I:46 Igitur, ut Aratus ab Iove incipiendum putat, ita nos rite coepturi ab Homero videmur. Hic enim, quem ad modum ex Oceano dicit ipse omnium fluminum fontiumque cursus initium capere, omnibus eloquentiae partibus exemplum et ortum dedit. Hunc nemo in magnis rebus sublimitate, in parvis proprietate superaverit. Idem laetus ac pressus, iucundus et gravis, tum copia tum brevitate mirabilis, nec poetica modo, sed oratoria virtute eminentissimus.
§ 46. ab Iove incipiendum. Phaenom. 1 ἐκ Διὸς ἀρχώμεσθα. Cic. de Rep. i. §36 imitemur (al. mitabor ergo) Aratum qui magnis de rebus dicere exordiens a Iove incipiendum putat ... rite ab eo dicendi principium capiamus. So Theocr. xvii. 1 Ἐκ Διὸς ἀρχώμεσθα καὶ ες Δία λήγετε Μοῖσαι—imitated by Vergil, Ecl. iii. 60 Ab Iove principium musae: cp. Hor. Od. i. 12, 13 quid prius dicam solitis parentis laudibus?—For Aratus see on §55
rite. Cp. §85 ut apud illos (Graecos) Homerus sic apud nos Vergilius auspicatissimum dederit exordium. “Such a commencement will be a sort of consecration of the whole course; it is the solemn and auspicious order of proceeding.”—Mayor.
coepturi ... videmur: sc. nobis: cp. §56: Cic. de Off. i. §§1, 2: ii. §5.—For the participle instead of the fut. inf. cp. v. pr. §5 eius praecepta sic optime divisuri videmur: ib. 7 §13: i. 2, 2: ii. 5, 3: vi. pr. §1 hanc optimam partem relicturus hereditatis videbar: ib. 4, 1: vii. 2, 42. Becher (Quaest. Gramm. p. 16) explains the usage by assuming an ellipse, so that ‘rite coepturi ab Homero videmur’ = ‘nos ab Homero coepturi rite coepisse videmur’; but this is unnecessary, and the collocation of coepturi and coepisse in fact impossible.
ab Homero. So in the schools i. 8, §5 ideoque optime institutum est ut ab Homero atque Vergilio lectio inciperet: cp. Plin. Ep. ii. 14, §2.
ex Oceano. Il. xxi. 195-197 Ὠκεανοῖο ἐξ οὗπερ πάντες ποταμοὶ καὶ πᾶσα θάλασσα καὶ πᾶσαι κρῆναι καὶ φρείατα μακρὰ νάουσιν.—Dion. Hal. uses the same image de Comp. Verb. 24 Κορυφὴ μὲν οὖν ἁπάντων καὶ σκοπός, ἐξ οὗπερ πάντες ποταμοὶ καὶ πᾶσα θάλασσα καὶ πᾶσαι κρῆναι δικαίως ἂν Ὅμηρος λέγοιτο. Cp. Ovid, Amor. iii. 9, 25 Aspice Maeoniden, a quo, ceu fonte perenni, Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis.
omnium fluminum fontiumque. For the reading see Crit. Notes: cp. §78.
omnibus eloquentiae partibus. Eustathius pr. ad Odys. p. 1379 τὸν πάσης τῆς ἐν λόγοις τέχνης καθηγητήν, ἐξ οὗ οἷα τινὸς ὠκεανοῦ πάντες ποταμοῖ καὶ πᾶσαι λογικῶν μεθόδων πηγαί: Manilius, Astr. ii. 8 Cuiusque ex ore profusos Omnis posteritas latices in carmina duxit Amnemque in tenues ausa est diducere rivos Unius fecunda bonis. Cp. the references to Homer in the various departments of literature dealt with by Quintilian: §§62, 65, 81, 85, 86. So xii. 11, 21 in quo (sc. Homero) nullius non artis aut opera perfecta aut certe non dubia vestigia reperiuntur. Cic. Brut. §40 ornatus in dicendo et plane orator. Homer’s influence on all later culture is a common-place in ancient writers. Specially in regard to oratory, the speeches of his three heroes were taken as types of three styles of rhetoric: xii. 10, 64: ii. 17, 8. The eulogy here pronounced on him is systematically arranged with reference to the essential elements of practical oratory. After alluding to (1) the three kinds of oratory (see notes on §44) in the terms sublimitas, proprietas, pressus, laetus (§46), he passes (2) to the two classes of practical speeches, judicial and deliberative (litium ac consiliorum) (§47): and then refers to (3) the mastery of the emotions (adfectus) (§48): (4) the constituent parts of a regular forensic speech—(prooemium, genera probandi ac refutandi, epilogus) (§§48, 49, 50): (5) well-chosen terms, well-put thoughts, lively figures, and everywhere clear arrangement (dispositio) (§50). “In this notice of Homer and in that of Cicero (§105 sqq.) and of Seneca (§125 sqq.) Quintilian introduces more of detail than in his brief remarks on the rest of the authors in his sketch. In general his plan, as indicated above in §§44, 45, is to mention the typical writers of different departments of literature best adapted to the purposes of the orator or forensic advocate, and in a few words to point out their characteristics with particular reference to their fitness as exemplars of oratorical style, or φράσις. As this is his sole aim, so distinctly stated, the strictures of some critics on the brevity and meagreness of these notices show that they have failed to comprehend the purpose of the author.”—Frieze.
sublimitate: §27: viii. 6, §11.
proprietate. Here this word furnishes a sort of antithesis to sublimitas, and means ‘suitability,’ ‘simplicity,’ ‘naturalness’: cp. the definition given at viii. 2, 1 sua cuiusque rei appellatio. In the same sense §64 sermone proprio, of an easy and unaffected style. A different use of proprius will be found at §6 (where see note): §29: 5 §8.
superaverit. For this subj. of modified assertion cp. on fuerit §37.
laetus, ‘flowery,’ i.e. rich, ornate, exuberant. Cp. 2 §16: xii. 10, 80: xi. 1, 49. This use is akin to that by which the word is employed as a metaphor to denote richness of vegetation: Verg. Georg. i. 1 and 74 (cp. note on 5 §14): and also of the sleek condition of well-fed cattle: Aen. iii. 220. Cp. Cic. de Orat. iii. §155.—There is no need for Francius’s conj. latus or Kraffert’s latior (cp. xii. 10, 23), or Gustaffson’s elatus (4 §1).
pressus, pruned, trimmed down, ‘chaste,’ ‘concise’: see on §44.
iucundus et gravis, ‘sprightly and serious.’ So §119 iucundus et delectationi natus: and iucunditas §§64, 82: 2 §23. Mayor cites Plin. Ep. iv. 3, 2 nam severitatem istam pari iucunditate condire summaeque gravitati tantum comitatis adiungere non minus difficile quam magnum est: ib. v. 17, 2 (of Calpurnius Piso) excelsa depressis, exilia plenis, severis iucunda mutabat.
tum ... tum: a usage (frequent in Cicero) which Quintilian sought to revive. Wölfflin, Archiv f. Lexikogr. ii. p. 241.
I:47 Nam ut de laudibus, exhortationibus, consolationibus taceam, nonne vel nonus liber, quo missa ad Achillen legatio continetur, vel in primo inter duces illa contentio vel dictae in secundo sententiae omnes litium ac consiliorum explicant artes?
§ 47. Nam ut, &c. This sentence contains the proof of Homer’s oratoria virtus: he furnishes models of the three recognised styles of rhetoric, (1) genus demonstrativum (ἐπιδεικτικόν) or laudativum: (2) genus deliberativum sive suasorium (συμβουλευτικόν): and (3) genus iudiciale (δικανικόν). Cp. iii. 4. Cope Arist. Rhet. introd. 118-123, and the notes on 13 §1: Cic. de Inv. i. §§7, 8, 12: ii. §§12, 13: Orat. Part. §§10-14, 69-138: de Orat. i. §141 and Wilkins’ introd. p. 56.
