Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator), 6.3.98

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[98] as when one man replied to another, a worthless fellow, who had fallen down and asked to be helped to his feet,

Let someone pick you up who does not know you.

¹ Or we may shew our culture by drawing on legend for a jest, as Cicero did in the trial of Verres, when Hortensius said to him as he was examining a witness,

I do not understand these riddles.

You ought to, then,

said Cicero,

as you have got the Sphinx at home.

Hortensius had received a bronze Sphinx of great value as a present from Verres.

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

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Funding provided by Tufts University.

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.) — 6.3.98 focus

[98] et proverbia opportune aptata: ut homini nequam lapso et, ut allevaretur, roganti, tollat te qui non novit. ex historia etiam ducere urbanitatem eruditum est: ut Cicero fecit, cum ei testem in iudicio Verris roganti dixisset Hortensius,

non intelligo haec aenigmata.

atqui debes, inquit, cum Sphingem domi habeas;

acceperat autem ille a Verre Sphingem aeneam magnae pecuniae.

Notes on the current edition

Institutio Oratoria

1. Hor. Ep. I. xvii. 62, where the passers by reply Quaere peregrinum to an imposter who, having fallen down and broken his leg, implores them to pick him up, crying Credite, non ludo: crudeles, tollite claudum.

Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 6.3.98

Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator)

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