Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

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

A similar correspondence may be produced between the middle and the opening of a sentence, as in the line:

te nemus Angitiae, vitrea te Fucinus unda.
Aen. vii. 759 [*](Thee did Angitia's grove bewail,Thee too the glassy waves o' the Fucine lake. The correspondence is to be found in te (coming first in one and second in the other clause). )

Or the middle may correspond to the end, as in the following sentence:

This ship, laden with the spoil of Sicily, while it was itself a portion of the spoil.

[*](Verr. v. xvii. 44. ) Nor will it be questioned that a like effect may be produced by the repetition of the middle of both clauses. Again, the end may correspond with the beginning.

Many grievous afflictions were devised for parents and for kinsfolk many.

[*](Verr. v. xlv. 119. )

There is also another form of repetition which simultaneously reiterates things that have already been said, and draws distinctions between them.

Iphitus too with me and Pelias came,
Iphitus bowed with age and Pelias
Slow-limping with the wound Ulysses gave.
Aen. ii. 435.

This is styled ἐπάνοδος by the Greeks and regression by Roman writers.

Nor are words only repeated to reaffirm the same meaning, but the repetition may serve to mark a contrast, as in the following sentence.

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The reputation of the leaders was approximately equal, but that of their followers perhaps not so equal.

[*](pro Lig. vi. 19. ) At times the cases and genders of the words repeated may be varied, as in

Great is the toil of speaking, and great the task, etc.

; [*](pro Muren. xiii. 29. ) a similar instance is found in Rutilius, but in a long period. I therefore merely cite the beginnings of the clauses. Pater hic tuus? patrem nunc appellas? patris tui filius es? [*](Rutil. i. x. Is this your father? Do you still call him father? Are you your father's son? )

This figure may also be effected solely by change of cases, a proceeding which the Greeks call πολύπτωτον It may also be produced in other ways, as in the pro Cluentio: [*]( lx. 167. But what was the time chosen for giving the poison? Was it on that day? Amid such a crowd? And who was selected to administer it? Where was it got? How was the cup intercepted? Why was it not given a second time? ) Quod autem tempus veneni dandi? illo die? illa frequentia? per quem porro datum? unde sumptum? quae porro interceptio poculi? cur non de integro autem datum?

The combination of different details is called μεταβολὴν by Caecilius, and may be exemplified by the following passage directed against Oppianicus in the pro Cluentio: [*](xiv. 41.)

The local senate were unanimously of opinion that he had falsified the public registers at Larinum; no one would have any business dealings or make any contract with him, no one out of all his numerous relations and kinsfolk ever appointed him as guardian to his children,

with much more to the same effect.

In this case the details are massed together, but they may equally be distributed or dissipated, as I think Cicero says. For example:

Here corn, there grapes, elsewhere the growth of trees
More freely rises,
Georg. i. 54.

with the remainder of the passage.

A wonderful

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mixture of figures may be found in Cicero [*](From the lost speech against Q. Metellus.) in the following passage, where the first word is repeated last after a long interval, while the middle corresponds with the beginning, and the concluding words with the middle.

Yours is the work which we find here, conscript fathers, not mine, a fine piece of work too, but, as I have said, not mine, but yours.

This frequent repetition, which,

as I have said, is produced by a mixture of figures, is called πλοκὴ by the Greeks: a letter of Cicero [*](Now lost.) to Brutus will provide a further example.

When I had made my peace with Appius Claudius and made it through the agency of Gnaeus Pompeius, when then I had made my peace,

etc.

The like effect may be produced in the same sentence by repeating the same words in different forms, as in Persius:

Is then to know in thee
Nothing unless another know thou knowest?
i. 26. The translation is Watson's.

and in Cicero, [*](Origin unknown.) where he says,

For it was impossible for the judges as well to be condemned by their own judgement.

Whole sentences again end with the phrase with which they began. Take an example.

He came from Asia. What a strange thing. A tribune of the people came from Asia.

[*]( From the lost in Q. Metellum. ) Nay, the first word of this same period is actually repeated at its close, thus making its third appearance: for to the words just quoted the orator adds,

Still for all that he came.

Sometimes a whole clause is repeated, although the order of the words is altered, as, for example, Quid Cleomenes facere potuit non enin possum quemquam insimulare falso, quid, inquam,

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magno opere potuit Cleomenes facere? [*](Ecl. x. 72. )

The first word of one clause is also frequently the same as the last of the preceding, a figure common in poetry.

