Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator), 6.3.54

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[54] Such puns are more successful with things than names. It was, for example, a neat hit of Afer's when he said that Manlius Sura, who kept rushing to and fro while he was pleading, waving his hands, letting his toga fall and replacing it, was not merely pleading, but giving himself a lot of needless trouble. ¹ For there is a spice of wit about the word satagere in itself, even if there were no resemblance to any other word.

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.) — 6.3.54 focus

[54] sed haec eadem genera commodius in rebus quam in nominibus respondent. Afer enim venuste Manlium Suram, multum in agendo discursantem, salientem, manus iactantem, togam deiicientem et reponentem, non agere, dixit, sed satagere. est enim dictum per se urbanum satagere etiamsi nulla subsit alterius verbi similitudo.

Notes on the current edition

Institutio Oratoria

1. This pan cannot be reproduced. Watson attempts to express it by

doing business in pleading

and

overdoing it.

But

overdoing it

has none of the neatness of salagere, which is said to have

a spice of wit about it,

since it means lit.

to do enough,

an ironic way of saying

to overdo it.

Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 6.3.54

Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator)

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