Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, ed. Harold Edgeworth Butler, 8.6

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[1] tropus est verbi vel sermonis a propria significatione id aliam cum virtute mutatio. circa quem inexplicabilis et grammaticis inter ipsos et philosophis pugna est, quae sint genera, quae species, qui numerus, quis cuique subiiciatur.

[2] nos omissis, quae nihil ad instruendum oratorem pertinent, cauillationibus, necessarios maxime atque id usum receptos exsequemur, haec modo id his adnotasse contenti, quosdam gratia significationis quosdam decoris assumi, et esse alios id verbis propriis alios id tralatis, vertique formas non verborum modo sed et sensuum et compositionis.

[3] quare mihi videntur errasse, qui non alios crediderunt tropos, quam id quibus verbum pro verbo poneretur. neque illud ignoro, id iisdem fere, qui significandi gratia adhibentur, esse et ornatum; sed non idem accidet contra, eruntque quidam tantum ad speciem accommodati.

[4] incipiamus igitur ab eo, qui cum frequentissimus est tum longe pulcherrimus, translatione dico, quae μεταφορά Graece vocatur. quae quidem cum ita est ab ipsa nobis concessa natura, ut indocti quoque ac non sentientes ea frequenter utantur, tum ita iucunda atque nitida, ut id oratione quamlibet clara proprio tamen lumine eluceat.

[5] neque enim vulgaris esse neque humilis nec insuavis apte ¹ ac recte modo adscita potest. copiam quoque sermonis auget permutando aut mutuando quae non habet, quodque est difficillimum, praestat ne ulli rei nomen deesse videatur. transfertur ergo nomen aut verbum ex eo loco id quo proprium est, id eum id quo aut proprium deest aut translatum proprio melius est. id facimus,

[6] aut quia necesse est aut quia significantius est aut (ut dixi) quia decentius. ubi nihil horum praestabit, quod transferetur, improprium erit. necessitate rustici gemmam id vitibus (quid enim dicerent aliud?), et sitire segetes et fructus laborare; necessitate nos durum hominem aut asperum; non enim proprium erat, quod daremus his adfectibus, nomen.

[7] iam incensum ira et inflammatum cupiditate et lapsum errore significandi gratia; nihil enim horum suis verbis quam his arcessitis magis proprium erit. illa ad ornatum, lumen orationis et generis claritatem et contionum procellas et eloquentiae fulmina, ut Cicero pro Milone Clodium fontem gloriae eius vocat et alio loco segetem ac materiem.

[8] quaedam etiam parum speciosa dictu per hanc explicantur:

hoc faciunt, nimio ne luxu obtunsior usus

sit genitali arvo et sulcos oblimet inertes.

| totum autem metaphora brevior est similitudo, eoque distat, quod illa comparatur rei quam volumus exprimere, haec pro ipsa re dicitur.

[9] comparatio est, cum dico fecisse quid hominem ut leonem; translatio, cum dico de homine, leo est. huius vis omnis quadruplex maxime videtur: cum id rebus animalibus aliud pro alio ponitur, ut de agitatore,

gubernator magna contorsit equum vi;

aut ut Livius Scipionem a Catone adlatrari solitum refert.

[10] inanima pro aliis generis eiusdem sumuntur, ut:

classique immittit habenas;

aut pro rebus animalibus inanima,

ferron an ² fato moerus Argivom occidit?

aut contra:

sedet³ inscius alto

accipiens sonitum saxi de uertice pastor.

Praecipueque ex his oritur mira sublimitas,

[11] quae audaci et proxime periculum translatione tolluntur, cum rebus sensu carentibus actum quendam et animos damus, qualis est

pontem indignatus Araxes,

et illa Ciceronis,

[12] quid enim tuus ille, Tubero, destrictus id acie Pharsalica gladius agebat? cuius latus ille mucro petebat? qui sensus erat armorum tuorum? duplicatur interim haec virtus, ut apud Vergilium,

ferrumque armare veneno.

Nam et veneno armare et ferrum armare translatio est. secantur haec id plures species ⁴ :

[13] ut a rationali ad rationale et item de irrationalibus, et haec invicem, quibus similis ratio est, et a toto et a partibus. sed iam non pueris praecipimus, ut accepto genere species intelligere non possint.

[14] ut modicus autem atque opportunus eius usus illustrat orationem, ita frequens et obscurat et taedio complet, continuus vero id allegorias et aenigmata exit. sunt etiam quaedam et humiles translationes, ut id de quo modo dixi, saxea est verruca, et sordidae.

[15] non enim, si Cicero recte sentinam rei publicae dixit, foeditatem hominum significans, idcirco probem illud quoque veteris oratoris, persecuisti rei publicae vomicas. optimeque Cicero demonstrat cavendum, ne sit deformis translatio, (qualis est—nam ipsis eius utar exemplis— castratam morte Africani rem publicam, et stercus curiae Glauciam ) ne nimio maior aut,

[16] quod saepius accidit, minor, ne dissimilis. quorum exempla nimium frequenter deprehendet, qui scierit haec vitia esse. sed copia quoque modum egressa vitiosa est, praecipue id eadem specie.

[17] sunt et durae, id est a longinqua similitudine ductae, ut capitis nives et

Iuppiter hibernas cana nive conspuit Alpes.

in illo vero plurimum erroris, quod ea, quae poetis, qui et omnia ad voluptatem referunt et plurima vertere etiam ipsa metri necessitate coguntur, permissa sunt, convenire quidam etiam prosae putant.

[18] at ego id agendo nec pastorem populi auctore Homero dixerim, nec volucres per aera nare,⁵ licet hoc Vergilius id apibus ac Daedalo speciosissime sit usus. metaphora enim aut vacantem occupare locum debet aut, si id alienum venit, plus valere eo quod expellet.

[19] quod aliquanto etiam ⁶ magis de synecdoche dicam. nam translatio permovendis animis plerumque et signandis rebus ac sub oculos subiiciendis reperta est. haec variare sermonem potest, ut ex uno plures intelligamus, parte totum, specie genus, praecedentibus sequentia, vel omnia haec contra; liberior poetis quam oratoribus.

[20] nam prosa, ut mucronem pro gladio et lectum pro domo recipiet, ita non puppim pro navi nec abietem pro tabellis; et rursus, ut pro gladio ferrum, ita non pro equo quadrupedem. maxime autem id orando valebit numerorum illa libertas. nam et Livius saepe sic dicit, Romanus proelio victor, cum Romanos vicisse significat; et contra Cicero ad Brutum, populo , inquit, imposuimus et oratores visi sumus, cum de se tantum loqueretur.

[21] quod genus non orationis modo ornatus, sed etiam cotidiani sermonis usus recipit. quidam synecdochen vocant et cum id id contextu sermonis quod tacetur accipimus; verbum enim ex verbis intelligi, quod inter vitia ellipsis vocatur:

Arcades ad portas ruere.

mihi hanc figuram esse magis placet;

[22] illic ergo reddetur. aliud etiam intelligitur ex alio:

aspice , aratra iugo referunt suspensa iuuenci,

unde apparet noctem appropinquare. id nescio an oratori conveniat nisi id argumentando, cum rei signum est. sed hoc ab elocutionis ratione distat.

