Institutio Oratoria

Quintilian

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

But the more closely welded style is composed of three elements: the comma, or as we call it incisum, the colon, or in Latin menbrum, and the period, [*]( See § 122; comma, colon, period, now applied to stops, originally referred to varying lengths of clauses or sentences. ) which Roman writers call ambitus, circumductum, continuatio or conclusio. Further, in all artistic structure there are three necessary qualities, order, connexion and rhythm.

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Of these we will first discuss order,

which must be considered in connexion with words taken both singly and in conjunction. Words taken singly are known as asyndeta (unconnected). In dealing with them we must take care that our style does not diminish in force through the fact that a weaker word is made to follow a stronger: as, for example, if after calling a man a despoiler of temples we were to speak of him as a thief, or after styling him a highwayman were to dub him an insolent fellow. For sentences should rise and grow in force: of this an excellent example is provided by Cicero, [*](Phil. II. xxv. 63. ) where he says,

You, with that throat, those lungs, that strength, that would do credit to a prizefighter, in every limb of your body

; for there each phrase is followed by one stronger than the last, whereas, if he had begun by referring to his whole body, he could scarcely have gone on to speak of his lungs and throat without an anticlimax. There is also another species of order which may be entitled natural, as for example when we speak of

men and women,

day and night,

rising and setting,

in preference to the reverse order.

In some cases a change in the order will make a word superfluous: for example, we write fratres gemini rather than gemini fratres (twin-brothers), since if gemini came first, there would be no necessity to add fratres. The rule which some have sought to enforce that nouns should precede verbs, and verbs adverbs, while epithets and pronouns should follow their substantives, is a mere extravagance, since the reverse order is often adopted with excellent effect.

Another piece of extravagant pedantry is to insist that the first place should always be occupied by what is first

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in order of time: such an order is no doubt often the best, but merely because previous events are often the most important and should consequently be placed before matters of more trivial import.

If the demands of artistic structure permit, it is far best to end the sentence with a verb: for it is in verbs that the real strength of language resides. But if it results in harshness of sound, this principle must give way before the demands of rhythm, as is frequently the case in the best authors of Rome and Greece. Of course, in every case where a verb does not end the sentence, we shall have an hyperbaton, [*](See VIII. vi. 62 sqq.) but hyperbaton is an admitted trope or figure, and therefore is to be regarded as an adornment.

For words are not cut to suit metrical feet, and are therefore transferred from place to place to form the most suitable combinations, just as in the case of unhewn stones their very irregularity is the means of suggesting what other stones they will best fit and what will supply them with the surest resting-place. On the other hand, the happiest effects of language are produced when it is found possible to employ the natural order, apt connexion and appropriate rhythm.

Some transpositions are too long, as I have pointed out in previous books, [*](Only, apparently, in VIII. ii. 14.) while at times they involve faulty structure, although some writers actually aim at this vicious type of transposition, in order to create an appearance of freedom and license, as in the following phrases from Maecenas, sole et aurora rubent plurima ; [*](They grow red in the sunlight and the fullness of dawn. The meaning is uncertain, plurima might be neut. nom. plural. ) inter se sacra movit aqua fraxinos ; [*](The sacred stream ran through the ash-grove.) ne exequias quidem unus inter miserrimos viderem meas. [*](May I never, alone amidst the most miserable of men, behold my own funeral rites.) The worst feature in these examples, is that he plays pranks

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with his structure while dealing with a sad theme. It is, however,