In the words ut ... taceam, Quintilian passes lightly over the main features of the γένος ἐπιδεικτικόν (set speeches aiming at display—ἐπίδειξις, ‘ostentatio declamatoria’ iv. 3, 2), in order to dwell more specially on the appropriateness of the study of Homer with reference to forensic and legislative debates (litium ac consiliorum). In doing so, he no doubt wishes to indicate the relative importance of the three kinds for the practical training of the orator, just as Cicero (Or. §§37-42) restricts his portraiture of the perfect orator to the practical oratory of public life, i.e. the deliberative and forensic branches, to the exclusion of the γένος ἐπιδεικτικόν.
laudibus. These belong distinctly to the epideictic branch, for which see iii. 4, 12: Tac. Dial. 31 in laudationibus de honestate disserimus. So ἔπαινοι and ἐγκώμια: see Volkmann, Rhet. §33. As examples of laudationes may be cited Cicero’s Eulogy on Cato (Or. §35) and his sister Porcia (ad Att. xiii. 37, 3): and in Greek the Evagoras and Helenae Encomium of Isocrates.
exhortationibus might in itself (like consolationibus: cp. xi. 3, 153) be used of the genus deliberativum, which included the suasoriae (Tac. Dial. 35)—‘consilium dedimus Sullae privatus ut altum dormiret’, Iuv. i. 16; and in order to find a reference in each of the three items enumerated to the three kinds of rhetoric, Kraffert proposed to read consultationibus for consolationibus (cp. controversiae Tac. Dial. 35), so that laudibus should = laudativum genus, exhortationibus = deliberativum, and consultationibus = iudiciale. But this is a misunderstanding of Quintilian’s meaning. Exhortatio and consolatio may easily enter into a λόγος ἐπιδεικτικός, a speech written for display and not for delivery in public, just as suasio does in the passage of the Orator referred to above: laudationum et historiarum et ... suasionum ... reliquarumque scriptionum formam, quae absunt a forensi contentione, eiusque totius generis, quod Graece ἐπιδεικτικόν nominatur ... non complectar hoc tempore (§37). Cp. Quint. iii. 4, 14 an quisquam negaverit Panegyricos ἐπιδεικτικούς esse? atqui formam suadendi habent, &c.
legatio of Odysseus, Aias, and Phoenix: contentio between Achilles and Agamemnon: dictae ... sententiae: the council of war (Agamemnon, Ulysses, Nestor, Thersites) Il. ii. 40-394.—The selection from a poet of such passages as seemed to bear most closely on the training of a student of rhetoric was a familiar process in ancient schools.
litium ac consiliorum. These words contain a distinct reference to the genus iudiciale and the genus deliberativum, respectively,—to the exclusion of the genus demonstrativum, i.e. the ‘epideictic’ or non-practical kind of speeches. Cp. Cic. de Orat. i. §22 Graecos ... video ... seposuisse a ceteris dictionibus eam partem dicendi quae in forensibus disceptationibus iudiciorum aut deliberationum versaretur: cp. suasoriae et controversiae Tac. Dial. 35. The prominence given to litium ac consiliorum shows that Professor Mayor is wrong in seeing in exhortationibus and consolationibus above a specific reference to the ‘genus deliberativum’: that would involve a duplicate enumeration.
artes: the ‘rules of art,’ or technical precepts of the rhetoricians. See on §15 exempla potentiora ... ipsis quae traduntur artibus.
I:48 Adfectus quidem vel illos mites vel hos concitatos nemo erit tam indoctus qui non in sua potestate hunc auctorem habuisse fateatur. Age vero, non utriusque operis sui ingressu in paucissimis versibus legem prooemiorum non dico servavit, sed constituit? Nam benevolum auditorem invocatione dearum quas praesidere vatibus creditum est, et intentum proposita rerum magnitudine, et docilem summa celeriter comprehensa facit.
§ 48. Adfectus quidem, &c. In the passage which Quintilian may have had in view. Dionysius, after showing, as Quintilian has done, that Homer is admirable in every respect, and not in one only, goes on to say that he is a master in particular of the ἤθη and πάθη, of μέγεθος (rerum magnitudine §48) and of οἰκονομία (in dispositione totius operis §50): τῆς μὲν οὖν Ὁμηρικῆς ποιήσεως οὐ μίαν τινὰ τοῦ σώματος μοῖραν, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκτύπωσαι τὸ σύμπαν, καὶ λάβε ζῆλον ἠθῶν τε τῶν ἐκεῖ καὶ παθῶν καὶ μεγέθους, καὶ τῆς οἰκονομίας καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἀρετῶν ἁπασῶν εἰς ἀληθῆ τὴν παρὰ σοὶ μίμησιν ἠλλαγμένων: περὶ μιμήσεως 2 (Usener, p. 19). See what Quintilian says of adfectus in vi. 2 §§8-10: esp. adfectus igitur concitatos πάθος, mites atque compositos ἦθος esse dixerunt: and cp. §§73 and 101 below. Illos ... hos indicates what was a well-known antithesis. The former (ἤθη) were habitual and characteristic conditions of individual minds: the latter (πάθη) for the most part occasional (temporale vi. 2, 10), and more moving (perturbatio ib.).
tam ... qui: see on §41.
auctorem: ‘master,’ ‘teacher.’ Cp, on §24.
Age vero: ‘and further,’ a formula of transition generally leading to something more important. Here it introduces the five constituent parts of an oration, exordium (προοίμιον), narratio, probatio, refutatio (διήγησις, πίστις or ἀπόδειξις or κατασκευή, λύσις or ἀνασκευή §49), peroratio (ἐπίλογος). Cp. Cic. Or. §122 and de Orat. ii. §80 with Sandys’ and Wilkins’ notes: de Inv. i. §19: Cornif. ad Herenn. i. §4.
ingressu: see Crit. Notes.
non dico ... sed. So 7 §2: cp. i. 10, 35.
legem prooemiorum ... constituit: iv. 1, 34 docilem sine dubio et haec ipsa praestat attentio, sed et illud, si breviter et dilucide summam rei, de qua cognoscere debeat, iudicaverimus: quod Homerus atque Vergilius operum suorum principiis faciunt: ib. §42 ut sit in principiis recta benevolentiae et attentionis postulatio: Hor. Ars Poet. 140.
benevolum ... intentum ... docilem. The orator’s first task is to gain the good-will of his hearers, and to secure their attention. Cp. iv. i, 5 causa principii (i.e. prooemii, exordii) nulla alia est quam ut auditorem, quo sit nobis in ceteris partibus accommodatior, praeparemus. Id fieri tribus maxime rebus inter auctores plurimos constat, si benevolum attentum docilem fecerimus: iii. 5, 2: xi. 1, 6. Cic. de Orat. ii. §115 and 322-3: Brut. §185. Mayor cites Dion. Hal. de Lysia 17 οὔτε γὰρ εὔνοιαν κινῆσαι βουλόμενος, οὔτε προσοχήν, οὔτε εὐμάθειαν, ἀτυχήσειέ ποτε τοῦ σκοποῦ.
invocatione dearum. Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, and Ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα.
vatibus: ‘bards,’ instinctis divino spiritu vatibus xii. 10, 24: Verg. Eclog. ix. 32 me fecere poetam Pierides ... me quoque dicunt vatem pastores. Tac. Dial. 9 Saleium nostrum, egregium poetam, vel si hoc honorificentius est, praeclarissimum vatem. Poeta, which is sometimes used slightingly of verse-makers (Cic. in Pis. 29 ut assentatorem, ut poetam: Tusc. i. 2 quod in provinciam poetas duxisset), had not the same solemn associations as vates.
creditum est: as at 4 §1: cp. ii. 15, 7. The perfect is continuous = νενόμισται. The personal construction occurs at §125. For the impersonal cp. Tac. Ann. ii. 69. ‘Tacitus appears to prefer the personal construction when a single personal subject is spoken of, and the impersonal in other cases, but even this rule is by no means without exceptions’ Furneaux, Introd. to Annals, p. 45.
intentum ... magnitudine. Cic. de Inv. i. §23 attentos autem faciemus si demonstrabimus ea quae dicturi erimus magna nova incredibilia esse.
docilem: ‘receptive’; iv. 1, 34 (cited above on legem prooemiorum), ad Herenn. i. §7 dociles auditores habere poterimus, si summam causae breviter exponemus.
comprehensa: cp. xi. 1, 51: ix. 3, 91 comprehensa breviter sententia. So Lucr. vi. 1083 sed breviter paucis praestat comprendere multa: Cic. de Orat. i. §34. So that celeriter here almost = breviter.
I:49 Narrare vero quis brevius quam qui mortem nuntiat Patrocli, quis significantius potest quam qui Curetum Aetolorumque proelium exponit? Iam similitudines, amplificationes, exempla, digressus, signa rerum et argumenta ceteraque genera probandi ac refutandi sunt ita multa ut etiam qui de artibus scripserunt plurima earum rerum testimonia ab hoc poeta petant.