[23] nec procul ab hoc genere discedit metonymia, quae est nominis pro nomine positio, ⁷ sed, ut ait Cicero, hypallagen rhetores dicunt. haec inventas ab inventore et subiectas res ab obtinentibus significat: ut

Cererem corruptam undis,

receptus

terra Neptunus classes Aquilonibus arcet.

Quod fit retrorsum durius.

[24] refert autem id quantum hic tropus oratorem sequatur. nam ut Vulcanum pro igne vulgo audimus, et vario Marte pugnatum eruditus est sermo, et Venerem quam coitum dixisse magis decet, ita liberum et Cererem pro vino et pane licentius quam ut fori severitas ferat. sicut ex eo, quod continetur, usus recipit bene moratas urbes et poculum epotum et saeculum felix;

[25] at id, quod contra est, raro audeat quis, nisi poeta:

iam proximus ardet Ucalegon.

Nisi forte hoc potius est, a possessore quod possidetur, ut hominem devorari, cuius patrimonium consumatur. quo modo fiunt innumerabiles species.

[26] huius enim sunt generis, cum ab Hannibale caesa apud Cannas sexaginta milia dicimus, et carmina Vergilii Vergilium ; venisse commeatus, qui adferantur; sacrilegium deprehensum, non sacrilegum; armorum scientiam habere, non artis.

[27] illud quoque et poetis et oratoribus frequens, quo id, quod efficit, ex eo, quod efficitur, ostendimus. nam et carminum auctores,

pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,

pallentesque habitant morbi tristisque senectus,

et orator praecipitem iram, hilarem adolescentiam, segne otium dicet.

[28] est etiam huic tropo quaedam cum synecdoche vicinia. nam , cum dico vultus hominis pro vultu, dico pluraliter quod singulare est; sed non id ago, ut unum ex multis intelligatur (nam id est manifestum), sed nomen immuto ⁸ ; et cum aurata tecta aurea, pusillum a vero discedo, quia non est nisi ⁹ pars auratura. quae singula persequi minutioris est curae etiam non oratorem instruentibus. antonomasia ,

[29] quae aliquid pro nomine ponit, poetis utroque modo frequentissima, et per epitheton, quod detracto eo, cui apponitur, valet pro nomine, Tydides, Pelides: et ex his, quae id quoque sunt praecipua,

divum pater atque hominum rex;

et ex factis, quibus persona signatur,

thalamo quae fixa reliquit

impius .

Oratoribus etiamsi rarus eius rei,

[30] nonnullus tamen usus est. nam ut Tydiden et Peliden non dixerint, ita dixerint impios et parricidas; eversorem quoque Carthaginis et Numantiae pro Scipione et Romanae eloquentiae principem pro Cicerone posuisse non dubitem. ipse certe usus est hac libertate: non multa peccas, inquit ille fortissimo viro senior magister; neutrum enim nomen est positum et utrumque intelligitur. onomatopoeia quidem,

[31] id est fictio nominis, Graecis inter maximas habita virtutes, nobis vix permittitur. et sunt plurima ita posita ab iis, qui sermonem primi fecerunt aptantes adfectibus vocem. nam mugitus et sibilus et murmur inde venerunt.

[32] deinde , tanquam consummata ¹⁰ sint omnia, nihil generare audemus ipsi, cum multa cotidie ab antiquis ficta moriantur. vix illa, quae πεποιημένα vocant, quae ex vocibus id usum receptis quocunque modo declinantur, nobis permittimus, qualia sunt sullaturit et proscripturit; atque laureati postes pro illo lauru coronati, ex eadem fictione sunt.

[33] sed hoc feliciter evaluit* adoinoia et uio eo ferimus id Graecis ocoeludituinobono eo dure etiam iungere, arquitenentem et videre septentriones videmur .

[34] eo magis necessaria catachresis, quam recte dicimus abusionem, quae non habentibus nomen suum accommodat quod id proximo est: sic

equum divina Palladis arte

aedificant ,

et apud Tragicos Aegialeo parentat ¹¹ pater.

[35] similia¹² sunt haec: acetabula quidquid habent, et pyxides cuiuscunque materiae sunt, et parricida matris quoque aut fratris interfector. discernendumque est hoc totum a translatione ¹³ genus, quod abusio est, ubi nomen defuit, translatio, ubi aliud fuit. nam poetae solent abusive etiam id his rebus, quibus nomina sua sunt, vicinis potius uti; quod rarum id prosa est.

[36] illa quoque quidam catachresis volunt esse, cum pro temeritate virtus aut pro luxuria liberalitas dicitur. A quibus ego quidem dissentio; namque id his non verbum pro verbo ponitur, sed res pro re. neque enim quisquam putat luxuriam et liberalitatem idem significare; verum id quod fit alius luxuriam esse dicit, alius liberalitatem, quamvis neutri dubium sit haec esse diversa.

[37] superest ex his, quae aliter significant, metalepsis, id est transumptio, quae ex alio tropo id alium velut viam praestat; * nisi id comoediis ¹⁴ et rarissimus et improbissimus, Graecis tamen frequentior, qui Centaurum qui Χείρων est Ἥσσονα et insulas ὀξείας θοάς¹⁵ dicunt. nos quis ferat, si Verrem suem aut Aelium Catum doctum nominemus?

[38] est enim haec id metalepsi natura, ut inter id quod transfertur et id quod transfertur ¹⁶ sit medius quidam gradus, nihil ipse significans sed praebens transitum; quem tropum magis adfectamus, ut habere videamur, quam ullo id loco desideramus. nam id eius frequentissimum exemplum est cano canto, canto dico; ita cano, dice.

[39] interest medium illud canto. nec diutius id eo morandum; nihil enim usus admodum video nisi, ¹⁷ ut dixi, id comoediis.

[40] cetera iam non significandi gratia sed ad ornandam et augendam orationem assumuntur. ornat enim epitheton, quod recte dicimus appositum, a nonnullis sequens dicitur. eo poetae et frequentius et liberius utuntur. namque illis satis est convenire id verbo, cui apponitur, itaque et dentes albos et humida vina id iis non reprehendemus; apud oratorem, nisi aliquid efficitur, redundat. tum autem efficitur, si sine illo, quod dicitur, minus est:

[41] qualia sunt O scelus abominandum, o deformem libidinem. exornatur autem res tota maxime translationibus, cupiditas effrenata et insanae substructiones. et solet fieri aliis adiunctis epitheton tropus, ut apud Vergilium turpis egestas et tristis senectus. verum tamen talis est ratio huiusce virtutis, ut sine appositis nuda sit et velut incompta oratio, oneretur tamen multis.

[42] nam fit longa et impedita, ut id quaestionibus eam iudices ¹⁸ similem agmini totidem lixas habenti quot milites, cui et numerus est duplex nec duplum virium; quanquam non singula modo sed etiam plura verba apponi solent: ut

coniugio Anchise Veneris dignate superbo.

