Institutio Oratoria

I do not agree with those who extend the name of figure to a statement that something has happened unexpectedly to the

speaker himself, like the following passage from Pollio:

Gentlemen, I never thought it would come to pass that, when Scaurus was the accused, I should have to entreat you not to allow influence to carry any weight on his behalf.

The figure known as concession springs from practically the same source as communication; it occurs when we leave some things to the judgment of the jury, or even in some cases of our opponents, as when Calvus says to Vatinius,

Summon all your assurance and assert that you have a better claim than Cato to be elected praetor.

The figures best adapted for intensifying emotion consist chiefly in simulation. For we may feign that we are angry, glad, afraid, filled with wonder, grief or indignation, or that we wish something, and so on. Hence we get passages like the following:

I am free, I breathe again,

[*](pro Mil. xviii. 47. ) or,

It is well,

or,

What madness is this?

[*](pro Muren. vi. 14. ) or,

Alas! for these degenerate days!

[*](in Cat. i. 2. ) or,

Woe is me; for though all my tears are shed my grief still clings to me deep-rooted in my heart,

[*](Phil.. xxvi. 64. ) or,

1. Gape now, wide earth.

Unknown.

To this some give the name of exclamation,

and include it among figures of speech. When, however, such exclamations are genuine, they do not come under the head of our present topic: it is only those which are simulated and artfully designed which can with any certainty be regarded as figures. The same is true of free speech, which Corificius [*]( The author of Auct. ad Herennium, iv. 36. ) calls licence, and the Greeks παῤῥησία. For what has less of the figure about it than true freedom? On the other hand, freedom of speech may frequently be made a

cloak for flattery.