§ 49. narrare: iv. 2, 31 eam (narrationem) plerique scriptores ... volunt esse lucidam, brevem, veri similem: Cic. de Inv. i. §28 brevis, aperta, probabilis.
qui ... nuntiat: Antilochus, Il. xviii. 18. His κεῖται Πάτροκλος seems to have become proverbial: Pliny Ep. iv. 11, 12.
significantius: ‘more graphically,’ or ‘with more force of expression.’ Cp. significantia §121.
qui ... exponit, Phoenix, in Il. ix. 529 sqq.
iam, transitional particle, as often in Cicero: §§98, 111.
similitudines. v. 11, 1 tertium genus ex iis quae extrinsecus adducuntur in causam Graeci vocant παράδειγμα, quo nomine et generaliter usi sunt in omni similium adpositione et specialiter in iis quae rerum gestarum auctoritate nituntur. Nostri fere similitudinem vocare maluerunt quod ab illis παραβολή dicitur, hoc alterum exemplum: viii. 3, 72 praeclare ad inferendam rebus lucem repertae sunt similitudines (i.e. the use of simile).
amplificationes = αὐξήσεις (Cic. Or. §125). The various rhetorical means of expanding and developing an idea in expression are discussed in viii. 4, 3 under the heads of incrementum, comparatio, ratiocinatio, and congeries. Ad Herenn. ii. 47 amplificatio est res quae per locum communem instigationis auditorum causa sumitur.
exempla: v. 11, 6 potentissimum autem est inter ea quae sunt huius generis exemplum, id est rei gestae aut ut gestae utilis ad persuadendum id quod intenderis commemoratio: ib. 2 §1: Cic. de Inv. i. §49. The stock illustration is that given in Aristotle’s Rhetoric: “if a man has asked for a bodyguard, and the speaker wishes to show that the aim is a tyranny, he may quote the ‘instances’ (παραδείγματα) of Dionysius and Pisistratus.”
digressus, ‘episodes’: cp. on §33.
signa rerum et argumenta: the ‘evidence of material facts’ and ‘inferences.’ In the former we have sensible proof of things (e.g. cruenta vestis, clamor, livor, &c. v. 9, 1); in the latter logical deductions from circumstantial facts: v. 10, 11 cum sit argumentum ratio probationem praestans, qua colligitur aliquid per aliud, et quae quod est dubium per id quod dubium non est confirmat. To distinguish signa from argumenta Quintilian says v. 9, 1 nec inveniuntur ab oratore sed ad eam cum ipsa cansa deferuntur: and again, signa sive indubitata sunt, non sunt argumenta, quia, ubi illa sunt, quaestio non est, argumento autem nisi in re controversa locus esse non potest: sive dubia non sunt argumenta, sed ipsa argumentis egent: Cic. de Inv. §48. For argumenta see v. 10, 1 hoc ... nomine complectimur omnia quae Graeci ἐνθυμήματα, ἐπιχειρήματα, ἀποδείξεις vocant: ib. §§10-12.
ceteraque genera: see Crit. Notes.
probandi. After narratio comes probatio or (as more commonly in Cicero, e.g. de Inv. i. §34) confirmatio (see on 5 §12). So ii. 17, 6 narrent, probent, refutent. Cp. iv. 2, 79 aut quid inter probationem et narrationem interest, nisi quod narratio est probationis continua propositio, rursus probatio narrationi congruens confirmatio? For the probationes artificiales (ἔντεχνοι πίστεις) see v. chs. 8-12: for the probationes inartificiales ἄτεχνοι πίστεις ib. chs. 1-7.
refutandi. For Quintilian’s definition see v. 13, 1 sq., and cp. note on destructio 5 §12. Cicero often uses refellere: de Orat. ii. §163 aut ad probandum aut ad refellendum. For refutare cp. ib. §80 nostra confirmare argumentis ac rationibus, deinde contraria refutare: §§203, 307, 312.—In de Prov. Cons. §32 and de Har. Resp. §7 (conatum refutabo) the word is used in the sense of repellere.
artibus, the ‘principles of rhetoric’: §§15 and 47.
testimonia, ‘illustrations,’ confirmatory examples. Cp. i. 8, 12. ‘Homerus’ in the index to most Greek and Latin authors will supply evidence of the truth of Quintilian’s statement. Cic. ad Att. i. 16, 1 respondebo tibi ὕστερον πρότερον Ὀμηρικῶς: Plin. Ep. iii. 9, 28 praepostere ... facit hoc Homerus multique illius exemplo.
I:50 Nam epilogus quidem quis umquam poterit illis Priami rogantis Achillen precibus aequari? Quid? In verbis, sententiis, figuris, dispositione totius operis nonne humani ingenii modum excedit? ut magni sit virtutes eius non aemulatione, quod fieri non potest, sed intellectu sequi.
§ 50. nam. See on §12: cp. §§9, 50.
epilogus = peroratio: see note on §107. The advocate will find many pathetic and moving passages in Homer such as will be serviceable for his closing appeal, which is generally addressed to the feelings and hearts of his hearers; vii. 4, 19 epilogi omnes in eadem fere materia versari solent: vi. 1, 1 eius (perorationis) duplex ratio est, posita aut in rebus aut in adfectibus. Cicero uses conclusio as a synonym, de Inv. i. §98, where he says it has three parts, enumeratio, indignatio, and conquestio, defining the last (§106) as oratio auditorum misericordiam captans. in hac primum animum auditoris mitem et misericordem conficere oportet.—For Priam’s entreaty see Il. xxiv. 486 sqq.
Quid? ... nonne: cp. Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. §119. So with non §56 below, and 2 §25.
verbis, sententiis, figuris: xii. 9, 6 verborum quidem dilectus, gravitas sententiarum, figurarum elegantia. For figurae see on §12. Sententiis = γνώμαις §§52, 60, 68, 90, 102, 129, 130: 2 §17: 5 §4. See viii. 5, 1 sq. consuetudo iam tenuit ut mente concepta sensus vocaremus, lumina autem praecipueque in clausulis posita sententias ... antiquissimae sunt quae proprie, quamvis omnibus idem nomen sit, sententiae vocantur, quas Graeci γνώμας appellant: utrumque autem nomen ex eo acceperunt quod similes sunt consiliis aut decretis. est autem haec vox universalis, quae etiam citra complexum causae possit esse laudabilis, &c.
dispositione = οἰκονομίᾳ: see on adfectus §48. Cp. 5 §14.
humani ingenii modum: §86 ut illi naturae caelesti atque immortali cesserimus.
ut magni sit. There has been some controversy over this. The text is best explained by supplying ingenii out of what immediately precedes. Others supply viri, which is actually given in some of the later MSS.: while others again take magni as a gen. of price ‘of great value,’ or ‘worth much.’ Wrobel thinks it can stand alone, as res magni est: i.e. it ‘takes a good deal’ even to appreciate Homer’s excellences. Kiderlin supposes that spiritus has fallen out, and compares i. 9, 6. See Crit. Notes.
intellectu sequi: ii. 5, 21 neque vim eorum adhuc intellectu consequentur.
I:51 Verum hic omnes sine dubio et in omni genere eloquentiae procul a se reliquit, epicos tamen praecipue, videlicet quia clarissima in materia simili comparatio est.
I:52 Raro adsurgit Hesiodus magnaque pars eius in nominibus est occupata, tamen utiles circa praecepta sententiae levitasque verborum et compositionis probabilis, daturque ei palma in illo medio genere dicendi.
§ 52. adsurgit: cp. insurgit §96: 2 §23: i. 8, 5 sublimitate heroi carminis animus adsurgat.—If Hesiod ‘seldom soars’ it is because in him epic poetry has descended to the sphere of common life. Homer was the bard of ‘warriors and noble men’ in the brave days of old. Hesiod is the poet of the people, earning their daily bread in the labour of the field.
pars eius: metonymy for pars carminum eius; cp. on §31 poetis.—Gemoll proposes to read operis eius: cp. §§35 and 63.
in nominibus: specially in the Theogony: e.g. 226 sqq., 337 sqq.
circa: ‘in regard to’: 2 §14: 5 §§5, 6. Such uses of circa (like περί, ἀμφί, c. acc.) are very frequent in Quintilian and later writers: ii. 16, 14 circa quae omnia multus hominibus labor: iii. 11, 5 circa verba dissensio. Also with verbs Pr. §20 circa ima subsistere: vii. 1, 54 circa patrem quaerimus; and for ‘in the time of’ (like κατά) ii. 4, 41 circa Demetrium Phalerea. It is also used absolutely ix. 2, 45 omnia circa fere recta sunt: cp. 7 §16 below. For exx. from other writers see Hand, Turs. ii. pp. 66-8.
praecepta. Lindner translates ‘Lehrvorschriften.’ The reference is to Hesiod’s proverbial philosophy: ‘maxims of moral wisdom.’
sententiae: §50. See Duncker’s Greece, vol. i. p. 485: Cic. ad Fam. vi. 18, 5 Lepta suavissimus ediscat Hesiodum et habeat in ore τῆς δ᾽ ἀρετης ἱδρῶτα et cetera: Brut. §15 illud Hesiodium laudatur a doctis, quod eadem mensura reddere iubet qua acceperis, aut etiam cumulatiore, si possis. Cp. Crit. Notes.