Sed hoc quocunque modo:

[43] duo vero ¹⁹ uni apposita ne uersum quidem decuerint. sunt autem, quibus non videatur hic omnino tropus, quia nihil vertat. nec est semper, ²⁰ sed id quod est ²¹ appositum, si a proprio diviseris, per se significat et facit antonomasiam. nam si dicas, ille qui Numantiam et Carthaginem evertit, antonomasia est; si adieceris Scipio , appositum. non potest ergo esse seiunctum. ²²

[44] allegoria , quam inversionem interpretantur, aut aliud verbis aliud sensu ostendit aut etiam interim contrarium. prius fit genus plerumque continuatis translationibus, ut

O navis, referent id mare te novi

fluctus ; o quid agis? fortiter occupa

portum ,

totusque ille Horatii locus, quo navem pro re publica, fluctus et tempestates pro bellis civilibus, portum pro pace atque concordia dicit.

[45] tale Lucretii

avia Pieridum peragro loca,

et Vergilii

sed nos immensum spatiis confecimus aequor,

et iam tempus equum fumantia solvere colla.

[46] sine translatione vero id Bucolicis

certe equidem audieram, qua se subducere colles

incipient mollique iugum demittere clivo

usque ad aquam et ueteris iam fracta cacumina fagi,

omnia carminibus vestrum servasse Menalcan.

[47] hoc enim loco praeter nomen cetera propriis decisa sunt verbis, verum non pastor Menalcas, sed Vergilius est intelligendus. habet usum talis allegoriae frequenter oratio, sed raro totius; plerumque apertis permixta est. tota apud Ciceronem talis est: hoc miror, hoc queror, quemquam hominem ita pessumdare alterum velle, ut etiam narem perforet, id qua ipse naviget. illud commixtum frequentissimum:

[48] equidem celeras tempestates et procellas id illis dumtaxat fluctibus contionum semper Miloni putavi esse subeundas. nisi adiecisset dumtaxat fluctibus contionum, esset allegoria; nunc eam miscuit. quo id genere et species ex arcessitis verbis venit et intellectus ex propriis.

[49] illud vero longe speciosissimum genus orationis, id quo trium permixta est gratia, similitudinis, allegoriae, translationis: quod fretum, quem Euripum, tot motus, tantas, tam varias habere creditis agitationes, commutationes, fluctus, quantas perturbationes et quantos aestus habet ratio comitiorum? dies intermissus unus aut nox interposita saepe et perturbat omnia et totam opinionem parva nonnunquam commutat aura rumoris. nam id quoque id primis est custodiendum ut,

[50] quo ex genere coeperis translationis, hoc desinas. multi autem, cum initium a tempestate sumpserunt, incendio aut ruina finiunt; quae est inconsequentia rerum foedissima.

[51] ceterum allegoria parvis quoque ingeniis et cotidiano sermoni frequentissime servit. nam illa id agendis causis iam detrita, pedem conferre et iugulum petere et sanguinem mittere, inde sunt, nec offendunt tamen. est enim grata id eloquendo novitas et emutatio, et magis inopinata delectant. ideoque iam id his amisimus modum et gratiam rei nimia captatione consumpsimus.

[52] est id exemplis allegoria, si non praedicta ratione ponantur. nam ut Dionysium Corinthi esse, quo Graeci omnes utuntur, ita plurima similia dici possunt. sed allegoria, quae est obscurior, aenigma dicitur; vitium meo quidem iudicio, si quidem dicere dilucide virtus; quo tamen et poetae utuntur:

dic , quibus id ferris, et eris mihi magnus Apollo,

tres pateat caeli spatium non amplius ulnas?

et oratores nonnunquam,

[53] ut Caelius quadrantariam Clytaemnestram, et in triclinio Coam, in cubiculo Nolam. namque et nunc quidem solvuntur et tum erant notiora, cum dicerentur; aenigmata sunt tamen, nam et cetera ²³ si quis interpretetur, intelligas. | eo vero genere,

[54] quo contraria ostenduntur, ironia est; illusionem vocant. quae aut pronuntiatione intelligitur aut persona aut rei natura; nam, si qua earum verbis dissentit, apparet diversam esse orationi voluntatem.

[55] quanquam id plurimis id tropis accidit, ut intersit, quid de quoque dicatur, quia quod dicitur alibi verum est. et laudis adsimulatione ²⁴ detrahere et vituperationis laudare concessum est: quod C. Verres, praetor urbanus, homo sanctus et diligens, subsortitionem eius id codice non haberet. et contra: oratores visi sumus et populo imposuimus.

[56] aliquando cum id risu quodam contraria dicuntur iis quae intelligi volunt: quale est in Clodium, integritas tua te purgavit, mihi crede, pudor eripuit, vita anteacta servavit.

[57] praeter haec usus est allegoriae, ut tristia dicamus mollioribus ²⁵ verbis urbanitatis ²⁶ gratia aut quaedam contrariis significemus aliud textum spectaco et enumeravimus. ²⁷ Haec si quis ignorat, quibus Graeci nominibus appellent, σαρκασμόν, ἀστεϊσμόν, ἀντίφρασιν, παροιμίαν dici sciat. sunt etiam,

[58] qui haec non species allegoriae sed ipsa tropos dicant; acri quidem ratione, quod illa obscurior sit, id his omnibus aperte appareat quid velimus. cui accedit hoc quoque, quod genus, cum dividitur id species, nihil habet proprium, ut arbor pinus et olea et cupressus, et ipsius per se nulla proprietas; allegoria vero habet aliquid proprium. quod quo modo fieri potest, nisi ipsa species est? sed utentium nihil refert.

[59] adiicitur his μυκτηρισμὸς dissimulatus quidam sed non latens derisus. pluribus autem verbis cum id, quod uno aut paucioribus certe dici potest, explicatur, περίφρασιν vocant, circuitum quendam eloquendi, qui nonnunquam necessitatem habet, quotiens dictu deformia operit: ut Sallustius, ad requisita naturae.

[60] interim ornatum petit solum, qui est apud poetas frequentissimus:

tempus erat, quo prima quies mortalibus aegris

incipit et dono divum gratissima serpit.

Et apud oratores non rarus, semper tamen adstrictior.

[61] Quidquid enim significari brevius potest et cum ornatu latius ostenditur, περίφρασις est, cui nomen Latine datum est non sane aptum orationis virtuti circumlocutio. verum hoc ut, cum decorem habet, periphrasis, ita, cum id vitium incidit, περισσολογία dicitur. obstat enim quidquid non adiuvat.

[62] hyperbaton quoque, id est verbi transgressionem, quoniam frequenter ratio compositionis ²⁸ et decor poscit, non immerito inter virtutes habemus. fit enim frequentissime aspera et dura et dissoluta et hians oratio, si ad necessitatem ordinis sui verba redigantur et, ut quodque oritur, ita proximis, etiamsi vinciri non potest, adligetur.

[63] differenda igitur quaedam et praesumenda, atque ut id structuris lapidum impolitorum loco, quo convenit, quodque ponendum. non enim recidere ea nec polire possumus, quo coagmentata se magis iungant, sed utendum iis, qualia sunt, eligendaeque sedes.

