Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, ed. Harold Edgeworth Butler, 5.11.5

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[5] hoc in testium interrogatione valet plurimum, in oratione perpetua dissimile est; aut enim sibi ipse respondet orator aut quod illic interrogatur, hic fere sumitur. ¹ quod pomum generosissimum? puto, quod optimum; et equus? qui velocissimus: ita hominum, non qui claritate nascendi sed qui uirtute maxime excellet. omnia igitur ex hoc genere sumpta necesse est aut similia esse aut dissimilia aut contraria. similitudo adsumitur interim et ad orationis ornatum; sed illa, cum res exiget, nunc ea, quae ad probationem pertinent, exsequar.

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.) — 5.11.5 focus

[5] Such a procedure is most valuable in the examination of witnesses, but is differently employed in a set speech. For there the orator either answers his own questions or makes an assumption of that which in dialogue takes the form of a question.

What is the finest fruit? The best, I should imagine. What is the finest horse? The swiftest. So too the finest type of man is not he that is noblest of birth, but he that is most excellent in virtue.

All arguments of this kind, therefore, must be from things like or unlike or contrary. Similes are, it is true, sometimes employed for the embellishment of the speech as well, but I will deal with them in their proper place; ¹ at present I am concerned with the use of similitude in proof.

Notes on the current edition

Institutio Oratoria

1. aut quod sumitur, supplied by Meister. some such phrase must have been lost, but there can he no certainty either as regards the exact words or their precise place.

Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 5.11.5

ed. Harold Edgeworth Butler

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