levitas verborum et compositionis. Here Quintilian is again in exact agreement with Dion. Hal. περὶ μιμήσεως 2 (Usener, p. 19), Ἡσίοδος μὲν γὰρ ἐφρόντισεν ἡδονῆς καὶ ὀνομάτων λειότητος καὶ συνθέσεως ἐμμελοῦς. It is also to be noted that Dionysius names Hesiod, Antimachus, and Panyasis after Homer.—Mayor cites Demetrius περὶ ἑρμηνείας §176, who ‘calls that ὄνομα λεῖον which has many vowels, as Αἴας,—opp. to τραχύ as βέβρωκε; ib. §299 he defines ἡ λειότης ἡ περὶ σύνθεσιν, such as the school of Isocrates cultivated, the painful avoidance of hiatus.’ Cic. de Orat. iii. §171 struere verba sic ut neve asper eorum concursus neve hiulcus sit, sed quodam modo coagmentatus et levis: cp. §172: Or. §20: Quint, ii. 5, 9 levis et quadrata ... compositio: viii. 3, 6.—For compositio (the combination of words) see on §79: and cp. §§44, 66, 118: 2 §13: 3 §9: viii. ch. 4, esp. §22 in omni porro compositione tria sunt genera necessaria, ordo, iunctura, numerus: ad Herenn. iv. §18 compositio est verborum constructio quae facit omnes partes orationis aequabiliter perpolitas.
medio genere. See on §44. Dion. Hal. de Comp. Verb. 23, p. 173 R. ἐποποιῶν μὲν οὖν ἔγωγε μάλιστα νομίζω τουτονὶ τὸν χαρακτῆρα (sc. τὸν ἀνθηρόν or medium Quint, xii. 10, 58) ἐπεξεργάσασθαι Ἡσίοδον.—From the point of view of oratory, the medium genus was the Rhodian school (xii. 10, 18), which stood between the genus Atticum and Asianum, ‘quod velut medium esse atque ex utroque mixtum volunt: neque enim Attice pressi neque Asiane sunt abundantes’ (sc. Rhodii).
I:53 Contra in Antimacho vis et gravitas et minime vulgare eloquendi genus habet laudem. Sed quamvis ei secundas fere grammaticorum consensus deferat, et adfectibus et iucunditate et dispositione et omnino arte deficitur, ut plane manifesto appareat quanto sit aliud proximum esse, aliud secundum.
§ 53. Antimachus of Colophon (or rather Claros by Colophon) flourished about B.C. 405. He wrote a Thebaid, an epic narrative of the wars of the Seven against Thebes and of the Epigoni: Cic. Brut. §191. Fragments of his poems have been preserved. He also edited a critical text of Homer. Antimachus served as a model for Statius, and for the emperor Hadrian: Spartian §15 Catachanas libros obscurissimos Antimachum imitando scripsit. For the criticism vis ... laudem cp. Dion. Hal. l.c. Ἀντίμαχος δ᾽ εὐτονίας (ἐφρόντισεν) καὶ ἀγωνιστικῆς τραχύτητος καὶ τοῦ συνήθους τῆς ἐξαλλαγῆς.
minime vulgare: viii. pr. §25: Arist. Poet. §22 λέξεως δὲ ἀρετῆ σαφῆ καὶ μὴ ταπεινὴν εἶναι. An uncommon elevation of style was evidently one of his characteristics.
habet laudem = ἔχει ἔπαινον. Xen. Anab. vii. 6, 33: Plin. xxxvii. §65: xxxvi. §164.
secundas: sc. partes, after Homer: §58. So Cic. Or. §18 cui (Pericli) primae sine controversia deferebantur: Brut. §84: ad Att. i. 17, 5. The phrase is probably borrowed from the theatre: primas agere Brut. §308: Hor. Sat. i. 9, 46. On the other hand primas ferre (Brut. §183) suggests πρωτεῖα φέρεσθαι. Tac. Ann. xiv. 21 eloquentiae primas nemo tulit, sed victorem esse Caesarem pronuntiatum.
grammaticorum consensus. For this sense of grammatici (‘literary critics,’ ‘professors of literature’ Hor. A. P. 78) cp. ii. 1, 4 grammatice, quam in Latinum transferentes litteraturam vocaverunt ... cum praeter rationem recte loquendi non parum alioqui copiosam prope omnium maximarum artium scientiam amplexa sit.—The phrase is one more indication of the second-hand character of Quintilian’s criticism of Greek authors: cp. §27, where he specially refers to Theophrastus: §52 datur ei palma: §54 putant: §58 princeps habetur and confessione plurimorum: §59 Aristarchi iudicio: §72 consensu omnium: §73 nemo dubitat. No doubt Quintilian and Dionysius were both indebted to the lists of the Alexandrian bibliographers.
adfectibus ... deficitur: ‘he fails in pathos’: §48. His lament for Lyde (nec tantum Clario Lyde dilecta poetae Ovid, Tr. i. 6, 1) contained a catalogue of the misfortunes of all the mythical heroes who had lost their loves. Λύδη καὶ παχὺ γράμμα καὶ οὐ τόρον Callim. fr. 441.
iucunditate: see on §46.
dispositione: §50. Catull. 95, 10 At populus tumido gaudeat Antimacho.
arte: ‘poetical skill.’
plane: see Introd. p. lii.
proximum ... secundum. Cp. Verg. Aen. v. 320 proximus huic longo sed proximus intervallo insequitur Salius. Secundus here means much less than proximus (‘very near’): it only means ‘prior tertio et reliquis.’ Cp. Corn. Nep. Pelop. iv. 2 haec fuit altera persona Thebis sed tamen secunda ita ut proxima esset Epaminondae: §85 below, secundus ... est Vergilius, propior tamen primo quam tertio, i.e. Vergil is proximus to Homer as well as secundus.—This is the usual explanation, motived probably by the recurrence of secundum so soon after secundas above (cp. §§58, 72, 85). The difficulty is that it is exactly the reverse of the well-known passage in Horace, Car. i. 12, 18 nec viget quidquam simile (Iovi) aut secundum: proximos illi tamen occupavit Pallas honores, where the idea is that Pallas is what sportsmen call a ‘bad second,’—proximus meaning ‘next’ (however far apart), while secundus (sequor) implies contiguity. The two passages could be reconciled by supposing that Quintilian has negligently omitted to note the repetition secundas ... secundum, and that he means ‘what a difference there is between a bad (proximum) and a good second (secundum)’—between being second and coming near the first. Cp. Cic. Brut. §173 Duobus igitur summis, Crasso et Antonio, L. Philippus proximus accedebat, sed longo intervallo tamen proximus; itaque eum, etsi nemo intercedebat qui se illi anteferret, neque secundum tamen neque tertium dixerim. If Quintilian is conscious of the recurrence of secundus, he may mean that the Greek critics would have been nearer the truth if they had called Antimachus next (proximus) rather than second to Homer.—Cp. Crit. Notes.
I:54 Panyasin, ex utroque mixtum, putant in eloquendo neutrius aequare virtutes, alterum tamen ab eo materia, alterum disponendi ratione superari. Apollonius in ordinem a grammaticis datum non venit, quia Aristarchus atque Aristophanes poetarum iudices neminem sui temporis in numerum redegerunt; non tamen contemnendum reddidit opus aequali quadam mediocritate.
§ 54. Panyasin. Panyasis of Halicarnassus, the uncle of Herodotus, wrote a Heracleia in fourteen books, fragments of which are quoted by Stobaeus and Athenaeus. He also composed six books of ‘Ionica,’—elegiac poems on the Ionic migration. Suidas describes him as “an epic poet, who fanned into a flame the smouldering embers of epic poetry, ὁς σβεσθεῖσαν τὴν ποίησιν ἐπανήγαγε. Among the poets he is ranked after Homer; according to some, also after Hesiod and Antimachus” (Mayor). Panyasis flourished circ. B.C. 480.
ex utroque mixtum. Dion. Hal. l.c. Πανύασις δὲ τὰς τ᾽ ἀμφοῖν ἀρετὰς ἠνέγκατο καὶ αὐτῶν (εἰσηνέγκατο καὶ αὐτός—Usener) πραγματείᾳ (materia) καὶ τῇ κατ᾽ αὐτὸν (αὐτὴν?) οἰκονομίᾳ διήνεγκεν.
putant. Mr. Nettleship (Journ. Phil. xviii. p. 259) notes that Quintilian ‘while saying evidently much the same as Dionysius, says not putat Dionysius but putant,’ showing that both Dionysius and he followed the grammatici, i.e. probably Aristarchus and Aristophanes. Cp. Usener, p. 110 sq., and see Introd. p. xxxii.
alterum ... materia: Hesiod, the ‘singer of Helots.’ “The labours of Herakles supply a more varied and attractive theme than the pedigrees of a Theogony or the homely Tusser-like maxims of the ‘Works and Days.’” Mayor.