[64] nec aliud potest sermonem facere numerosum quam opportuna ordinis per mutatio; neque alio ceris Platonis inventa sunt quattuor illa verba, quibus id illo pulcherrimo operum id Piraeeum se descendisse significat, plurimis modis scripta,

[65] quam ²⁹ quod eum quoque maxime numerosum ³⁰ facere experiretur. verum id cum id duobus verbis fit, ἀναστροφὴ dicitur, reversio quaedam: qualia sunt vulgo, mecum, secum, apud oratores et historicos quibus de rebus. at cum decoris gratia traiicitur ³¹ longius verbum, proprie hyperbati tenet nomen: animaduerti , iudices, omnem accusatoris orationem in duas diuisam esse partes. nam in duas partes divisam esse rectum erat, sed durum et incomptum.

[66] poetae quidem etiam verborum divisione faciunt transgressionem: Hyperboreo septem subiecta trioni, quod oratio nequaquam recipiet. atqui est propter quod dici tropus possit, quia componendus est e duobus intellectus.

[67] alioqui , ubi nihil ex significatione mutatum est et structura sola variatur, figura potius verborum dici potest, sicut multi existimarunt. longis autem hyperbatis et confusis quae vitia accidunt, suo loco diximus. hyperbolen audacioris ornatus summo loco posui. est haec decens veri ³² superiectio; virtus eius ex diverso par augendi atque minuendi; fit pluribus modis.

[68] aut enim plus facto dicimus, ut vomens frustis esculentis gremium suum et totum tribunal implevit, et

geminique minantur

| caelum scopuli;

aut res per similitudinem attollimus,

credas innare revulsas Cycladas;

[69] aut per comparationem, ut fulminis ocior alis; aut signis quasi quibusdam,

illa vel intactae segetis per summa volaret

gramina nec teneras cursu laesisset aristas;

vel translatione, ut ipsum illud volaret.

[70] crescit interim hyperbole alia insuper addita, ut Cicero id Antonium dicet, quae Charybdis tam vorax? Charybdin dico? quae si fuit, fuit animal unum: Oceanus, medias fidius, vix videtur tot res, tam dissipatas, tam distantibus id locis positas, tam cito absorbere potuisse.

[71] exquisitam vero figuram huius rei deprehendisse apud principem Lyricorum Pindarum videor id libro, quem inscripsit ὕμνους. is namque Herculis impetum adversus Meropas, qui id insula Coo dicuntur habitasse, non igni nec ventis nec mari, sed fulmini dicit similem fuisse, ut illa minora, hoc par esset.

[72] quod imitatus Cicero illa composuit id Verrem versabatur id Sicilia longo intervallo alter non Dionysius ille nec Phalaris (tulit enim illa quondam insula multos et crudeles tyrannos), sed quoddam novum monstrum ex vetere illa immanitate, quae id isdem versata locis dicitur. non enim Charybdin tam infestam neque Scyllam nauibus quam istum id eodem freto fuisse arbitror.

[73] nec pauciora sunt genera minuendi:

vix ossibus haerent,

et quod Cicero id quodam ioculari libello,

fundum Vetto vocat, quem possit mittere funda;

ni tamen exciderit, qua cava funda patet.

Sed huius quoque rei servetur mensura quaedam. quamvis est enim omnis hyperbole ultra fidem, non tamen esse debet ultra modum, nec alia via magis id κακοζηλίαν itur.

[74] piget referre plurima hinc orta vitia, cum praesertim minime sint ignota et obscura. monere satis est mentiri hyperbolen nec ita, ut mendacio fallere velit. quo magis intuendum est, quousque deceat extollere quod nobis non creditur. pervenit haec res frequentissime ad risum; qui si captatus est, urbanitatis, sin aliter, stultitiae nomen assequitur.

[75] est autem id usu vulgo quoque et inter ineruditos et apud rusticos, videlicet quia natura est omnibus augendi res vel minuendi cupiditas insita, nec quisquam vero contentus est. sed ignoscitur, quia non adfirmamus.

[76] tum est hyperbole virtus, cum res ipsa, de qua loquendum est, naturalem modum excessit. conceditur enim amplius dicere, quia dici, quantum est, non potest, meliusque ultra quam citra stat oratio. sed de hoc satis, quia eundem locum plenius id eo libro, quo causas corruptae eloquentiae reddebamus, tractavimus.

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

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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.) — 8.6 focus

[1] By a trope is meant the artistic alteration of a word or phrase from its proper meaning to another. This is a subject which has given rise to interminable disputes among the teachers of literature, who have quarrelled no less violently with the philosophers than among themselves over the problem of the genera and species into which tropes may be divided, their number and their correct classification.

[2] I propose to disregard such quibbles as in no wise concern the training of an orator, and to proceed to discuss those tropes which are most necessary and meet with most general acceptance, contenting myself merely with noting the fact that some tropes are employed to help out our meaning and others to adorn our style, that some arise from words used properly and others from words used metaphorically, and that the changes involved concern not merely individual words, but also our thoughts and the structure of our sentences.

[3] In view of these facts I regard those writers as mistaken who have held that tropes necessarily involved the substitution of word for word. And I do not ignore the fact that as a rule the tropes employed to express our meaning involve ornament as well, though the converse is not the case, since there are some which are intended solely for the purpose of embellishment.

[4] Let us begin, then, with the commonest and by far the most beautiful of tropes, namely, metaphor, the Greek term for our translatio. It is not merely so natural a turn of speech that it is often employed unconsciously or by uneducated persons, but it is in itself so attractive and elegant that however distinguished the language in which it is embedded it shines forth with a light that is all its own.

[5] For if it be correctly and appropriately applied, it is quite impossible for its effect to be commonplace, mean or unpleasing. It adds to the copiousness of language by the interchange of words and by borrowing, and finally succeeds in accomplishing the supremely difficult task of providing a name for everything. A noun or a verb is transferred from the place to which it properly belongs to another where there is either no literal term or the transferred is better than the literal.

[6] We do this either because it is necessary or to make our meaning clearer or, as I have already said, to produce a decorative effect. When it secures none of these results, our metaphor will be out of place. As an example of a necessary metaphor I may quote the following usages in vogue with peasants when they call a vinebud gemma, a gem (what other term is there which they could use?), or speak of the crops being thirsty or the fruit suffering. For the same reason we speak of a hard or rough man, there being no literal term for these temperaments.

[7] On the other hand, when we say that a man is kindled to anger or on fire with greed or that he has fallen into error, we do so to enhance our meaning. For none of these things can be more literally described in its own words than in those which we import from elsewhere. But it is a purely ornamental metaphor when we speak of brilliance of style, splendour of birth, tempestuous public assemblies, thunderbolts of eloquence, to which I may add the phrase employed by Cicero ¹ in his defence of Milo where he speaks of Clodius as the fountain, and in another place as the fertile field and material of his client's glory.

[8] It is even possible to express facts of a somewhat unseemly character by a judicious use of metaphor, as in the following passage: ²

This do they lest too much indulgence make

The field of generation slothful grow

And choke its idle furrows.

On the whole metaphor is a shorter form of simile, while there is this further difference, that in the latter we compare some object to the thing which we wish to describe, whereas in the former this object is actually substituted for the thing.

