Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

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

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,
v7-9 p.471
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.)