Institutio Oratoria

which is styled ἠθοποιί͂α or, as some prefer μίμησις may be counted among the devices which serve to excite the gentler emotions. For it consists mainly in banter, though it may be concerned either with words or deeds. If concerned with the latter, it closely resembles ὑποτύπωσις while the following passage from Terence [*](Eun. I. ii. 75. ) will illustrate it as applied to words:

I didn't see your drift. 'A little girl was stolen from this place; my mother brought her up as her own daughter. She was known as my sister. I want to get her away to restore her to her relations.'

We may, however, imitate our own words and deeds in a similar fashion by relating some

act or statement, though in such cases the speaker more frequently does so to assert his point than for the sake of banter, as, for example, in the following, [*](Div. in Caec. ii. 4. Cicero ironically suggested to the Sicilians that Caecilius should undertake their case. He was a bogus accuser put forward by Verres himself, whose quaest or he had been in Sicily. )

I said that they had Quintus Caecilius to conduct the prosecution.

There are other devices also which are agreeable in themselves and serve not a little to commend our case both by the introduction of variety and by their intrinsic naturalness, since by giving our speech an appearance of simplicity and spontaneity they make the judges more ready to accept our statements without suspicion.