Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator), 9.2.15

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[15] A different form of fictitious question is to be found in the pro Caelio.

Some one will say, 'Is this your moral discipline? Is this the training you would give young men?'

with the whole passage that follows. Then comes his reply,

Gentlemen, if there were any man with such vigour of mind, with such innate virtue and self-control, etc.

¹ A different method is to ask a question and not to wait for a reply, but to subjoin the reply at once yourself. For example,

Had you no house? Yes, you had one. Had you money and to spare? No, you were in actual want.

² This is a figure which some call suggestion.

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.) — 9.2.15 focus

[15] aliter pro Caelio ficta interrogatione: dicet aliquis, Haec igitur est tua disciplina? sic tu instituis adulescentis? et totus locus. deinde : ego , si quis, iudices, hoc robore animi atque hac indole virtutis ac continentiae fuit, et cetera. cui diversum est, cum alium rogaveris, non exspectare responsum sed statim subiicere: domus tibi deerat? at habebas; pecunia superabat? at egebas. quod schema quidam per suggestionem vocant.

Notes on the current edition

Institutio Oratoria

1. xvii. 39 sqq. The passage concludes,

I should consider such an one the possessor of qualities which I can only call worthy of a god.

2. Orat. lxvii. 223.

Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 9.2.15

Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator)

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