[9] It is a comparison when I say that a man did something like a lion, it is a metaphor when I say of him, He is a lion. Metaphors fall into four classes. In the first we substitute one living thing for another, as in the passage where the poet, speaking of a charioteer, ³ says,

The steersman then

With mighty effort wrenched his charger round.

or when Livy ⁴ says that Scipio was continually barked at by Cato.

[10] Secondly, inanimate things may be substituted for inanimate, as in the Virgilian.

And gave his fleet the rein,

Aen. vi. 1.

or inanimate may be substituted for animate, as in

Did the Argive bulwark fall by sword or fate?

From an unknown tragedian.

or animate for inanimate, as in the following lines:

The shepherd sits unknowing on the height

Listening the roar from some far mountain
brow.

Aen. ii. 307.

[11] But, above all, effects of extraordinary sublimity are produced when the theme is exalted by a bold and almost hazardous metaphor and inanimate objects are given life and action, as in the phrase

Araxes' flood that scorns a bridge,

Aen. viii. 728.

or in the passage of Cicero, ⁵ already quoted,

[12] where he cries,

What was that sword of yours doing, Tubero, the sword you drew on the field of Pharsalus? Against whose body did you aim its point? What meant those arms you bore?

Sometimes the effect is doubled, as in Virgil's.

And with venom arm the steel.

Aen. ix. 773.

For both

to arm the steel

and

to arm with venom

are metaphors.

[13] These four kinds of metaphor are further subdivided into a number of species, such as transference from rational beings to rational and from irrational to irrational and the reverse, in which the method is the same, and finally from the whole to its parts and from the parts to the whole. But I am not now teaching boys: my readers are old enough to discover the species for themselves when once they have been given the genus.

[14] While a temperate and timely use of metaphor is a real adornment to style, on the other hand, its frequent use serves merely to obscure our language and weary our audience, while if we introduce them in one continuous series, our language will become allegorical and enigmatic. There are also certain metaphors which fail from meanness, such as that of which I spoke above ⁶ :

There is a rocky wart upon the mountain's

brow.

or they may even be coarse. For it does not follow that because Cicero was perfectly justified in talking of

the sink of the state,

⁷ when he desired to indicate the foulness of certain men, we can approve the following passage from an ancient orator:

You have lanced the boils of the state.

[15] Indeed Cicero ⁸ himself has demonstrated in the most admirable manner how important it is to avoid grossness in metaphor, such as is revealed by the following examples, which he quotes:—

The state was gelded by the death of Africanus,

Glaucia, the excrement of the senate-house.

[16] He also points out that a metaphor must not be too great for its subject or, as is more frequently the case, too little, and that it must not be inappropriate. Anyone who realises that these are faults, will be able to detect instances of them only too frequently. But excess in the use of metaphor is also a fault, more especially if they are of the same species.

[17] Metaphors may also be harsh, that is, far-fetched, as in phrases like

the snows of the head

Jove with white snow the wintry Alps bespewed.

From Furius, an old epic poet of the second century (not Furius Bibaculus), cp. Hor. S. ii. v. 11.

The worst errors of all, however, originate in the fact that some authors regard it as permissible to use even in prose any metaphors that are allowed to poets, in spite of the fact that tile latter aim solely at pleasing their readers and are compelled in many cases to employ metaphor by sheer metrical necessity.

[18] For my own part I should not regard a phrase like

the shepherd of the people

as admissible in pleading, although it has the authority of Homer, nor would I venture to say that winged creatures

swim through the air,

despite the fact that this metaphor has been most effectively employed by Virgil to describe the flight of bees and of Daedalus.1 For metaphor should always either occupy a place already vacant, or if it fills the room of something else, should be more impressive than that which it displaces.

[19] What I have said above applies perhaps with even greater force to synecdocheè. For while metaphor is designed to move the feelings, give special distinction to things and place them vividly before the eye, synecdocheè has the power to give variety to our language by making us realise many things from one, the whole from a part, the genus from a species, things which follow from things which have preceded; or, on the other hand, the whole procedure may be reversed. It may, however, be more freely employed by poets than by orators.

[20] For while in prose it is perfectly correct to use macro, the point, for the whole sword, and tectum, roof, for a whole house, we may not employ puppis, stern, to describe a ship, nor abies, fir, to describe planks; and again, though ferrunm, the steel, may be used to indicate a sword, quadrupes cannot be used in the sense of horse. It is where numbers are concerned that synecdocheè can be most freely employed in prose. For example, Livy frequently says,

The Roman won the day,

when he means that the Romans were victorious; on the other hand, Cicero in a letter to Brutus ⁹ says,

We have imposed on the people and are regarded as orators,

when he is speaking of himself alone.

[21] This form of trope is not only a rhetorical ornament, but is frequently employed in everyday speech. Some also apply the term synecdoche when something is assumed which has not actually been expressed, since one word is then discovered from other words, as in the sentence,

The Arcadians to the gates began to rush;

Aen. xi. 142. A false explanation of the historic infinitive as involving the omission of some such word as coeperunt.

when such omission creates a blemish, it is called an ellipse.

[22] For my own part, I prefer to regard this as a figure, and shall therefore discuss it under that head. Again, one thing may be suggested by another, as in the line,

Behold, the steers

Bring back the plough suspended from the
yoke,

Ed. ii. 61

from which we infer the approach of night. I am not sure whether this is permissible to an orator except in arguments, when it serves as an indication of some fact. However, this has nothing to do with the question of style.

[23] It is but a short step from synecdocheè to metonymy, which consists in the substitution of one name for another, and, as Cicero ¹⁰ tells us, is called hypallage by the rhetoricians. These devices are employed to indicate an invention by substituting the name of the inventor, or a possession by substituting the name of the possessor. Virgil, for example, writes: ¹¹

Ceres by water spoiled,

and Horace:

Neptune admitted to the land

Protects the fleets from blasts of Aquilo.

A. P. 63.

If, however, the process is reversed, the effect is harsh.

[24] But it is important to enquire to what extent tropes of this kind should be employed by the orator. For though we often hear

Vulcan

used for fire and to say vario Marte pugnatum est for

they fought with varying success

is elegant and idiomatic, while Venus is a more decent expression than coitus, it would be too bold for the severe style demanded in the courts to speak of Liber and Ceres when we mean bread and wine. Again, while usage permits us to substitute that which contains for that which is contained, as in phrases such as

civilised cities,

a cup was drunk to the lees,

a happy age,

[25] the converse procedure would rarely be ventured on by any save a poet: take, for example, the phrase:

Ucalegon burns next.

Aen. ii. 311.

It is, however, perhaps more permissible to describe what is possessed by reference to its possessor, as, for example, to say of a man whose estate is being squandered,

the man is being eaten up.

Of this form there are innumerable species.

[26] For example, we say

sixty thousand men were slain by Hannibal at Cannae,

and speak of

Virgil

when we mean

Virgil's poems

; again, we say that supplies have

come,

when they have been

brought,

that a

sacrilege,

and not a

sacrilegious man

has been detected, and that a man possesses a knowledge of

arms,

not of

the art of arms.

