Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator), 9.2.49

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[49] or when we concede to our opponents qualities which we are unwilling that they should seem to possess. This is specially effective when we possess these qualities and they do not, as in the following passage, ¹

Brand me as coward, Drances, since thy sword

Has slain such hosts of Trojans.

A like result is produced by reversing this method when we pretend to own to faults which are not ours or which even recoil upon the heads of our opponents, as for example,

'Twas I that led the Dardan gallant on

To storm the bridal bed of Sparta's queen!

Aen. x. 92. Juno ironically pretends to have brought about the rape of Helen, which was in reality the work of Venus.

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

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

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.) — 9.2.49 focus

[49] quae nolumus videri in adversariis esse, concedimus eis. id acrius fit, cum eadem in nobis sunt et in adversario non sunt:

meque timoris

argue tu, Drance, quando tot caedis acervos

Teucrorum tua dextra dedit.

Quod idem contra valet, cum aut ea, quae a nobis absunt, aut etiam quae in aduersarios recidunt, quasi fatemur:

me duce Dardanius Spartam expugnauit adulter.

Nec in personis tantum,

Notes on the current edition

Institutio Oratoria

1. Aen. xi. 383. Turnus addresses Drances, who has been attacking him as the cause of the war and bidding him fight himself, if he would win Lavinia for his bride.

Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 9.2.49

Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator)

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