Institutio Oratoria

A simple question may be illustrated by the line: [*]( quanquam, Spalding: quam cum, A: cum, B. )

1. But who are ye and from what shores are come?

On the other hand, a question involves a figure, whenever it is employed not to get information, but to emphasise our point, as in the following examples: [*](pro. Lig. iii. 9 and in Cat. i. 1. )

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

and

How long, Catiline, will you abuse our patience?

and

Do you not see that your plots are all laid bare?

with the whole passage that follows.

How much greater is the fire of his words as they stand than if he had said,

You have abused our patience a long time,

and

Your plots are all laid bare.

We may also ask what cannot be denied, as

Was Gaius Fidiculanius Falcula, I ask you, brought to justice?

[*](pro Cluent. xxxvii. 103. ) Or we may put a question to which it is difficult to reply, as in the common forms,

How is it possible?

How can that be?

Or we may ask a question with a view to throw odium on the person to whom it is addressed, as in the words placed by Seneca in the mouth of Medea: [*](Med. 451. )

1. What lands dost bid me seek?

Or our aim may be to excite pity, as is the case with the question asked by Sinon in Virgil: [*](Aen. ii. 69. )

1. Alas, what lands, lie cried,
2. What seas can now receive me?

Or to embarrass our opponent and to deprive him of the power to feign ignorance of our meaning, as Asinius does in the following sentence:

Do you hear? The will which we impugn is the work of a madman, not of one who lacked natural affection.

In fact questions admit of infinite variety.

They may serve our indignation, as in the line:

1. Are any left
2. That still adore Juno's divinity?

Aen. i. 48.

Or they may still express wonder, as in:

1. To what dost thou not drive the hearts of men,
2. Accursed greed of gold?

Aen. iii. 56.

Again, at times they may express a sharp command,

as in:

1. Will they not rush to arms and follow forth
2. From all the city?

Aen. iv. 592.

Or we may ask ourselves, as in the phrase of Terence,

What, then, shall I do?

[*](Eun. I. i. 1. )

A figure is also involved in a reply, when one question is asked and another is answered, because it suits the respondent's purpose better to do so, or because it aggravates the charge brought against the accused. For example, a witness for the prosecution was asked whether he had been cudgelled by the plaintiff, and replied,

And what is more, I had done him no harm.

Or the purpose may be to elude a charge, a very common form of reply. The advocate says,

I ask if you killed the man?

The accused replies,

He was a robber.

The advocate asks,

Have you occupied the farm?

The accused replies,

It was my own.

Again, the answer may be of such a kind as to make defence precede confession. For example, in the Eclogues [*](Ecl. iii. 17 and 21. ) of Virgil, when one shepherd asks:

1. Did I not see you, villain, snare a goat
2. Of Damon's?

the other replies:

1. I vanquished him in song, and should he not
2. Pay me the prize, my due?