Institutio Oratoria (Quintilian)

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	Institutio Oratoria Author: Quintilian	Translator: Harold Edgeworth Butler
723	At prooemium aliquando ac narrationem dicet malus homo et argumenta , sic ut nihil sit in iis requirendum . Nam et latro pugnabit acriter , virtus tamen erit fortitudo ; et tormenta sine gemitu feret malus servus , tolerantia tamen doloris laude sua non carebit . Multa fiunt eadem sed aliter . Sufficiant igitur haec , quia de utilitate supra tractavimus .	"But," it may be urged, " a bad man will at times produce an exordium or a statement of facts, and will argue a case in a manner that leaves nothing to be desired. " No doubt; even a robber may fight bravely without courage ceasing to be a virtue; even a wicked slave may bear torture without a groan, and we may still continue to regard endurance of pain as worthy of praise. We can point to many acts which are identical with those of virtue, but spring from other sources. However, what I have said here must suffice, as I have already dealt with the question of the usefulness of oratory.
724	Materiam rhetorices quidam dixerunt esse orationem , qua in sententia ponitur apud Platonem Gorgias . Quae si ita accipitur , ut sermo quacunque de re compositus dicatur oratio , non materia sed opus est , ut statuarii statua ; nam et oratio efficitur arte sicut statua . Sin hac appellatione verba ipsa significari putamus , nihil haec sine rerum substantia faciunt .	As to the material of oratory, some have asserted that it is speech, as for instance Gorgias in the dialogue of Plato. If this view be accepted in the sense that the word "speech" is used of a discourse composed on any subject, then it is not the material, but the work, just as a statue is the work of the sculptor. For speeches like statues require art for their production. If on the other hand we interpret "speech" as indicating the words themselves, they can do nothing unless they are related to facts. Some again hold that the material consists of persuasive arguments. But they form part of the work, are produced by art and require material themselves.
725	Quidam argumenta persuasibilia ; quae et ipsa in parte sunt operis et arte fiunt et materia egent . Quidam civiles quaestiones ; quorum opinio non qualitate sed modo erravit , est enim haec materia rhetorices sed non sola .	Some say that political questions provide the material. The mistake made by these lies not in the quality of their opinion but in its limitation. For political questions are material for eloquence but not the only material.
726	Quidam , quia virtus sit rhetorice , materiam eius totam vitam vocant . Alii , quia non omnium virtutum materia sit tota vita , sed pleraeque earum versentur in partibus , sicut iustitia , fortitudo , continentia propriis officiis et suo fine intelliguntur , rhetoricen quoque dicunt in una aliqua parte ponendam , eique locum in ethice negotialem adsignant id est πραγματικόν .	Some, on the ground that rhetoric is a virtue, make the material with which it deals to be the whole of life. Others, on the ground that life regarded as a whole does not provide material for every virtue, since most of them are concerned only with departments of life (justice, courage and self-control each having their own duties and their own end), would consequently restrict oratory to one particular department of life and place it in the practical or pragmatic department of ethics, that is to say the department of morals which deals with the business of life.
727	Ego ( neque id sine auctoribus ) materiam esse rhetorices iudico omnes res quaecunque ei ad dicendum subiectae erunt . Nam Socrates apud Platonem dicere Gorgiae videtur , non in verbis esse materiam sed in rebus . Et in Phaedro palam , non in iudiciis modo et contionibus , sed in rebus etiam privatis ac domesticis rhetoricen esse demonstrat .	For my own part, and I have authority to support me, I hold that the material of rhetoric is composed of everything that may be placed before it as a subject for speech. Plato, if I read him aright, makes Socrates say to Gorgias that its material is to be found in things not words; while in the Phaedrus he clearly proves that rhetoric is concerned not merely with law-courts and public assemblies, but with private and domestic affairs as well: from which it is obvious that this was the view of Plato himself.