Apollonius, surnamed Rhodius, because he was honoured with the freedom of the city of Rhodes, after having retired thither from Alexandria. Returning to Alexandria he succeeded Eratosthenes as librarian. He was a pupil of Callimachus, and flourished circ. 220 B.C. For a sympathetic account of the Argonautica see Mahaffy’s Greek Lit. vol. i. ch. ix. It was rendered into Latin by Atacinus Varro (§87) and Valerius Flaccus (§90).
ordinem a grammaticis datum. The lists of approved authors drawn up by the critics of Alexandria constituted what they called κανόνες (indices, here called ordo). See Usener, p. 134 sq. Cp. venire, redigi, recipi in ordinem or numerum. So i. 4 §3 ut ... auctores alios in ordinem redegerint alios omnino exemerint numero. See Introd. p. xxxv.
Aristarchus, of Samothrace, lived and taught at Alexandria about the middle of the second cent. B.C. His name is inseparably associated with the text of the Homeric poems: see Wolf’s Prolegomena, Lehrs de Aristarchi Studiis Homericis (3rd edit. 1882), and Pierron’s Introd. to Homer, p. xxxv. sq. It became a synonym for rigorous criticism: Cic. ad Att. i. 14, 3 meis orationibus quarum tu Aristarchus es: Hor. A. P. 450 fiet Aristarchus.—See Mahaffy’s Grk. Lit. ch. iii. §32 sq.
Aristophanes, of Byzantium, was librarian at Alexandria before Aristarchus, having succeeded Apollonius Rhodius. He died about 180 B.C. He revised his master Zenodotus’s edition of Homer, and was the first to reject the end of the Odyssey after xxiii. 296. He also left critical and exegetical commentaries on the lyric and dramatic poets, and compiled argumenta or prefaces to the individual plays.
poetarum iudices. This looks like a gloss: see Crit. Notes.
in numerum redegerunt: cp. above on in ordinem a grammaticis datum. The phrase represents the Greek ἐγκρίνειν.—With the exception of the official eulogy of Domitian (§91), Quintilian followed this rule himself.
reddidit. Though it would be hard to find an exact parallel, this use of reddo seems not impossible, especially in Quintilian. It must be explained either by the analogy of the use in which land is said to ‘produce’ the expected crop (cp. tibiae sonum reddunt xi. 3, 20), or less probably with reference to the use which describes such physical processes as dum nimis imperat voci ... sanguinem reddidit Plin. v. 19, 6. In Cicero such an expression could only have been explained on the analogy of ‘placidum reddere’ for ‘placare’: cp. omnia enim breviora reddet ordo et ratio et modus xii. 11, 13.—But see Crit. Notes.
aequali quadam mediocritate: §86 aequalitate pensamus. No disparagement is implied: the meaning is that Apollonius keeps pretty uniformly to the genus medium (see on §44), neither rising on the one hand to the genus grande nor on the other descending to the genus subtile. So in the περὶ ὕψους 33 §4 he receives the epithet ἄπτωτος. For this sense of mediocritas cp. Gellius 7 §14 of Terence: Hor. Car. ii. 10, 5.—“This is a fair criticism of the greatest of the Alexandrine poems; it is learned and correct, tells the story of the Argonauts with a due regard to proportion, and has many minor idyllic beauties, but wants epic unity and inspiration.” Mayor.
I:55 Arati materia motu caret, ut in qua nulla varietas, nullus adfectus, nulla persona, nulla cuiusquam sit oratio; sufficit tamen operi cui se parem credidit. Admirabilis in suo genere Theocritus, sed musa illa rustica et pastoralis non forum modo, verum ipsam etiam urbem reformidat.
§ 55. Arati. Aratus was born at Soli in Cilicia, and lived at the court of Antigonus Gonatas, king of Macedonia, circ. B.C. 270. At the request of the latter he composed Φαινόμενα καὶ Διοσημεῖα, a didactic epic on the heavenly bodies and meteorology, which was translated into Latin verse by Cicero and afterwards by Germanicus. Avienus also made a rendering of it, probably late in the fourth century. See Teuffel §259 §6 and §394 §2, and Munro on Lucr. v. 619 (cp. vol. ii. pp. 3, 9, 299: J. B. Mayor on Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. §104).
ut in qua. Törnebladh (‘de coniunctionum causalium apud Quint. usu’) has collected ten additional examples of this construction in Quint.,—ut qui i. 2, 19: x. 1, 57 and 74: xi. 3, 53 (sing.): v. 14, 28 (plur.): ut quae (sing.) iii. 5, 9: xii. 2, 20; ut quod viii. 3, 12: 4, 16: ut quorum x. 2, 13. For ut cum see on §76. It is incorrect to say that the usage does not occur in Cicero: see Draeger, Hist. Syn. ii. p. 509.
Theocritus lived at Syracuse (probably his native place) under Hiero, and spent some time also at the court of Ptolemy Philadelphus, where he wrote his 14th, 15th, and 17th idylls about the year 259 B.C. Vergil’s obligations to him in the Eclogues are well known: cp. Sicelides Musae iv. 1: Arethusa x. 1.
musa illa rustica et pastoralis. Theocritus is the type of real, as opposed to artificial, pastoral poetry. “He finds all things delectable in the rural life: ‘sweet are the voices of the calves, and sweet the heifer’s lowing; sweet plays the shepherd on the shepherd’s pipe, and sweet is the echo.’ Even in courtly poems and in the artificial hymns ... the memory of the joyful country life comes over him. He praises Hiero, because Hiero is to restore peace to Syracuse, and when peace returns, then ‘thousands of sheep fattened in the meadows will bleat along the plain, and the kine, as they flock in crowds to the stalls, will make the belated traveller hasten on his way.’” Mr. Lang’s Introduction.
I:56 Audire videor undique congerentes nomina plurimorum poetarum. Quid? Herculis acta non bene Pisandros? Nicandrum frustra secuti Macer atque Vergilius? Quid? Euphorionem transibimus? Quem nisi probasset Vergilius idem, numquam certe ‘conditorum Chalcidico versu carminum’ fecisset in Bucolicis mentionem. Quid? Horatius frustra Tyrtaeum Homero subiungit?
§ 56. videor: §46. Hor. Car. iii. 4, 6 audire magnos iam videor duces. So often videre videor: e.g. Cic. in Catil. iv. §11.
congerentes: participle without subject: cp. solitos §7.
non: 2 §25.
Pisandros, of Cameirus in Rhodes, fl. circ. B.C. 645. He wrote a poem called Heracleia, an epic narrative of the deeds of Hercules. He is often cited as an authority for the various details of the legend, and was the first to arm the hero with the club and lion’s skin.
Nicandrum, of Colophon, lived in the middle of the second century B.C. at the court of Attalus III, king of Pergamus. His didactic poem on the bites of venomous animals (Θηριακὰ καὶ Ἀλεξιφάρμακα) is still extant. He also wrote five books of ἑτεροιούμενα, on which Ovid drew for his Metamorphoses.
frustra = temere, ‘without good reason’ (sine iusta causa): cp. frustra ... subiungit below. Cicero, de Div. ii. 60 nec frustra ac sine causa quid facere deo dignum est. So i. 10, 15 non igitur frustra Plato civili viro ... necessariam musicen credidit: xii. 2, 5 Caesar has non nequiquam in the same sense B. G. ii. 27, 5. In some cases it makes little difference whether the rendering is ‘without good reason’ or ‘without good result,’ but here it is very improbable that Quintilian is asking ‘whether Vergil can be called an unsuccessful follower of Nicander,’ as Conington puts it.
Macer: §87. Aemilius Macer of Verona, the friend and contemporary of Vergil and Ovid, wrote the ‘Ornithogonia’ (‘bird-breeding’) and the ‘Theriaca,’ neither of which is extant. Ovid, Trist. iv. 10, 43-4 Saepe suos volucres legit mihi grandior aevo, Quaeque necet serpens, quae iuvet herba, Macer.
Vergilius. See Conington’s Vergil, vol. i. pp. 141 sqq. None of the extant fragments of Nicander’s Γεωργικά justify the supposition that Vergil was indebted to it for the Georgics; but he seems to have used his work on bees (μελισσουργικά) and also the θηριακά above mentioned (Georg. iii. 415, 425). And Macrobius (Sat. v. 22) tells us that it was from Nicander that Vergil borrowed the legend of Pan drawing the moon down after him to the woods by a fleece of snow-white wool (Georg. iii. 391).
Euphorionem. Euphorion, of Chalcis in Euboea, was a contemporary of Ptolemy Euergetes, and Antiochus the Great, circ. B.C. 220. Among other works he wrote a Georgica, or poem on agriculture.
in Bucolicis. Verg. Ecl. x. 50 ibo et Chalcidico quae sunt mihi condita versu Carmina pastoris Siculi modulabor avena, where the speaker is the elegiac poet Cornelius Gallus (§93 note), who had introduced Euphorion to general notice by translating some of his poems.
