Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.

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?

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,

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.

This device may serve for other purposes as well. For there are means of this kind whereby we may achieve an end quite other than that at which we appear to be aiming, as, for example, Cicero does in the passage just quoted. For while he taunts Verres with a morbid passion for acquiring statues and pictures, he succeeds in creating the impression that he personally has no interest in such subjects. So, too, when Demosthenes [*](De Coron. 263. He argued that defeat in such a cause could bring no shame. Athens would have been unworthy of the heroes of old had she not fought for freedom. ) swears by those who fell at Marathon and Salamis, his object is to lessen the odium in which he was involved by the disaster at Chaeronea.

We may further lend charm to our speech by deferring the discussion of some points after just mentioning them, thus depositing them in the safe keeping of the judge's memory and afterwards reclaiming our deposit; or we may employ some figure to enable us to repeat certain points (for repetition is not in itself a figure) or may make especial mention of certain things and vary the aspect of our pleading. For eloquence delights in variety, and just as the eye is more strongly attracted by the sight of a number of different things, so oratory supplies a continuous series of novelties to rivet the attention of the mind.