728	Quo manifestum est hanc opinionem ipsius Platonis fuisse . Et Cicero quodam loco materiam rhetorices vocat res , quae subiectae sint ei , sed certas demum putat esse subiectas . Alio vero de omnibus rebus oratori dicendum arbitratur his quidem verbis : Quanquam vis oratoris professioque ipsa bene dicendi hoc suscipere ac polliceri videtur , ut omni de re , quaecunque sit proposita , ornate ab eo copioseque dicatur .	Cicero also in a passage of one of his works, states that the material of rhetoric is composed of the things which are brought before it, but makes certain restrictions as to the nature of these things. In another passage, however, he expresses his opinion that the orator has to speak about all kinds of things; I will quote his actual words: " although the very meaning of the name of orator and the fact that he professes to speak well seem to imply a promise and undertaking that the orator will speak with elegance and fullness on any subject that may be put before him. "
729	Atque adhuc alibi : Vero enim oratori , quae sunt in hominum vita , quandoquidem in ea versatur orator atque ea est ei subiecta materies , omnia quaesita , audita , lecta , disputata , tractata , agitata esse debent .	And in another passage he says, " It is the duty of the true orator to seek out, hear, read, discuss, handle and ponder everything that befalls in the life of man, since it is with this that the orator is concerned and this that forms the material with which he has to deal. "
730	hanc autem , quam nos materiam vocamus , id est res subiectas , quidam modo infinitam modo non propriam rhetorices esse dixerunt , eamque artem circumcurrentem vocaverunt , quod in omni materia diceret , cum quibus mihi minima pugna est .	But this material, as we call it, that is to say the things brought before it, has been criticised by some, at times on the ground that it is limitless, and sometimes on the ground that it is not peculiar to oratory, which they have therefore dubbed a discursive art, because all is grist that comes to its mill.
731	Nam de omni materia dicere eam fatentur ; propriam habere materiam , quia multiplicem habeat , negant . Sed neque infinita est , etiamsi est multiplex ; et aliae quoque artes minores habent multiplicem materiam , velut architectonice , namque ea in omnibus , quae sunt aedificio utilia , versatur , et caelatura , quae auro , argento , aere , ferro opera efficit .	I have no serious quarrel with these critics, for they acknowledge that rhetoric is concerned with every kind of material, though they deny that it has any peculiar material just because of that material's multiplicity. But in spite of this multiplicity, rhetoric is not unlimited in scope, and there are other minor arts whose material is characterised by the same multiplicity: such for instance is architecture, which deals with everything that is useful for the purpose of building: such too is the engraver's art which works on gold, silver, bronze, iron.
732	Nam sculptura etiam lignum , ebur , marmor , vitrum , gemmas praeter ea quae supra dixi complectitur .	As for sculpture, its activity extends to wood, ivory, marble, glass and precious stones in addition to the materials already mentioned.
733	Neque protinus non est materia rhetorices , si in eadem versatur et alius . Nam si quaeram , quae sit materia statuarii , dicetur aes ; si quaeram quae sit excusoris , id est fabricae eius quam Graeci χαλκευτικήν vocant , similiter aes esse respondeant . Atqui plurimum statuis differunt vasa .	And things which form the material for other artists, do not for that reason cease forthwith to be material for rhetoric. For if I ask what is the material of the sculptor, I shall be told bronze; and if I ask what is the material of the maker of vessels (I refer to the craft styled χαλκευτική by the Greeks), the answer will again be bronze: and yet there is all the difference in the world between vessels and statues.
734	Nec medicina ideo non erit ars , quia unctio et exercitatio cum palaestrica , ciborum vero qualitas etiam cum cocorum ei sit arte communis .	Similarly medicine will not cease to be an art, because, like the art of the gymnast, it prescribes rubbing with oil and exercise, or because it deals with diet like the art of cookery.
