Institutio Oratoria

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

1. His house and home and arms
2. And Amyclean hound and Cretan quiver;

Georg. iii. 344.

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.

Writers have given special names to all the different forms, but the names vary with the caprice of the inventor. The origin of these figures is one and the same, namely that they make our utterances more vigorous and emphatic and produce animpression of vehemence such as might spring from repeated outbursts of emotion. Gradation, which the Greeks call climax, necessitates a more obvious and less natural application of art and should therefore be more sparingly employed. Moreover, it involves addition,

since it repeats what has already been said and, before passing to a new point, dwells on those which precede. I will translate a very famous instance from the Greek. [*]( Demosth. de Cor. 179. )

I did not say this, without making a formal proposal to that effect, I did not make that proposal without undertaking the embassy, nor undertake the embassy without persuading the Thebans.

There are, however, examples of the same thing in Latin authors.

It was the energy of Africanus that gave him his peculiar excellence, his excellence that gave him glory, his glory that gave him rivals.

Consequently this means the abolition

v7-9 p.479

of trials for treason no less than for extortion, for offences covered by the Plautian law no less than for treason, for bribery no less than for those offences, and for all breaches of every law no less than for bribery,

It is also to be found in poets, as in the passage in Homer [*](Il. ii. 101. ) describing the sceptre which he traces from the hands of Jupiter down to those of Agamemnon, and in the following from one of our own tragedians: [*](Unknown.)

1. From Jove, so runs the tale, was Tantalus sprung,
2. From Tantalus Pelops, and of Pelops' seed
3. Sprang Atreus, who is sire of all our line.

As regards the figures produced by omission, they rely for their charm in the main on conciseness and novelty. There is one of these which I mentioned in the last book [*](VII. vi. 21.) with reference to synecdoche, and postponed discussing until such time as I came to deal with figures: it occurs when the word omitted may be clearly gathered from the context: an example may be found in Caelius' denunciation of Antony: stupere gaudio Graecus: [*](The Greek was struck dumb with joy.) for we must clearly supply coepit. Or take the following passage from a letter of Cicero [*]( Lost. No talk except of you. What better? Then Fla virus says, 'Couriers to-morrow,' and I scribbled these lines at his house during dinner. ) to Brutus: Serno nullus scilicet nisi de te: quid enim potius? turn Flavius, cras, inquit, tabellarii, et ego ibidem has inter cenum exaravi.

Of a similar kind, at any rate in my opinion, are those passages in which words are decently omitted to spare our modesty.

1. You—while the goats looked goatish-we know who,
2. And in what chapel—(but the kind Nymphs laughed).

Ecl. iii. 8.

For in aposiopesis it is either uncertain or at least requires an explanation of some length to show what is suppressed, whereas in the present case only one word, and that of an obvious character, is missing. If this, then, is an aposiopesis, all omissions will have a claim to the title.

I would not even allow the name of aposiopesis to all cases where what is omitted is left to be understood, as for example the following phrase from Cicero's letters, [*]( Lost. The sense is, Despatched on the day on which Antony offered Caesar the crown. ) Data Lupercalibus quo die Antonius Caesari: for there, there is no real suppression: the omission is merely playful, for there is but one way of completing the sentence, namely with the words diadema imposuit.

Another figure produced by omission is that of which I have just spoken, [*](§ 50.) when the connecting particles are omitted. A third is the figure known as ἐπεζευγμένον in which a number of clauses are all completed by the same verb, which would be required by each singly if they stood alone. In such cases the verb to which the rest of the sentence refers may come first, as in the following instance: Vicit pudorem lilido, timiorem audacia, rationem amentia. [*](Pro Cluent. vi. 15. Lust conquered shame, boldness fear, madness reason. ) Or it may come last, closing a number of clauses, as in the following: [*](Cat. i. ix. 22. For you are not the man, Catiline, to be deterred from vile acts by shame, from peril by fear, or from madness by reason. ) Neque enim is es, Catilina, ut te aut pudor unquam a turpitudine ant meites a periculo aut ratio a furore revocaverit.

The verb may even be placed in the middle so as to serve both what precedes and what follows. The same figure may join different sexes, as for example when we speak of a male and female child under the comprehensive term of

sons

But these devices are so common that they can scarcely lay claim to involve the art essential to figures. On the other hand it is quite obviously figure, when two different constructions are combined as in the following case:

1. Sociis tunc arma capessant
2. Edico et dira bellum cum gene gerendumn.

Aen. iii. 234; participio = gerundive ( gerendum ).

1. The miser lacks
2. That which he has no less than what he has not.

Syrus 486 (Ribbeck).

To this figure is opposed distinction, which they call παραδιαστολή, by which we distinguish between similar things, as in this sentence: [*](Rutil. i. 4. )

When you call yourself wise instead of astute, brave instead of rash, economical instead of mean.

1. I labour to be brief, I turn obscure,

Hor A.P. 25.

There is a third class of figures which attracts the ear of the audience and excites their attention by some resemblance, equality or contrast of words. To this class belongs paronomasia, which we call adnominatio. This may be effected in different ways. It may depend on the resemblance of one word to another which has preceded, although the words are in different cases. Take the following passage from Domitius Afer's defence of Cloatilla: Mulier omnium rerum imiperita, in omnnibus rebus infelix. [*](A woman unskilled in everything and in everything unhappy.)

Or the same word may be repeated with greater meaning, as quando homo, hostis homno. [*]( The meaning is obscure. As punctuated, the sense is since he is a man, the man is an enemy, i. e. the utterance of some misanthrope. Or a question-mark may be placed after homo and the meaning will be since he is a man, can he be an enemy? ) But although I have used these examples to illustrate something quite different, one of them involves both emphasis and reiteration. The opposite of parononasia occurs when one word is proved to be false by repetition; for instance,

This law did not seem to be a law to private individuals.

where the same word is used in two different meanings. When Proculeius reproached his son with waiting for his death, and the son replied that he was not waiting for it, the former retorted, Well then, I ask you to wait for it. Sometimes such difference in meaning is obtained not by using the same word, but one like it, as for example by saying that a man whom you think dignus supplicatione (worthy of supplication) is supplicio adficiendus. [*]( In old Latin supplicium was used as equivalent to suppliratio, and this use survives in Livy and Sallust. But in Augustan and post-Augustan language the normal meaning of supplicium was punishment, and the natural translation would be worthy of punishment. )

There are also other ways in which the same words may be used in different senses or altered by the lengthening or shortening of

Amari iucundum est, si curetur ne quid insit amari,[*]( Auct. ad Herenn. iv. 14: It is pleasant to be loved, but we must take care that there is no bitterness in that love. ) and Avium dulcedo ad avium ducit; [*](Birds' sweet song leads us into pathless places.) and again this jest from Ovid, [*]( Probably from a collection of epigrams: Furia, why should I not call you a fury? )

1. Cur ego non dicam, Furia, te furiam?