Institutio Oratoria

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