735	Quod vero de bono , utili , iusto disserere philosophiae officium esse dicunt , non obstat . Nam cum philosophum dicunt , hoc accipi volunt virum bonum . Quare igitur oratorem , quem a bono viro non separo , in eadem materia versari mirer ?	Again, the objection that to discourse of what is good, expedient or just is the duty of philosophy presents no difficulty. For when such critics speak of a philosopher, they mean a good man. Why then should I feel surprised to find that the orator whom I identify with the good man deals with the same material?
736	cum praesertim primo libro iam ostenderim , philosophos omissam hanc ab oratoribus partem occupasse , quae rhetorices propria semper fuisset , ut illi potius in nostra materia versentur . Denique cum sit dialectices materia de rebus subiectis disputare , sit autem dialectice oratio concisa , cur non eadem perpetuae quoque materia videatur ?	There is all the less reason, since I have already shown in the first book that philosophers only usurped this department of knowledge after it had been abandoned by the orators: it was always the peculiar property of rhetoric and the philosophers are really trespassers. Finally, since the discussion of whatever is brought before it is the task of dialectic, which is really a concise form of oratory, why should not this task be regarded as also being the appropriate material for continuous oratory? There is a further objection made by certain critics, who say " Well then,
737	Solet a quibusdam et illud opponi : Omnium igitur artium peritus erit orator , si de omnibus ei dicendum est . Possem hic Ciceronis respondere verbis , apud quem hoc invenio : Mea quidem sententia nemo esse poterit omni laude cumulatus orator , nisi erit omnium rerum magnarum atque artium scientiam consecutus ; sed mihi satis est eius esse oratorem rei de qua dicet non inscium .	if an orator has to speak on every subject, he must be the master of all the arts. " I might answer this criticism in the words of Cicero, in whom I find the following passage:— " In my opinion no one can be an absolutely perfect orator unless he has acquired a knowledge of all important subjects and arts. " I however regard it as sufficient that an orator should not be actually ignorant of the subject on which he has to speak.
738	Neque enim omnes causas novit , et debet posse de omnibus dicere . De quibus ergo dicet ? De quibus didicit . Similiter de artibus quoque , de quibus dicendum erit , interim discet ; et de quibus didicerit dicet .	For he cannot have a knowledge of all causes, and yet he should be able to speak on all. On what then will he speak? On those which he has studied. Similarly as regards the arts, he will study those concerning which he has to speak, as occasion may demand, and will speak on those which he has studied.
739	Quid ergo ? non faber de fabrica melius aut de musice musicus ? Si nesciat orator , quid sit , de quo quaeratur , plane melius . Nam et litigator rusticus illitteratusque de causa sua melius , quam orator , qui nesciet quid in lite sit ; sed accepta a musico , a fabro , sicut a litigatore melius orator quam ipse qui docuerit .	What then?—I am asked—will not a builder speak better on the subject of building and a musician on music? Certainly, if the orator does not know what is the question at issue. Even an illiterate peasant who is a party to a suit will speak better on behalf of his case than an orator who does not know what the subject in dispute may be. But on the other hand if the orator receive instruction from the builder or the musician, he will put forward what he has thus learned better than either, just as he will plead a case better than his client, once he has been instructed in it.
740	Verum et faber , cum de fabrica , et musicus , cum de musica , si quid confirmationem desideraverit , dicet . Non quidem erit orator , sed faciet illud quasi orator , sicut cum vulnus imperitus deligabit , non erit medicus , sed faciet ut medicus .	The builder and the musician will, however, speak on the subject of their respective arts, if there should be any technical point which requires to be established. Neither will be an orator, but he will perform his task like an orator, just as when an untrained person binds up a wound, he will not be a physician, but he will be acting as one.
741	An huiusmodi res neque in laudem neque in deliberationem neque in iudicium veniunt ? Ergo cum de faciendo portu Ostiensi deliberatum est , non debuit sententiam dicere orator ? atqui opus erat ratione architectorum .	Is it suggested that such topics never crop up in panegyric, deliberative or forensic oratory? When the question of the construction of a port at Ostia came up for discussion, had not the orator to state his views? And yet it was a subject requiring the technical knowledge of the architect.