[27] The type which indicates cause by effect is common both in poets and orators. As examples from poetry I may quote:

Pale death with equal foot knocks at the poor man's door

Hor. Od. I. iv. 13.

and

There pale diseases dwell and sad old age;

Aen. vi. 275

while the orator will speak of

headlong anger

cheerful youth

slothful ease

[28] The following type of trope has also some kinship with synecdochè. For when I speak of a man's

looks

instead of his

look,

I use the plural for the singular, but my aim is not to enable one thing to be inferred from many (for the sense is clear enough), but I merely vary the form of the word. Again, when I call a

gilded roof

golden roof,

I diverge a little from the truth, because gilding forms only a part of the roof. But to follow out these points is a task involving too much minute detail even for a work whose aim is not the training of an orator.

[29] Antonomasia, which substitutes something else for a proper name, is very common in poets: it may be done in two ways: by the substitution of an epithet as equivalent to the name which it replaces, such as

Tydides,

Pelides,

¹² or by indicating the most striking characteristics of an individual, as in the phrase

Father of gods and king of men,

Aen. i. 65.

or from acts clearly indicating the individual, as in the phrase,

The arms which he, the traitor, left

Fixed on the chamber wall.

Aen. iv. 495. This third example does not correspond with the twofold division given by utroque and may be spurious.

This form of trope is rare in oratory,

[30] but is occasionally employed, For although an orator would not say

Tydides

Pelides,

he will speak of certain definite persons as

the impious parricides,

while I should have no hesitation in speaking of Scipio as

the destroyer of Carthage and Numantia,

or of Cicero as

the prince of Roman orators.

Cicero himself, at any rate, availed himself of this licence, as, for example, in the following case:

Your faults are not many, said the old praeceptor to the hero,

¹³ where neither name is given, though both are clearly understood.

[31] On the other hand, onomatopoea, that is to say, the creation of a word, although regarded with the highest approbation by the Greeks, is scarcely permissible to a Roman. It is true that many words were created in this way by the original founders of the language, who adapted them to suit the sensation which they expressed. For instance, mugitus, lowing, sibilus, a hiss, and murmur owe their origin to this practice.

[32] But to-day we consider that all has been done that can be done in this line, and do not venture on fresh creations, in spite of the fact that many of the words thus formed in antiquity are daily becoming obsolete. Indeed, we scarcely permit ourselves to use new derivatives, so they are called, which are formed in various ways from words in common use, such as Sullaturit,¹⁴

he wishes to be a second Sulla,

or proscripturit,

he wishes to have a proscription,

while laureati posies,

laurelled door-posts,

for lauru coronati,

crowned with laurel,

are similar formations.

[33] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ¹⁵

[34] These facts make catachresis (of which abuse is a correct translation) all the more necessary. By this term is meant the practice of adapting the nearest available term to describe something for which no actual term exists, as in the line

A horse they build by Pallas' art divine,

Aen. II. xv. It is an abuse to say aedficant, which means literally "they make a house.

or as in the expression found in tragedy,

To Aigialeus

His sire bears funeral offerings,

¹⁶

The following examples are of a similar character.

[35] Flasks are called acetabula,¹⁷ whatever they contain, and caskets pyxides,¹⁸ of whatever material they are made, while parricide includes the murder of a mother or a brother. We must be careful to distinguish between abuse and metaphor, since the former is employed where there is no proper term available, and the latter when there is another term available. As for poets, they indulge in the abuse of words even in cases where proper terms do exist, and substitute words of somewhat similar meaning. But this is rare in prose.

[36] Some, indeed, would give the name of catachresis even to cases such as where we call temerity valour or prodigality liberality. I, however, cannot agree with them; for in these instances word is not substituted for word, but thing for thing, since no one regards prodigality and liberality as meaning the same, but one man calls certain actions liberal and another prodigal, although neither for a moment doubts the difference between the two qualities.

[37] There is but one of the tropes involving change of meaning which remains to be discussed, namely, metalepsis or transumption, which provides a transition from one trope to another. It is (if we except comedy) but rarely used in Latin, and is by no means to be commended, though it is not infrequently employed by the Greeks, who, for example, call Χείρων the centaur Ἥσσων¹⁹ and substitute the epithet θοαί (swift) for ὄξειαι²⁰ in referring to sharp-pointed islands. But who would endure a Roman if he called Verres sus²¹ or changed the name of Aelius Catus to Aelius doctus?

[38] It is the nature of metalepsis to form a kind of intermediate step between the term transferred and the thing to which it is transferred, having no meaning in itself, but merely providing a transition. It is a trope with which to claim acquaintance, rather than one which we are ever likely to require to use. The commonest example is the following: cano is a synonym for canto and canto²² for dico, therefore cano is a synonym for dico, the intermediate step being provided by canto.

[39] We need not waste any more time over it. I can see no use in it except, as I have already said, in comedy.

[40] The remaining tropes are employed solely to adorn and enhance our style without any reference to the meaning. For the epithet, of which the correct translation is appositum, though some call it sequens, is clearly an ornament. Poets employ it with special frequency and freedom, since for them it is sufficient that the epithet should suit the word to which it is applied: consequently we shall not blame them when they speak of

white teeth

liquid wine.

²³ But in oratory an epithet is redundant unless it has some point. Now it will only have point when it adds something to the meaning, as for instance in the following:

O abominable crime, O hideous lust!

[41] But its decorative effect is greatest when it is metaphorical, as in the phrases

unbridled greed

²⁴ or

those mad piles of masonry.

²⁵ The epithet is generally made into a trope by the addition of something to it, as when Virgil speaks of

disgraceful poverty

sad old age.

²⁶ But the nature of this form of embellishment is such that, while style is bare and inelegant without any epithets at all, it is overloaded when a large number are employed.

[42] For then it becomes long-winded and cumbrous, in fact you might compare it to an army with as many camp-followers as soldiers, an army, that is to say, which has doubled its numbers without doubling its strength. None the less, not merely single epithets are employed, but we may find a number of them together, as in the following passage from Virgil: ²⁷

Anchises, worthy deigned

Of Venus' glorious bed, [beloved of heaven,

Twice rescued from the wreck of Pergamum.]

[43] Be this as it may, two epithets directly attached to one noun are unbecoming even in verse. There are some writers who refuse to regard an epithet as a trope, on the ground that it involves no change. It is not always a trope, but if separated from the word to which it belongs, it has a significance of its own and forms an antonomasia. For if you say,

The man who destroyed Numantia and Carthage,

it will be an antonomasia, whereas, if you add the word

Scipio,

the phrase will be an epithet. An epithet therefore cannot stand by itself.

[44] Allegory, which is translated in Latin by inversio, either presents one thing in words and another in meaning, or else something absolutely opposed to the meaning of the words. The first type is generally produced by a series of metaphors. Take as an example:

O ship, new waves will bear thee back to sea.

What dost thou? Make the haven, come what may,

Hor. Od. i. xiv. 1.

and the rest of the ode, in which Horace represents the state under the semblance of a ship, the civil wars as tempests, and peace and good-will as the haven.

[45] Such, again, is the claim of Lucretius: ²⁸

Pierian fields I range untrod by man,

and such again the passage where Virgil says,

But now

A mighty length of plain we have travelled o'er;

'Tis time to loose our horses' steaming necks.

Georg. II. 541.

