxv. 63. )

If this had befallen you at the dinner-table in the midst of your amazing potations, who would not have thought it unseemly? But it occurred at an assembly of the Roman people.

Or take this passage from the speech against Catiline: [*](Phil. I. vii. 17. xi 32. )

In truth, if my slaves feared me as all your fellowcitizens fear you, I should think it wise to leave my house.