Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator), 8.2.14

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[14] A greater source of obscurity is, however, to be found in the construction and combination of words, and the ways in which this may occur are still more numerous. Therefore, a sentence should never be so long that it is impossible to follow its drift, nor should its conclusion be unduly postponed by transposition or an excessive use of hyperbaton.¹ Still worse is the result when the order of the words is confused as in the line ²

In the midmost sea

Rocks are there by Italians altars called.

Again,

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.) — 8.2.14 focus

[14] plus tamen est obscuritatis in contextu et continuatione sermonis et plures modi. quare nec sit tam longus, ut eum prosequi non possit intentio, nec traiectione vel ultra modum ¹ hyperbato finis eius differatur. quibus adhuc peior est mixtura verborum, qualis in illo versu.

saxa vacant Itali, mediis quae in fluctibus, aras.

Notes on the current edition

Institutio Oratoria

1. See viii. vi. 62.

2. Aen. i. 109. The awkwardness of the order cannot be brought out in English.

Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 8.2.14

Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator)

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