[46] On the other hand, in the Bucolics ²⁹ he introduces an allegory without any metaphor:

Truth, I had heard

Your loved Menalcas by his songs had saved

All those fair acres, where the hills begin

To sink and droop their ridge with easy slope

Down to the waterside and that old beech

With splintered crest.

[47] For in this passage, with the exception of the proper name, the words bear no more than their literal meaning. But the name does not simply denote the shepherd Menalcas, but is a pseudonym for Virgil himself. Oratory makes frequent use of such allegory, but generally with this modification, that there is an admixture of plain speaking. We get allegory pure and unadulterated in the following passage of Cicero: ³⁰

What I marvel at and complain of is this, that there should exist any man so set on destroying his enemy as to scuttle the ship on which he himself is sailing.

[48] The following is an example of the commonest type, namely, the mixed allegory: ³¹

I always thought that Milo would have other storms and tempests to weather, at least in the troubled waters of political meetings.

Had he not added the words

at least in the troubled waters of political meetings,

we should have had pure allegory: their addition, however, converted it into a mixed allegory. In this type of allegory the ornamental element is provided by the metaphorical words and the meaning is indicated by those which are used literally.

[49] But far the most ornamental effect is produced by the artistic admixture of simile, metaphor and allegory, as in the following example: ³²

What strait, what tide-race, think you, is full of so many conflicting motions or vexed by such a variety of eddies, waves and fluctuations, as confuse our popular elections with their wild ebb and flow? The passing of one day, or the interval of a single night, will often throw everything into confusion, and one little breath of rumour will sometimes turn the whole trend of opinion. 50

For it is all-important to follow the principle illustrated by this passage and never to mix your metaphors. But there are many who, after beginning with a tempest, will end with a fire or a falling house, with the result that they produce a hideously incongruous effect.

[51] For the rest, allegory is often used by men of little ability and in the conversation of everyday life. For those hackneyed phrases of forensic pleading,

to fight hand to hand,

to attack the throat,

to let blood

are all of them allegorical, although they do not strike the attention: for it is novelty and change that please in oratory, and what is unexpected always gives special delight. Consequently we have thrown all restraint to the wind in such matters, and have destroyed the charm of language by the extravagant efforts which we have made to attain it.

[52] Illustrative examples also involve allegory if not preceded by an explanation; for there are numbers of sayings available for use like the

Dionysius is at Corinth,

³³ which is such a favourite with the Greeks. When, however, an allegory is too obscure, we call it a riddle: such riddles are, in my opinion, to be regarded as blemishes, in view of the fact that lucidity is a virtue; nevertheless they are used by poets, as, for example, by Virgil ³⁴ in the following lines:

Say in what land, and if thou tell me true,

I'll hold thee as Apollo's oracle,

Three ells will measure all the arch of heaven.

Even orators sometimes use them,

[53] as when Caelius ³⁵ speaks of the

Clytemnestra who sold her favours for a farthing, who was a Coan in the dining-room and a Nolan in her bedroom.

For although we know the answers, and although they were better known at the time when the words were uttered, they are riddles for all that; and other riddles are, after all, intelligible if you can get someone to explain them.

[54] On the other hand, that class of allegory in which the meaning is contrary to that suggested by the words, involve an element of irony, or, as our rhetoricians call it, illusio. This is made evident to the understanding either by the delivery, the character of the speaker or the nature of the subject. For if any one of these three is out of keeping with the words, it at once becomes clear that the intention of the speaker is other than what he actually says In the majority of tropes it is, however,

[55] important to bear in mind not merely what is said, but about whom it is said, since what is said may in another context be literally true. It is permissible to censure with counterfeited praise and praise under a pretence of blame. The following will serve as an example of the first. ³⁶

Since Gaius Verres, the urban praetor, being a man of energy and blameless character, had no record in his register of this substitution of this man for another on the panel.

As an example of the reverse process we may take the following: ³⁷

We are regarded as orators and have imposed on the people.

[56] Sometimes, again, we may speak in mockery when we say the opposite of what we desire to be understood, as in Cicero's denunciation of Clodius ³⁸ :

Believe me, your well known integrity has cleared you of all blame, your modesty has saved you, your past life has been your salvation.

[57] Further, we may employ allegory, and disguise bitter taunts in gentle words I y way of wit, or we may indicate our meaning by saying exactly the contrary or. . . ³⁹ If the Greek names for these methods are unfamiliar to any of my readers, I would remind him that they are σαρκασμός, ἀστεϊσμός, ἀντίφρασις and παροιμία (sarcasm, urbane wit, contradiction and proverbs).

[58] There are, however, some writers who deny that these are species of allegory, and assert that they are actually tropes in themselves: for they argue shrewdly that allegory involves an element of obscurity, whereas in all these cases our meaning is perfectly obvious. To this may be added the fact that when a genus is divided into species, it ceases to have any peculiar properties of its own: for example, we may divide tree into its species, pine, olive, cypress, etc., leaving it no properties of its own, whereas allegory always has some property peculiar to itself. The only explanation of this fact is that it is itself a species. But this, of course, is a matter of indifference to those that use it.

[59] To these the Greeks add μυκτηρισμός or mockery under the thinnest of disguises. When we use a number of words to describe something for which one, or at any rate only a few words of description would suffice, it is called periphrasis, that is, a circuitous mode of speech. It is sometimes necessary, being of special service when it conceals something which would be indecent, if expressed in so many words: compare the phrase

To meet the demands of nature

from Sallust. ⁴⁰

[60] But at times it is employed solely for decorative effect, a practice most frequent among the poets:

Now was the time

When the first sleep to weary mortals comes

Stealing its way, the sweetest boon of heaven.

Aen. ii. 268.

[61] Still it is far from uncommon even in oratory, though in such cases it is always used with greater restraint. For whatever might have been expressed with greater brevity, but is expanded for purposes of ornament, is a periphrasis, to which we give the name circumlocution, though it is a term scarcely suitable to describe one of the virtues of oratory. But it is only called periphrasis so long as it produces a decorative effect: when it passes into excess, it is known as perissology: for whatever is not a help, is a positive hindrance.

[62] Again, hyperbaton, that is, the transposition of a word, is often demanded by the structure of the sentence and the claims of elegance, and is consequently counted among the ornaments of style. For our language would often be harsh, rough, limp or disjointed, if the words were always arranged in their natural order and attached each to each just as they occur, despite the fact that there is no real bond of union. Consequently some words require to be postponed, others to be anticipated, each being set in its appropriate place.

[63] For we are like those who build a wall of unhewn stone: we cannot hew or polish our words in order to make them fit more compactly, and so we must take them as they are and choose suitable positions for them.

[64] Further, it is impossible to make our prose rhythmical except by artistic alterations in the order of words, and the reason why those four words in which Plato ⁴¹ in the noblest of his works states that he had gone down to the Piraeus were found written in a number of different orders upon his wax tablets, was simply that he desired to make the rhythm as perfect as possible.

