Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator), 7.9.12

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[12] Where it is doubtful to what a word or phrase refers, and the word or phrase itself is ambiguous, we shall have to alter several words, as, for example, in the sentence,

My heir shall be bound to give him all his own property,

where

his own

is ambiguous. Cicero commits the same fault when he says of Gaius Fannius, ¹

He following the instructions of his father-in-law, for whom, because he had not been elected to the college of augurs, he had no great affection, especially as he had given Quintus Scaevola, the younger of his sons-in-law, the preference over himself. .

For over himself may refer either to his father-in-law or to Fannius.

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.) — 7.9.12 focus

[12] pluribus verbis emendandum, ubi est id, quod quo referatur dubium est, et ipsum ¹ est ambiguum. heres meus dare illi damnas esto omnia sua. in quod genus incidit Cicero loquens de C. Fannio; is soceri instituto, quem, quia cooptatus in augurum collegium non erat, non admodum diligebat, praesertim cum ille Q. Scaevolam sibi minorem natu generum praetulisset. nam sibi et ad socerum referri et ad Fannium potest.

Notes on the current edition

Institutio Oratoria

1. Brut. xxvi. 101. The sentence continues,

(an act of which Laelius said by way of excuse that he had given the augurship not to his younger son-in-law, but to his elder daughter), Fannius, I say, despite his lack of affection for Laelius, in obedience to his instructions attended the lectures of Panaetius.

Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 7.9.12

Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator)

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