Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator), 9.2.88

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

View: By Chapter

← Previous Next →

[88] deny that there are controversial themes of this kind where figures may legitimately be employed, as, for example, the following:

A man was accused of unnatural murder on the ground that he had killed his brother, and it seemed probable that he would be condemned. His father gave evidence in his defence, stating that the murder had been committed on his orders. The son was acquitted, but disinherited by the father.

For in this case he does not pardon his son entirely, but cannot openly withdraw the evidence that he gave in the first trial, and while he does not inflict any worse penalty than disinheritance, he does not shrink from that. Further, the employment of the figure tells more heavily against the father than is fair and less against the son. ¹

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.) — 9.2.88 focus

[88] non tamen nego esse controversias huiusmodi figuratas, ut est illa, reus parricidii, quod fratrem occidisset, damnatum iri videbatur; pater pro testimonio dixit cum se iubente fecisse; absolutum abdicat. nam neque in totum filio parcit nec, quod priore iudicio adfirmavit, mutare palam potest et, ut non durat ultra poenam abdicationis, ita abdicat tamen; et alioqui figura in patrem plus facit, quam licet, in filium minus.

Notes on the current edition

Institutio Oratoria

1. The sense is quite uncertain. The simplest interpretation is perhaps that the father's action and the figura by which he defends himself show that his evidence in the previous trial was false. The son has been acquitted on the father's evidence, and the father by punishing him has put himself in a hopelessly false position.

Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 9.2.88

Harold Edgeworth Butler (Translator)

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers