Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator), 6.3.87

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[87] as for example, when Cascellius, ¹ on being consulted by a client who said,

I wish to divide my ship,

replied,

You will lose it then.

But there are also other ways of distorting the meaning; we may for instance give a serious statement a comparatively trivial sense, like the man who, when asked what he thought of a man who had been caught in the act of adultery, replied that he had been too slow in his movements. ²

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.) — 6.3.87 focus

[87] cui sine dubio frequentissimam dat occasionem ambiguitas: ut Cascellio, qui consultatori dicenti,

navem lividere volo,

perdes ,

inquit. sed averti intellectus et aliter solet, cum ab asperioribus ad leniora deflectitur: ut qui interrogatus, quid sentiret de eo, qui in adulterio deprehensus esset, tardum fuisse respondit.

Notes on the current edition

Institutio Oratoria

1. A famous lawyer mentioned by Horace, A.P. 371. Cascellius pretends to take dividere literally ( i.e. cut in two); his client had meant

to sell half his ship,

i.e. take a partner in the venture.

2. de Or. II. lxviii. 275.

Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 6.3.87

Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator)

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