Institutio Oratoria

Thus we may feign repentance for what we have said, as in the pro Caelio, [*](xv. 35.) where Cicero says,

But why did I introduce so respectable a character?

Or we may use some common phrase, such as,

I didn't mean to say that.

[*](Verr. IV. xx. 43. ) Or we may pretend that we are searching for what we should say, as in the phrases,

What else is there?

or

Have I left anything out?

Or we may pretend to discover something suggested by the context, as when Cicero [*](pro Cluent. lxi. 169. ) says,

One more charge, too, of this sort still remains for me to deal with,

or

One thing suggests another.

Such methods will also provide us with elegant transitions, although transition is not itself to be ranked among figures: for example, Cicero, [*](Ve err. IV. xxvi. 57. ) after telling the story of Piso, who ordered a goldsmith to make a ring before him in court, adds, as though this story had suggested it to him,

This ring of Piso's reminds me of something which had entirely slipped my memory. How many gold rings do you think Verres has stripped from the fingers of honourable men?

Or we may affect ignorance on certain points, as in the following passage [*](Verr. IV. iii. 5. ) :

But who was the sculptor who made those statues? Who

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was he? Thank you for prompting me, you are right; they said it was Polyclitus.