742	Livores et tumores in corpore cruditatis an veneni signa sint , non tractat orator ? at est id ex ratione medicinae . Circa mensuras et numeros non versabitur ? dicamus has geometriae esse partes . Equidem omnia fere credo posse casu aliquo venire in officium oratoris ; quod si non accidet , non erunt ei subiecta .	Does not the orator discuss the question whether livid spots and swellings on the body are symptomatic of ill-health or poison? And yet that is a question for the qualified physician. Will he not deal with measurements and figures? And yet we must admit that they form part of mathematics. For my part I hold that practically all subjects are under certain circumstances liable to come up for treatment by the orator. If the circumstances do not occur, the subjects will not concern him.
743	Ita sic quoque recte diximus , materiam rhetorices esse omnes res ad dicendum ei subiectas ; quod quidem probat etiam sermo communis . Nam cum aliquid , de quo dicamus , accepimus , positam nobis esse materiam frequenter etiam praefatione testamur .	We were therefore right in asserting that the material of rhetoric is composed of everything that comes before the orator for treatment, an assertion which is confirmed by the practice of everyday speech. For when we have been given a subject on which to speak, we often preface our remarks by calling attention to the fact that the matter has been laid before us.
744	Gorgias quidem adeo rhetori de omnibus rebus putavit esse dicendum , ut se in auditoriis interrogari pateretur , qua quisque de re vellet . Hermagoras quoque , dicendo materiam esse in causa et in quaestionibus , omnes res subiectas erat complexus .	Gorgias indeed felt so strongly that it was the orator's duty to speak on every subject, that he used to allow those who attended his lectures to ask him questions on any subject they pleased. Hermagoras also asserted that the material of oratory lay in the cause and the questions it involved, thereby including every subject that can be brought before it.
745	Sed quaestiones si negat ad rhetoricen pertinere , dissentit a nobis ; si autem ad rhetoricen pertinent , ab hoc quoque adiuvamur . Nihil est enim , quod non in causam aut quaestionem cadat .	If he denies that general questions are the concern of oratory, he disagrees with me: but if they do concern rhetoric, that supports my contention. For there is nothing which may not crop up in a cause or appear as a question for discussion.
746	Aristoteles tres faciendo partes orationis , iudicialem , deliberativam , demonstrativam , paene et ipse oratori subiecit omnia ; nihil enim non in haec cadit .	Aristotle himself also by his tripartite division of oratory, into forensic, deliberative and demonstrative, practically brought everything into the orator's domain, since there is nothing that may not come up for treatment by one of these three kinds of rhetoric.
747	Quaesitum a paucissimis et de instrumento est . Instrumentum voco , sine quo formari materia in id quod velimus effici opus non possit . Verum hoc ego non artem credo egere sed artifice . Neque enim scientia desiderat instrumentum , quae potest esse consummata , etiamsi nihil faciat , sed ille artifex , ut caelator caelum et pictor penicilla . Itaque haec in eum locum , quo de oratore dicturi sumus , differamus .	A very few critics have raised the question as to what may be the instrument of oratory. My definition of an instrument is that without which the material cannot be brought into the shape necessary for the effecting of our object. But it is not the art which requires an instrument, but the artist. Knowledge needs no instruments, for it may be complete although it produces nothing, but the artist must have them. The engraver cannot work without his chisel nor the painter without his brush. I shall therefore defer this question until I come to treat of the orator as distinct from his art.
748	Liber III quoniam in libro secundo quaesitum est , quid esset rhetorice et quis finis eius , artem quoque esse eam et utilem et virtutem , ut vires nostrae tulerunt , ostendimus , materiamque ei res omnes , de quibus dicere oporteret , subiecimus : iam hinc , unde coeperit , quibus constet , quo quaeque in ea modo invenienda atque tractanda sint , exsequar ; intra quem modum plerique scriptores artium constiterunt , adeo ut Apollodorus contentus solis iudicialibus fuerit .	Book III IN the second book the subject of inquiry was the nature and the end of rhetoric, and I proved to the best of my ability that it was an art, that it was useful, that it was a virtue and that its material was all and every subject that might come up for treatment. I shall now discuss its origin, its component parts, and the method to be adopted in handling and forming our conception of each. For most authors of text-books have stopped short of this, indeed Apollodorus confines himself solely to forensic oratory.