And ye,
Pierian Muses, shall enhance their worth
For Gallus; Gallus, he for whom each hour
My love burns stronger.
Cat. I. i. 2.

But it is not uncommon even in the orators. For example:

Yet this man lives. Lives? Why he even came into the senate house.

[*](§30.)

Sometimes, as I remarked in connexion with the doubling of words, the beginnings and the conclusions of sentences are made to correspond by the use of other words with the same meaning. Here is an example of correspondence between the beginnings:

I would have faced every kind of danger; I would have exposed myself to treacherous attacks; I would have delivered myself over to public hatred.

[*]( From the lost in Q. Metellaim. ) An example of the correspondence of conclusions is provided by another passage in the same speech which follows close on that just cited:

For you have decided; you have passed sentence; you have given judgment.

Some call this synonzmy, others disjunction: both terms, despite their difference, are correct. For the words are differentiated, but their meaning is identical. Sometimes, again, words of the same meaning are grouped together. For instance,

Since this is so, Catiline, proceed on the path which you have entered; depart from the city, it is high time. The gates are open, get you forth.

[*](L. v. 10.)

Or take this example from another book of the orations against Catiline,

He departed, he went
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hence; he burst forth, he was gone.

[*](II. i. l.) This is regarded as a case of pleonasm by Caecilius, that is to say, as language fuller than is absolutely required, like the phrase:

Myself before my very eyes I saw:
Aen. xii. 638.

for

myself

is already implied by

I saw.

But when such language is over weighted by some purely superfluous addition, it is, as I have also pointed out elsewhere, [*](VIII. iii. 53.) a fault; whereas when, as in this case, it serves to make the sense stronger and more obvious, it is a merit.

I saw,

myself,

before my very eyes,

are so many appeals to the emotion.

I cannot therefore see why Caecilius should have stigmatised these words by such a name, since the doubling and repetition of words and all forms of addition may likewise be regarded as pleonasms. And it is not merely words that are thus grouped together. The same device may be applied to thoughts of similar content.

The wild confusion of his thoughts, the thick darkness shed upon his soul by his crimes and the burning torches of the furies all drove him on.

[*]( From the lost in Pisonem. )

Words of different meaning may likewise be grouped together, as for instance,

The woman, the savage cruelty of the tyrant, love for his father, anger beyond control, the madness of blind daring

; [*](Probably from a declamation.) or again, as in the following passage from Ovid, [*](Met. v. 17. )

But the dread Nereids' power,
But horned Ammon, but that wild sea-beast
To feed upon my vitals that must come.

I have found some who call this also by the name of πλοκή: but I do not agree, as only one figure is

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involved. We may also find a mixture of words, some identical and others different in meaning; of this figure, which the Greeks style διαλλαγή, the following will provide an example:

I ask my enemies whether these plots were investigated, discovered and laid bare, overthrown, crushed and destroyed by me.

[*]( From the lost speech in Q. Metullum. ) In this sentence

investigated,

discovered

and

laid bare

are different in meaning, while

overthrown,

crushed

and

destroyed

are similar in meaning to each other, but different from the three previous.

But both the last example and the last but one involve a different figure as well, which, owing to the absence of connecting particles, is called dissolution ( asyndeton ), and is useful when we are speaking with special vigour: for it at once impresses the details on the mind and makes them seem more numerous than they really are. Consequently, we apply this figure not merely to single words, but to whole sentences, as, for instance, is done by Cicero in his reply [*](Only a few fragments remain.) to the speech which Metellus made to the public assembly:

I ordered those against whom information was laid, to be summoned, guarded, brought before the senate: they were led into the senate,

while the rest of the passage is constructed on similar lines. This kind of figure is also called brachylogy, which may be regarded as detachment without loss of connexion. The opposite of this figure of asyndeton is polyxyndeton, which is characterised by the number of connecting particles employed.

In this figure we may repeat the same connecting particle a number of times, as in the following instance:

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His house and home and arms
And Amyclean hound and Cretan quiver;
Georg. iii. 344.

or they may be different,

as in the case of arma virumque followed by multum ille et terris and multa quoque. [*](Aen. i. sqq.)

Adverbs and pronouns also may be varied, as in the following instance: [*](Ecl. i. 43. Here I beheld that youth For whom each year twelve days my altars smoke, He first gave answer to my aupplication. ) lic ilium vidi iunvenem followed by bis senos cui nostra dies and hic mihi responsum primus dedit ille petenti. But both these cases involve the massing together of words and phrases either in asyndeton or polysyndeton.