Tyrtaeum. Tyrtaeus was a native either of Athens or of Aphidnae in Attica, and flourished at the time of the second Messenian War (in the seventh century B.C.), in which he is said to have contributed to the success of the Spartan arms by his inspiring battle-songs. The reference to Horace is A. P. 401 Post hos (Orpheus and Amphion) insignis Homerus Tyrtaeusque mares animos in Martia bella Versibus exacuit. Mayor cites passages from Dio Chrys. where Homer and Tyrtaeus are coupled in the same way: cp. Plato, Laws ix. 858 E, where Tyrtaeus is classed with Homer for his moral and political influence.
I:57 Nec sane quisquam est tam procul a cognitione eorum remotus ut non indicem certe ex bibliotheca sumptum transferre in libros suos possit. Nec ignoro igitur quos transeo nec utique damno, ut qui dixerim esse in omnibus utilitatis aliquid.
§ 57. tam ... ut non: Plin. Ep. iii. 5, 10: cp. §41 and §48 above.
indicem, ‘a catalogue.’ Any one can at least (if he does not know anything more about them) make out a list of such poets in some library, and note the titles of their works in his compilation. For index cp. Cic. Hortens., indicem tragicorum: Plin. Ep. iii. 5, 2 fungar indicis partibus: Seneca de Tranq. 9 §4 quo innumerabiles libros et bibliothecas, quarum dominus vix tota vita indices perlegit? Ep. 39 §2 sume in manus indicem philosophorum.—Non ... certe almost = ne quidem.
nec utique, ‘nor by any means.’ See on §20: cp. §24. Krüger3 renders by ‘unbedingt,’ ‘absolut,’ ‘jedenfalls.’
ut qui dixerim: see on §55.
I:58 Sed ad illos iam perfectis constitutisque viribus revertemur, quod in cenis grandibus saepe facimus, ut, cum optimis satiati sumus, varietas tamen nobis ex vilioribus grata sit. Tunc et elegiam vacabit in manus sumere, cuius princeps habetur Callimachus, secundas confessione plurimorum Philetas occupavit.
§ 58. perfectis constitutisque viribus, i.e. by the reading of the epic poets who are most suited to our purpose: §59 optimis adsuescendum est, &c. So §131 (of Seneca) iam robustis et severiore genere satis firmatis legendus: 5 §1 iam robustorum. Cp i. 8, 6 (of amatory elegy and hendecasyllabics) amoveantur, si fieri potest, si minus, certe ad firmius aetatis robur reserventur: §12 robustiores.—For constitutis cp. ἐν τῇ καθεστηκυίᾳ ἡλικίᾳ: xi. 3, 29.
revertemur: future used as a mild imperative. Cp. 7 §1.
quod ... ut. The dependent clause here gives the explanation of quod facimus in the form of a result, so that the construction is really pleonastic: cp. 5 §18: 7 §11. In 3 §6 (where see note) ut may have more of the idea of purpose.
tunc: when our taste is formed.
elegiam. Cp. i. 8, 6 quoted above. In A. P. 77 Horace characterises the elegy as exiguus, i.e. it is slighter and less dignified than the epic hexameter.
vacabit. This impersonal use (cp. §90) does not occur in Cicero. For the expression see Introd. p. xxxii, note.
Callimachus, of Cyrene, was the second director of the library at Alexandria (§54): he flourished in the middle of the 3rd century. Catullus, Propertius, and Ovid all imitated his elegies. ‘The erotic elegy of Callimachus, Philetas, and their school is chiefly interesting as having been the model of the Roman elegy, which is one of the glories of Latin literature in the hands of Ovid, Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius.’ Mahaffy.
secundas, §53.
Philetas of Cos, instructor of Ptolemy Philadelphus, about 290 B.C. Like Callimachus he was a literary critic as well as a poet, though probably less erudite than his greater contemporary.
occupavit: Hor. Car. i. 12, 19 proximos illi tamen occupavit Pallas honores.
I:59 Sed dum adsequimur illam firmam, ut dixi, facilitatem, optimis adsuescendum est et multa magis quam multorum lectione formanda mens et ducendus color. Itaque ex tribus receptis Aristarchi iudicio scriptoribus iamborum ad ἕξιν maxime pertinebit unus Archilochus.
§ 59. adsequimur, a present of endeavour: cp. §31. This gives a good contrast to iam perfectis constitutisque viribus and tunc, so that there is no need for Halm’s conjecture adsequamur, which is however generally adopted: see Crit. Notes.
ut dixi: see on §1.
multa ... multorum: Plin. Ep. vii. 9 §15 tu memineris sui cuiusque generis auctores diligenter eligere. Aiunt enim multum legendum esse, non multa. Mayor compares also Seneca, Epist. 2 §§2-4.
ducendus color: Verg. Ecl. ix. 49 (astrum) quo duceret apricis in collibus uva colorem. Ducere expresses the gradual process of ‘taking on’ a tinge; the agent in this process is here lectio, as in Vergil it is the constellation. Color is here the ‘appropriate tone’ which will vary with the subject or the occasion: xii. 10, 71 non unus color prooemii, narrationis, argumentorum, egressionis, perorationis servabitur. Sen. Ep. 108 §3 non novimus quosdam qui multis apud philosophum annis persederint et ne colorem quidem duxerint: ib. 71 §31. So Cicero, Orat. §42 educata huius (Isocratis) nutrimentis eloquentia ipsa se postea colorat (‘gathers strength and colour’): de Or. ii. 60 ut cum in sole ambulem ... fieri natura ... ut colorer, sic, cum istos libros ... studiosius legerim, sentio illorum tactu orationem meam quasi colorari. Cp. on §116: 6 §5: 7 §7.
ex tribus receptis: sc. in ordinem sive numerum: cp. §54. The other two are Simonides of Amorgos (Semonides) and Hipponax of Ephesus. The former is best known by his satire on women; the latter is often mentioned along with Archilochus: his spirit reappears in the later comedy. The treatise of Dion. Hal. as we have it now does not contain any criticism either of the elegiac or the iambic poets. Proclus however has: Ἰάμβων ποιηταὶ Ἀρχίλοχός τε ἄριστος καὶ Σιμωνίδης καὶ Ἱππῶναξ (p. 242, Westphal.)
Aristarchi iudicio: §52.
scriptoribus iamborum: see on §9. Diomedes iii. p. 485 11 k (p. 18, Reiff.) iambus est carmen maledicum plerumque trimetro versu et epodo sequente compositum ... appellatum est autem παρὰ τὸ ἰαμβίζειν, quod est maledicere. Cuius carminis praecipui scriptores apud Graecos Archilochus et Hipponax, apud Romanos Lucilius et Catullus et Horatius et Bibaculus: cp. §96.—The word ἄαμβος is derived from ἰάπτω ‘I fling’ (Curt. Etym.5 537: E. T. ii. 154), and denoted originally a ‘flinging,’ or a verse ‘flung at’ a person: hence ἰαμβίζειν, ‘to lampoon.’ Cp. ix. 4, 141 aspera vero et maledica ... etiam in carmine iambis grassantur. Hor. Car. i. 16, 2 criminosis ... iambis: ib. 22-5 me quoque pectoris Temptavit in dulci iuventa Fervor et in celeres iambos Misit furentem.
ἕξιν: see on §1.
maxime unus. Unus is very commonly used in this way to strengthen a superlative: Cic. in Verr. i. §1 quod unum ad invidiam vestri ordinis ... sedandam maxime pertinebat: de Amic. §1 quem unum nostrae civitatis ... praestantissimum audeo dicere: Verg. Aen. ii. 426 cadit et Rhipeus iustissimus unus. Becher thinks unus may merely be set over against tribus: cp. pro Sest. §49 unus bis rempublicam servavi.
Archilochus of Paros (circ. 686 B.C.) was a master of various forms of metrical composition; but his distinctive characteristic was that alluded to here,—the employment of the iambic trimeter as the vehicle of satire, the sting of which, as wielded by him, is said to have driven people into hanging themselves. Hor. A. P. 79 Archilochum proprio rabies armavit iambo.
I:60 Summa in hoc vis elocutionis, cum validae tum breves vibrantesque sententiae, plurimum sanguinis atque nervorum, adeo ut videatur quibusdam, quod quoquam minor est, materiae esse, non ingenii vitium.
