Institutio Oratoria

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. )