Institutio Oratoria

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:

1. Here corn, there grapes, elsewhere the growth of trees
2. More freely rises,

Georg. i. 54.

with the remainder of the passage.

A wonderful

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:

1. Is then to know in thee
2. 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, 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.

1. And ye,
2. Pierian Muses, shall enhance their worth
3. For Gallus; Gallus, he for whom each hour
4. 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.)