§ 60. vibrantes, of the quivering motion of a spear (cp. ‘shafts’ of eloquence) thrown from a stout arm. Cic. Brut. §326 oratio incitata et vibrans: Quint. xii. 9, 3 nec illis vibrantibus concitatisque sententiis velut missilibus utetur: xi. 3, 120 sententias vibrantes digitis iaculantur: ix. 4, 55 neque enim Demosthenis fulmina tanto opere vibratura dicit nisi numeris contorta ferrentur: cp. note on 7 §7 below.
sanguinis atque nervorum. The former refers to the quality of ‘fulness’ or ‘richness’ of thought and style, the latter (often lacerti) to ‘force’: sanguinis et virium 2 §12. Cp. tori and caro §33 (note) and §77. For sanguis, cp. §115 verum sanguinem: 2 §12. “In good Latin nervus, like νεῦρον, always denotes sinews or tendons (literal or metaphorical): cp. Celsus viii. 1 nervi quos τένοντας Graeci appellant; but sometimes appears to include also what we call ‘nerves’: see Mayor on Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. 55, 136. Galen (born 130 A.D.) was the first to limit νεῦρον to the meaning ‘nerve,’ in its present sense.” Wilkins on Hor. A. P. 26.
quibusdam: cp. §64 ut quidam ... eum ... praeferant: §93 quosdam ita deditos sibi adhuc habet amatores: §113 adeo ut quibusdam etiam nimia videatur.
quod quoquam minor est. This clause is the subject of videatur, and the meaning is: with such high qualities the fact that Archilochus comes behind any (if that is the case) is to be attributed to his materia, not to his ingenium, which latter would give him a claim to a place alongside of the very foremost, Homer: cp. §65 post Homerum tamen, quem ut Achillen semper excipi par est. So §62 copiae vitium est: §74 praedictis minor. For quod without id, cp. 4 §4. See Crit. Notes.
materia, ‘subject-matter,’ which was mainly personal character and conduct in common life. Pind. Pyth. ii. 55 ψογερὸν Ἀρχίλοχον βαρυλόγοις ἔχθεσιν πιαινόμενον. Hor. Ep. i. 19, 23 Parios ego primus iambos ostendi Latio, numeros animosque secutus Archilochi non res et agentia verba Lycamben: 28 Temperat Archilochi musam pede mascula Sappho Temperat Alcaeus sed rebus et ordine dispar, Nec socerum quaerit quem versibus oblinat atris Nec sponsae laqueum famoso carmine nectit. Val. Max. vi. 3, E. §1 tells us that the Spartans banished the poems of Archilochus because of their corrupting influence on the morals of their youth: Maximum poetam aut certe summo proximum ... carminum exilio multarunt. Velleius (i. 5, 1) brackets Homer and Archilochus.
I:61 Novem vero lyricorum longe Pindarus princeps spiritu magnificentia, sententiis figuris, beatissima rerum verborumque copia et velut quodam eloquentiae flumine; propter quae Horatius eum merito credidit nemini imitabilem.
§ 61. novem ... lyricorum. Of the nine lyric poets not received into the ‘canon’ those not mentioned here are Alcman, Sappho, Ibycus, Anacreon, and Bacchylides. The four whom Quintilian names are the same as those criticised by Dionysius, except that in the latter Simonides comes next after Pindar.
Pindarus (521-441 B.C., though known to us now mainly by his Epinician Odes, essayed various forms of the lyric art, most of which (except the skolia and encomia) are pervaded by a deeply religious tone. He had the disadvantage of belonging to the Medising city of Thebes, but he spoke fearlessly out (after Salamis) for the liberators of Greece; and both in the instinct for a national unity to which his poems bear witness and in his ethical and religious beliefs he is eminently representative of his age. He is the crowning glory of Greek lyric poetry, and may be said in a sense to stand as it were midway between the Homeric epos and the drama at Athens.
princeps, &c. Here Quintilian again coincides with Dionysius (l.c.) Ζηλωτὸς δὲ καὶ Πίνδαρος ὀνομάτων καὶ νοημάτων εἵνεκα, καὶ μεγαλοπρεπείας καὶ τόνου, καὶ περιουσίας ... καὶ σεμνότητος καὶ γνωμολογίας καὶ ἐνεργείας καὶ σχηματισμῶν.
spiritu: see on §27: i. 8, 5. See Crit. Notes.
magnificentia, μεγαλοπρέπεια iv. 2, 61. This is Pindar’s distinctive quality: he is φιλάγλαος, ‘splendour-loving.’ Cp. magnificus §63: §84: iii. 8, 61: vi. 1, 52: xi. 3, 153.
sententiis: see on §50.
figuris: see on §12.
beatissima = fecundissima, uberrima: §109: 3 §22. Cp. Tac. Dial. 9: Hist. iii. 66.
propter quae: see on §10, propter quod.
Horatius: Car. iv. 2, 1 Pindarum quisquis studet aemulari ... Monte decurrens velut amnis imbres Quem super notas aluere ripas, Fervet immensusque ruit profundo Pindarus ore.
I:62 Stesichorum, quam sit ingenio validus, materiae quoque ostendunt, maxima bella et clarissimos canentem duces et epici carminis onera lyra sustinentem. Reddit enim personis in agendo simul loquendoque debitam dignitatem, ac si tenuisset modum, videtur aemulari proximus Homerum potuisse; sed redundat atque effunditur, quod ut est reprehendendum, ita copiae vitium est.
§ 62. Stesichorus of Himera in Sicily (cir. 632-553 B.C.) is, like Simonides and Pindar, a representative of the Dorian or choral lyric poetry of Greece,—distinguished from the Aeolic (Alcaeus and Sappho) by its greater complexity of structure and by the wider audience to which it was addressed. His real name is said to have been Teisias: that by which he is known he derived from the changes in the structure of the choral ode which were introduced by him. He relieved the combination of strophe and antistrophe by the epode, composed in a different manner, and sung by the chorus standing before the altar,—thus affording it an interval of rest after the movements to right and left. By Alexander the Great, Homer and Stesichorus were classed together as the two poets worthy to be studied by kings and conquerors.—With Quintilian’s criticism cp. Dionysius l.c. (Usener, p. 20) Ὅρα δὲ καὶ Στησίχορον ἔν τε τοῖς ἑκατέρων τῶν προειρημένων (Pindar and Simonides) πλεονεκτήμασι κατορθοῦντα, οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ ὧν ἐκεῖνοι λείπονται κρατοῦντα‧ λέγω δὲ τῇ μεγαλοπρεπείᾳ τῶν κατὰ τὰς ὑποθέσεις πραγμάτων, ἐν οἷς τὰ ἤθη καὶ τὰ ἀξιώματα τῶν προσώπων τετήρηκεν.
ingenio validus: Cic. in Verr. ii. 35 Stesichori qui ... et est et fuit tota Graecia summo propter ingenium honore et nomine.
materiae. The titles of his poems (Ἰλίου Πέρσις, Γηρυονηίς, Ὀρέστεια, Νόστοι, Κέρβερος, Ἑλένα) show that Stesichorus made extensive use of the old epic legends, which would naturally fall more or less into a narrative form. Cp. Hor. Car. iv. 9, 8 Stesichorique graves Camenae. Ael. Hist. Anim xvii, 37 calls him σεμνός: and Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 15, 54 has Stesichori et Pindari vatum sublimia ora.
si tenuisset ... videtur potuisse = potuit, ut videtur. Cp. on §98. This use of the pf. indic. in such clauses indicates the possibility (or duty, obligation, &c.) more unconditionally than the plpf. subj. would do: e.g. Cic. in Vatin. §1 debuisti, Vatini, etiamsi falso venisses in suspicionem P. Sestio, tamen mihi ignoscere: pro Mil. §31 quod si ita putasset, certe optabilius Miloni fuit. &c. In the indirect there is a parallel instance, de Off. i. §4 Platonem existimo ... si ... voluisset ... potuisse dicere.
aemulari, with dat. §122.
Homerum. The author of the treatise ‘On the Sublime’ calls Stesichorus Ὁμηρικώτατος, 13 §3: cp. Dio Chr. Or. ii. p. 284 τοῦτό γε ἅπαντές φασιν οἱ Ἕλληνες, Στησίχορον Ὁμήρου ζηλωτὴν γενέσθαι καὶ σφόδρα γε ἐοικέναι κατὰ τὴν ποίησιν.
redundat atque effunditur. Hermogenes, de Id. ii. 4 p. 322 Στησίχορος σφόδρα ἡδὺς εἶναι δοκεῖ, διὰ τὸ πολλοῖς χρῆσθαι τοῖς ἐπιθέτοις. Mayor quotes also Anth. Pal. vii. 75, 1-2 Στασίχορον, ζαπληθὲς ἀμετρήτου στόμα Μούσης, ἐκτέρισεν Κατάνας αἰθαλόεν δάπεδον.
copiae vitium: ii. 4, 4 vitium utrumque, peius tamen illud quod ex inopia quam quod ex copia venit: ib. 12 §4 effusus pro copioso accipitur. Cp. Plin. Ep. i. 20 §§20-1; Cic. de Orat. ii. §88.
I:63 Alcaeus in parte operis ‘aureo plectro’ merito donatur, qua tyrannos insectatus multum etiam moribus confert, in eloquendo quoque brevis et magnificus et diligens et plerumque oratori similis; sed et lusit et in amores descendit, maioribus tamen aptior.
