Institutio Oratoria

It is also convenient at times to pretend that we have before our eyes the images of things, persons or utterances, or to marvel that the same is not the case with our adversaries or the judges; it is with this design that we use phrases such as

It seems to me,

or

Does it not seem to you?

But such devices make a great demand on our powers of eloquence. For with things which are false and incredible by nature there are but two alternatives: either they will move our hearers with exceptional force because they are beyond the truth, or they will be regarded as empty nothings because they are not the truth.

But we may introduce not only imaginary sayings, but imaginary writings as well, as is done by Asinius in his defence of Liburnia:

Let my mother, who was the object of my love and my delight, who lived for me and gave me life twice in one day [*]( The speech being lost, the allusion in bis — dedit is unintelligible. ) (and so on) inherit nought of my property.

This is in itself a figure, and is doubly so whenever, as in the present case, it imitates a document produced by the opposing party.

For a will had been read out by the prosecution, in the following form:

Let Publius Novanius Gallio, to whom as my benefactor I will and owe all that is good, as a testimony to the great affection which he has borne me (then follow other details) be my heir.

In this case the figure borders on parody, a name drawn from songs sung in imitation of others, but employed by an abuse of language to designate imitation in verse or prose.

Again, we often personify the abstract, as Virgil [*](Aen. iv. 174. ) does with Fame, or as Xenophon [*](Mem. ii. 1. ) records that Prodicus did with Virtue and Pleasure, or as Ennius does when, in one of his satires, he represents Life and Death contending with one another. We may also introduce some imaginary person without identifying him, as we do in the phrases,

At this point some one will interpose,

or,

Some one will say.

Or speech may be inserted without any mention of the speaker, as in the line: [*](Aen. ii. 29. The words represent what some Trojan said after the departure of the Greeks. )

1. Here the Dolopian host
2. Camped, here the fierce Achilles pitched his tent.

This involves a mixture of figures, since to impersonalion we add the figure known as ellipse, which in this case consists in the omission of any indication as to who is speaking. At times impersonation takes the form of narrative. Thus we find indirect speeches in the historians, as at the opening of Livy's first book [*]( i. 9. These words represent the argument of envoys sent out by Romulus to neighbouring cities. ) :

That cities, like other things, spring from the humblest origins, and that those who are helped by their own valour and the favour of heaven subsequently win great power and a great name for themselves.

Apostrophe also,

which consists in the diversion of our address from the judge, is wonderfully stirring, whether we attack our adversary as in the passage,

What was that sword of yours doing, Tubero, in the field of Pharsalus?

[*](pro Lig. iii. 9. ) or turn to make some invocation such as,

For I appeal to you, hills and groves of Alba,

[*](pro Mil. xxxi. 85. ) or to entreaty that will bring odium on our opponents, as in the cry,

O Porcian and Sempronian laws.

[*](Verr. V. lxiii. 163. Laws protecting the person of a Roman citizen, and disregarded by Verres. )

But the term apostrophe is also applied to utterances that divert the attention of the hearer from the question before them, as in the following passage:

1. I swore not with the Greeks
2. At Aulis to uproot the race of Troy.

Aen. iv. 425. Dido is urging Anna to approach Aeneas and induce Aeneas to postpone his departure. Dido is no enemy from whom he need fly.

There are a number of different figures by which this effect may be produced. We may, for instance, pretend that we expected something different or feared some greater disaster, or that the judges in their ignorance of the facts may regard some point as of more importance than it really is: an example of this latter device is to be found in the exordium to Cicero's defence of Caelius.

With regard to the figure which Cicero [*](de Or. liii. 202. ) calls ocular denonstration, this comes into play when we do not restrict ourselves to mentioning that something was done, but proceed to show how it was done, and do so not merely on broad general lines, but in full detail. In the last book [*]( VIII. Iii. 61 sqq. ) I classified this figure under the head of vivid illustration, while Celsus actually terms it by this name. Others give the name of ὑποτύπωσις to any representation of facts which is made in such vivid language that they appeal to the eye rather than the ear. The

following will show what I mean:

He came into the forum on fire with criminal madness: his eyes blazed and cruelty was written in every feature of his countenance.

[*](Verr. v. lxii. 161. )