[65] When, however, the transposition is confined to two words only, it is called anastrophe, that is, a reversal of order. This occurs in everyday speech in mecum and secure, while in orators and historians we meet with it in the phrase quibus de rebus. It is the transposition of a word to some distance from its original place, in order to secure an ornamental effect, that is strictly called hyperbaton: the following passage will provide an example: animadverti, indices, omnem accusatoris orationenm in duas divisam esse partes.⁴² (

I noted, gentlemen, that the speech of the accuser was divided into two parts.

) In this case the strictly correct order would be in duas partes divisam esse, but this would have been harsh and ugly.

[66] The poets even go so far as to secure this effect by the division of words, as in the line:

Hyperboreo septem subiecta trioni ⁴³

(

Under the Hyperborean Wain

a licence wholly inadmissible in oratory. Still there is good reason for calling such a transposition a trope, since the meaning is not complete until the two words have been put together.

[67] On the other hand, when the transposition makes no alteration in the sense, and merely produces a variation in the structure, it is rather to be called a verbal figure, as indeed many authorities have held. Of the faults resulting from long or confused hyperbata have spoken in the appropriate place. ⁴⁴ I have kept hyperbole to the last, on the ground of its boldness. It means an elegant straining of the truth, and may be employed indifferently for exaggeration or attenuation. It can be used in various ways.

[68] We may say more than the actual facts, as when Cicero says, ⁴⁵ "He vomited and filled his lap and the whole tribunal with fragments of food, or when Virgil speaks of

win rocks that threaten heaven.

Aen. i. 162.

Again, we may exalt our theme by the use of simile, as in the phrase:

Thou wouldst have deemed

That Cyclad isles uprooted swam the deep.

Aen. viii. 691.

[69] Or we may produce the same result by introducing a comparison, as in the phrase:

Swifter than the levin's wings;

Aen. v. 319.

or by the use of indications, as in the lines:

She would fly

Even o'er the tops of the unsickled corn,

Nor as she ran would bruise the tender ears.

Aen. vii. 808.

Or we may employ a metaphor, as the verb to fly is employed in the passage just quoted.

[70] Sometimes, again, one hyperbole may be heightened by the addition of another, as when Cicero in denouncing Antony says: ⁴⁶

What Charybdis was ever so voracious? Charybdis, do I say? Nay, if Charybdis ever existed, she was but a single monster. By heaven, even Ocean's self, methinks, could scarce have engulfed so many things, so widely scattered in such distant places, in such a twinkling of the eye.

[71] I think, too, that I am right in saying that I noted a brilliant example of the same kind in the Hymns ⁴⁷ of Pindar, the prince of lyric poets. For when he describes the onslaught made by Hercules upon the Meropes, the legendary inhabitants of the island of Cos, he speaks of the hero as like not to fire, winds or sea, but to the thunderbolt, making the latter the only true equivalent of his speed and power, the former being treated as quite inadequate.

[72] Cicero has imitated his method in the following passage from the Verrines: ⁴⁸

After long lapse of years the Sicilians saw dwelling in their midst, not a second Dionysius or Phalaris (for that island has produced many a cruel tyrant in years gone by), but a new monster with all the old ferocity once familiar to those regions. For, to my thinking, neither Scylla nor Charybdis were ever such foes as he to the ships that sailed those same narrow seas.

[73] The methods of hyperbole by attenuation are the same in number. Compare the Virgilian ⁴⁹

Scarce cling they to their bones,

or the lines from a humorous work ⁵⁰ of Cicero's,

Fundum Vetto vocat quem possit mittere funda;

Ni tamen exciderit, qua cava funda patet.

Vetto gives the name of farm to an estate which might easily be hurled from a sling, though it might well fall through the hole in the hollow sling, so small is it.

But even here a certain proportion must be observed. For although every hyperbole involves the incredible, it must not go too far in this direction, which provides the easiest road to extravagant affectation.

[74] I shrink from recording the faults to which the lack of this sense of proportion has given rise, more especially as they are so well known and obvious. It is enough to say that hyperbole lies, though without any intention to deceive. We must therefore be all the more careful to consider how far we may go in exaggerating facts which our audience may refuse to believe. Again, hyperbole will often cause a laugh. If that was what the orator desired, we may give him credit for wit; otherwise we can only call him a fool.

[75] Hyperbole is employed even by peasants and uneducated persons, for the good reason that everybody has an innate passion for exaggeration or attenuation of actual facts, and no one is ever contented with the simple truth. But such disregard of truth is pardonable, for it does not involve the definite assertion of the thing that is not. Hyperbole is, moreover, a virtue,

[76] when the subject on which we have to speak is abnormal. For we are allowed to amplify, when the magnitude of the facts passes all words, and in such circumstances our language will be more effective if it goes beyond the truth than if it falls short of it. However, I have said enough on this topic, since I have already dealt with it in my work on the causes of the decline of oratory.

Notes on the current edition

Institutio Oratoria

1. apte, added by Christ.

2. ferron, Bücheler: ferro, MSS. : an, B: non, A.

3. stupet, MSS. of Virgil.

4. species, added by Daniel.

5. Per aera nare, Halm following Burmann: sperae sanare, G.: pennis remigare, A.

6. aliquanto etiam, Regius : aliquando pentiam, AG: paene etiam Obrecht.

7. the MSS. here inserts the words cuius vis est pro eo quod dicitur causam propter quam dicitur ponere (

the substitution of the cause for which we say a thing id place of the thing to which we refer

). the words are expunged by Spalding as a manifest gloss, so clumsily worded as to be barely intelligible, but intended to mean

the substitution of cause for effect.

8. immuto, early edd.: malta, MSS.

9. nisi added by Badius.

10. consummata, Badius : consumpta, MSS.

11. Aegialeo parentat, Gertz: aegialeo paretat, AG.

12. Similia. Grsner: mille, MSS.

13. translatione, Regius : translationis istud, MSS.

14. I have added hie nisi id conoediis, cp. 39 below.

15. Centaurum, Regius : scient aurum, AG.: Ἥσσονα , Meister : hoccona, AG : insulas oxias thoas, cod. par . 7530: insulamn ΕΜΨΙΑΣΘΟΑΣ AG.

16. et id quod transfertur, Halm : et id quo transfertur, cod. par . 7530: om. AG.

17. nihil enim nisi, Regiius: innisi nihil, AG.

18. indices, vulgo: iungas, MSS. id quaestionibus is clearly corrupt.

19. quocunque vero, Spalding : queque verba, MSS.

20. nec, Spalding : necesse, MSS.

21. sed id quod est, cod. Paris 7530: sed cum id est AG.

22. seiunctum, Christ : iunctum, MSS.

23. nam et cetera, Christ : non et cetera, AG.

24. adsimulatione, Spalding : autem simulatione, AG.

25. mollioribus, Werlhof: melioribus, MSS.

26. urtanitatis, Gsner: aut bonae rei, MSS.

27. I have printed the reading of A, from which the others differ but little.

28. compositionis, Daniel : comparationis, MSS.

29. quam, inserted by Regius .

30. The sentence can hardly be correct as it stands id the MSS. I have inserted numerosum as being the simplest improvement available.

31. traiicitur, Spalding : trahitur, AG.

32. decens veri, Spalding : decensuris, G. : demensuris, A ( 2nd hand ).

Quintilian Institutio Oratoria 8.6

ed. Harold Edgeworth Butler

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