749	Nec sum ignarus , hoc a me praecipue , quod hic liber inchoat , opus studiosos eius desiderasse , ut inquisitione opinionum , quae diversissimae fuerunt , longe difficillimum , ita nescio an minimae legentibus futurum voluptati , quippe quod prope nudam praeceptorum traditionem desideret .	I know that those who asked me to write this work were specially interested in that portion on which I am now entering, and which, owing to the necessity of examining a great diversity of opinions, at once forms by far the most difficult section of this work, and also, I fear, may be the least attractive to my readers, since it necessitates a dry exposition of rules.
750	In ceteris enim admiscere temptauimus aliquid nitoris , non iactandi ingenii gratia ( namque in id eligi materia poterat uberior ) , sed ut hoc ipso adliceremus magis iuventutem ad cognitionem eorum , quae necessaria studiis arbitrabamur , si ducti iucunditate aliqua lectionis libentius discerent ea , quorum ne ieiuna atque arida traditio averteret animos et aures praesertim tam delicatas raderet uerebamur .	In other portions of this work I have attempted to introduce a certain amount of ornateness, not, I may say, to advertise my style (if I had wished to do that, I could have chosen a more fertile theme), but in order that I might thus do something to lure our young men to make themselves acquainted with those principles which I regarded as necessary to the study of rhetoric: for I hoped that by giving them something which was not unpleasant to read I might induce a greater readiness to learn those rules which I feared might, by the dryness and aridity which must necessarily characterise their exposition, revolt their minds and offend their ears which are nowadays grown somewhat over-sensitive.
751	Qua ratione se Lucretius dicit praecepta philosophiae carmine esse complexum ; namque hac , ut est notum , similitudine utitur : " Ac veluti pueris absinthia taetra medentes Cum dare conantur , prius oras pocula circum Aspirant mellis dulci flauoque liquore , " et quae sequuntur .	Lucretilus has the same object in mind when he states that he has set forth his philosophical system in verse; for you will remember the well known simile which he uses :— "And as physicians when they seek to give A draught of bitter wormwood to a child, First smear along the edge that rims the cup The liquid sweets of honey, golden-hued," and the rest.
752	Sed nos ueremur , ne parum hic liber mellis et absinthi multum habere videatur , sitque salubrior studiis quam dulcior . Quin etiam hoc timeo , ne ex eo minorem gratiam ineat , quod pleraque non inventa per me sed ab aliis tradita continebit , habeat etiam quosdam , qui contra sentiant et adversentur , propterea quod plurimi auctores , quamvis eodem tenderent , diversas tamen vias muniverunt atque in suam quisque induxit sequentes .	But I fear that this book will have too little honey and too much wormwood, and that though the student may find it a healthy draught, it will be far from agreeable. I am also haunted by the further fear that it will be all the less attractive from the fact that most of the precepts which it contains are not original, but derived from others, and because it is likely to rouse the opposition of certain persons who do not share my views. For there are a large number of writers, who though they are all moving toward the same goal, have constructed different roads to it and each drawn their followers into their own.
753	Illi autem probant qualecunque ingressi sunt iter , nec facile inculcatas pueris persuasiones mutaveris , quia nemo non didicisse mavult quam discere .	The latter, however, approve of the path on which they have been launched whatever its nature, and it is difficult to change the convictions implantted in boyhood, for the excellent reason that everybody prefers to have learned rather than to be in process of learning.
754	Est autem , ut procedente libro patebit , infinita dissensio auctorum , primo ad ea , quae rudia atque inperfecta adhuc erant , adiicientibus quod inuenissent scriptoribus , mox , ut aliquid sui viderentur adferre , etiam recta mutantibus .	But, as will appear in the course of this book, there is an infinite diversity of opinions among writers on [his subject, since some have added their own discoveries to those portions of the art which were still shapeless and unformed, and subsequently have altered even what was perfectly sound in order to establish a claim to originality.
755	Nam primus post eos , quos poetae tradiderunt , movisse aliqua circa rhetoricen Empedocles dicitur . Artium autem scriptores antiquissimi Corax et Tisias Siculi , quos insecutus est vir eiusdem insulae Gorgias Leontinus , Empedoclis , ut traditur , discipulus .	The first writer after those recorded by the poets who is said to have taken any steps in the direction of rhetoric is Empedocles. But the earliest writers of text-books are the Sicilians, Corax and Tisias, who were followed by another from the same island, namely Gorgias of Leontini, whom tradition asserts to have been the pupil of Empedocles.
756	Is beneficio longissimae aetatis ( nam centum et novem vixit annos ) cum multis simul floruit , ideoque et illorum , de quibus supra dixi , fuit aemulus et ultra Socraten usque duravit .	He, thanks to his length of days, for he lived to a hundred and nine, flourished as the contemporary of many rhetoricians, was consequently the rival of those whom I have just mentioned, and lived on to survive Socrates.
757	Thrasymachus Chalcedonius cum hoc et Prodicus Cius et Abderites Protagoras , a quo decem milibus denariorum didicisse artem , quam edidit , Euathlus dicitur , et Hippias Elius et , quem Palameden Plato appellat , Alcidamas Elaïtes .	In the same period flourished Thrasymachus of Chalcedon, Prodicus of Ceos, Protagoras of Abdera, for whose instructions, which he afterwards published in a text-book, Euathlus is said to have paid 10,000 denarii, Hippias of Elis and Alcidamas of Elaea whom Plato calls Palamedes.
758	Antiphon quoque et orationem primus omnium scripsit et nihilo minus et artem ipse composuit et pro se dixisse optime est creditus , etiam Polycrates , a quo scriptam in Socraten diximus orationem , et Theodorus Byzantius ex iis et ipse , quos Plato appellat λογοδαιδάλους	There was Antiphon also, who was the first to write speeches and who also wrote a text-book and is said to have spoken most eloquently in his own defence; Polycrates, who, as have already said, wrote a speech against Socrates, and Theodorus of Byzantium, who was one of those called "word-artificers" by Plato.
759	Horum primi communes locos tractasse dicuntur Protagoras , Gorgias , adfectus Prodicus et Hippias et idem Protagoras et Thrasymachus . Cicero in Bruto negat ante Periclea scriptum quidquam , quod ornatum oratorium habeat ; eius aliqua ferri . Equidem non reperio quidquam tanta eloquentiae fama dignum ; ideoque minus miror esse , qui nihil ab eo scriptum patent , haec autem , quae feruntur , ab alis esse composite .	Of these Protagoras and Gorgias are said to have been the first to treat commonplaces, Prodicus, Hippias, Protagoras and Thrasymachus the first to handle emotional themes. Cicero in the Brutus states that nothing in the ornate rhetorical style was ever committed to writing before Pericles, and that certain of his speeches are still extant. For my part I have been unable to discover anything in the least worthy of his great reputation for eloquence, and am consequently the less surprised that there should be some who hold that he never committed anything to writing, and that the writings circulating under his name are the works of others.
760	His successere multi , sed clarissimus Gorgiae auditorum Isocrates , quanquam de praeceptore eius inter auctores non convenit ; nos autem Aristoteli credimus . Hinc velut diversae secari coeperunt viae .	These rhetoricias had many successors, but the most famous of (Gorgias' pupils was Isocrates, although our authorities are not agreed as to who was his teacher: I however accept the statement of Aristotle on the subject.