Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, ed. Harold Edgeworth Butler, 3.6.12

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[12] nec in causa Milonis circa primas quaestiones ¹ iudicabo conflixisse causam, sed ubi totis viribus insidiator Clodius ideoque iure interfectus ostenditur. et hoc est, quod ante omnia constituere in animo suo debeat orator, etiamsi pro causa plura dicturus est, quid maxime liquere iudici velit. quod tamen ut primum cogitandum, ita non utique primum dicendum erit.

Institutio Oratoria. Quintilian. ed. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge, Mass.. 1920-1922.

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Current edition Perseus

Institutio Oratoria (Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, editor. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.)

Translations (1)

Institutio Oratoria Perseus (Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria, Volume 1-4. Butler, Harold Edgeworth, translator. Cambridge, Mass; London: Harvard University Press, William Heinemann Ltd., 1920-1922.) — 3.5.12 focus

[12] Some, however, think that general questions are useless to an orator, since no profit is to be derived from proving that we ought to marry or to take part in politics, if we are prevented from so doing by age or ill health. But not all general questions are liable to this kind of objection. For instance questions such as

Is virtue an end in itself?

Is the world governed by providence?

cannot be countered in this way.

Notes on the current edition

Institutio Oratoria

1. After quaestiones the MISS. continue quae sunt ante prooemium positae. the words as they stand are absurd. Halm therefore brackets the whole sentence as interpolated. the alternative is to read post (Regius) or ants pro prooemio (Baden), for which cp. IV. ii. 25 sq., where Quintilian states that these primae quaestiones have the

force of an exordium

( vim prooemii ).

Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 3.6.12

ed. Harold Edgeworth Butler

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