Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator), 2.15.4

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[4] This view is derived from Isocrates, if indeed the treatise on rhetoric ¹ which circulates under his name is really from his hand. He, although far from agreeing with those whose aim is to disparage the duties of an orator, somewhat rashly defined rhetoric as πειθοῦς δημιουργός, the

worker of persuasion

: for I cannot bring myself to use the peculiar derivative which Ennius ² applies to Marcus Cethegus in the phrase suadae medulla, the

marrow of persuasion.

Institutio Oratoria. Quintilian. Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator). Cambridge, Mass.. 1920-1922.

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Current edition Perseus

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

Editions (1)

Institutio Oratoria Perseus (Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, editor. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.) — 2.15.4 focus

[4] haec opinio originem ab Isocrate (si tamen re vera Ars, quae circumfertur, eius est) duxit. qui , cum longe sit a voluntate infamantium oratoris officia, finem artis temere comprehendit, dicens esse rhetoricen persuadendi opificem, id est πειθοῦς δημιουργόν; neque enim mihi permiserim eadem uti declinatione, qua Ennius M. Cethegum suadae medullam vocat.

Notes on the current edition

Institutio Oratoria

1. This treatise is lost. It may have been the work of the younger Isocrates.

2. Ann. ix. 309 (Vahlen). The derivative to which he objects is the rare word suada.

Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 2.15.4

Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator)

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