§ 63. Alcaeus of Mitylene, cir. 600 B.C. The criticism of Dionysius is as follows:—Ἀλκαίου δὲ σκόπει τὸ μεγαλοφυὲς καὶ βραχὺ καὶ ἡδὺ μετά δεινότητος, ἔτι δὲ καὶ τοὺς σχηματισμοὺς καὶ τὴν σαφήνειαν, ὅσον αὐτῆς μὴ τῇ διαλέκτῳ τι κεκάκωται‧ καὶ πρὸ ἁπάντων τὸ τῶν πολιτικῶν πραγμάτων (ποιημάτων?) ἦθος. Πολλαχοῦ γοῦν τὸ μέτρον τις εἰ περιέλοι, ῥητορικὴν ἂν εὕροι πολιτείαν (ῥητορείαν ... πολιτικήν Usener).
in parte: see on §9 in illis.
aureo plectro. ‘Plectrum’ is from πλήσσω (πλήκτρον), the ‘striking thing.’ Hor. Car. ii. 13, 26 Et te sonantem plenius aureo Alcaee plectro dura navis, Dura fugae mala, dura belli.
tyrannos insectatus. These were Myrsilus and Pittacus, by the latter of whom Alcaeus was driven into banishment. Those of his poems which relate to the ten years’ civil war waged against the tyrants were called στασιωτικά. At some time during the rule of Pittacus, the party of Alcaeus attempted a forcible return: Alcaeus was taken prisoner, but was at once set free by the ruler whom he had so bitterly attacked. Cp. Hor. l.c. sed magis Pugnas et exactos tyrannos Densum umeris bibit ore vulgus: id. i. 32, 5.
moribus: cp. ἦθος in the passage quoted from Dionysius. Mayor appositely cites his saying ἄνδρες γὰρ πόλιος πύργος ἀρεύιοι.—For confert with dat. cp. §27.
brevis ... magnificus ... oratori similis: cp. in regard to each of these points the criticism of Dionysius.—For diligens see Crit. Notes.
lusit. For ludere, ‘to write sportively,’ to ‘trifle’, cp. Hor. Car. iv. 9, 9 nec si quid olim lusit Anacreon delevit aetas: i. 32, 2: Verg. Georg. iv. 566 carmina qui lusi.
in amores descendit, in his ἐρωτικά and συμποτικά. Cic. Tusc. Disp. iv. §71 fortis vir in sua republica cognitus quae de iuvenum amore scribit Alcaeus! Hor. Car. i. 32, 3 sqq. Age, dic Latinum, barbite, carmen, Lesbio primum modulate civi, Qui ferox bello tamen inter arma, Sive iactatam religarat udo Litore navim, Liberum et Musas Veneremque et illi Semper haerentem puerum canebat, Et Lycum nigris oculis nigroque Crine decorum.
maioribus = rebus maioribus, ‘loftier themes.’ Introd. p. xlvii. Cp. i. pr. §5 ad minora illa, sed quae si neglegas, non sit maioribus locus. Cp. subitis 7 §30: Nägelsbach §24, 2 (pp. 116-117).
I:64 Simonides, tenuis alioqui, sermone proprio et iucunditate quadam commendari potest; praecipua tamen eius in commovenda miseratione virtus, ut quidam in hac eum parte omnibus eius operis auctoribus praeferant.
§ 64. Simonides of Ceos (556-468), like Pindar, was fortunate in his age, and the most considerable of his fragments that remain are full of the fire kindled in his heart by the great national struggle with Persia. He was a sort of cosmopolitan poet, living by turns in Athens, at the court of the Aleuadae and Scopadae in Thessaly, Corinth, Sparta, and Sicily. He cultivated friendly relations with Miltiades and Themistocles, with Pausanias of Sparta, and (like Pindar and Aeschylus) with Hiero of Syracuse. He was famed for his elegies, epigrams, epinician odes, and every form of choral lyric poetry. His wisdom was renowned: σοφὸς καὶ θεῖος ὁ ἀνήρ, Plat. Rep. 331 E, where some of his gnomic utterances are discussed: cp. ib. 335 E: Protag. 316 D.—The criticism of Dionysius (l.c.) corresponds: Σιμωνίδου δὲ παρατήρει τὴν ἐκλογὴν τῶν ὀνομάτων (sermone proprio), τῆς συνθέσεως τὴν ἀκρίβειαν‧ πρὸς τούτοις, καθ᾽ ὃ βελτίων εὑρίσκεται καὶ Πινδάρου, τὸ οἰκτίζεσθαι μὴ μεγαλοπρεπῶς, ἀλλὰ παθητικῶς.
tenuis, ‘simple,’ ‘natural’: cp. 2 §19 and §23 (tenuitas), also μὴ μεγαλοπρεπῶς quoted above. Λεπτότης (‘terse simplicity’) was a quality of Simonides’ style, especially in his epigrams: ‘when least adorned adorned the most,’ Mayor. Cp. §44, note. Opposites are grandis, copiosus, plenus.
alioqui = τὰ μὲν ἄλλα, ‘for the rest’: cp. ceterum. See on 3 §13, and Introd. p. li.
sermone proprio: see on §46.
iucundidate: see on iucundus §46, and cp. §§82, 96, 101, 110, 113: 2 §23. Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. §60 non enim poeta solum suavis, verum etiam ceteroqui doctus sapiensque traditur. So Tac. Dial. 10 lyricorum iucunditatem.
miseratione. He was a master of pathos, especially in his θρῆνοι: witness his ‘Lament of Danae,’ truly a ‘precious tender-hearted scroll of pure Simonides.’ Generally his poems seem to have been tinged with the same melancholy resignation as inspired the earlier writers of elegy: e.g. fr. 39 ‘slight is the strength of men, and vain are all their cares, and in their brief life trouble follows upon trouble; and death, which none can shun, hangs over all,—in him both good and bad share equally.’ Catull. 38, 7 paulum quidlibet adlocutionis maestius lacrimis Simonidis: Hor. Car. ii. 1, 37 sed ne relictis Musa procax iocis Ceae retractes munera neniae.
quidam: see on putant §54.
in hac parte, ‘in this respect.’ Cp. i. 3, 17: 7 §19: 10 §4: ii. 17, 1: iii. 6, 64: xii. 1, 16. So ab (ex) hac parte.
operis = generis, ‘class of poetry.’ See on §9: cp. §28 §85.
auctoribus, §24.
I:65 Antiqua comoedia cum sinceram illam sermonis Attici gratiam prope sola retinet, tum facundissimae libertatis est et in insectandis vitiis praecipua; plurimum tamen virium etiam in ceteris partibus habet. Nam et grandis et elegans et venusta, et nescio an ulla, post Homerum tamen, quem ut Achillen semper excipi par est, aut similior sit oratoribus aut ad oratores faciendos aptior.
§ 65. Quintilian now proceeds to deal with the Comic and Tragic Drama. In the περὶ μιμήσεως of Dionysius there is nothing about the Old Comedy, and very little that corresponds with Quintilian in the sections on Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Both however pass from Euripides to Menander.
The Old Comedy (§§65-66) was closely connected with the political life of the day, as may be seen from its plots, and especially from the parabases. When the licence of ridicule was curbed (by the laws μὴ κωμῳδεῖν and μὴ κωμῳδεῖν ὀνομαστί), it passed into what is known as Middle Comedy (B.C. 404-338), in which literary and speculative pursuits take the place of politics; its atmosphere is not that of the agora, but of the literary academies and schools of philosophy. In the New Comedy (§§69-72) the Chorus, which has been becoming less and less important, is altogether abandoned, along with other features which the Middle Comedy had in common with the Old. Its strength lies in its delineation of social life and manners, and the materials on which it relied were handed on to Rome, whence, through Plautus and Terence, they were transmitted to Modern Comedy.
Quintilian takes no notice of what is termed Middle Comedy. Between the Old and the New, Tragedy is made to find a place (§§66-67), the plays of Euripides affording a transition to those of Menander.
antiqua comoedia: cp. veteris comoediae §§9 and 82. See Hor. Sat. i. 4, 2: 10, 17.
sinceram ... gratiam: §44 sana et vere Attica: §100 illam solis concessam Atticis venerem: §107 illa quae Attici mirantur. The same phrase occurs xii. 10, 35. Of Roman Comedy he says (i. 8, 8) in comoediis elegantia et quidam velut ἀττικισμός inveniri potest.
libertatis = παρρησίας §§94, 104. Hor. Sat. i. 4, 5 multa cum libertate notabant: A. P. 281-284 successit vetus his comoedia, non sine multa Laude; sed in vitium libertas excidit et vim Dignam lege regi; lex est accepta chorusque Turpiter obticuit sublato iure nocendi. Isocr. de Pace 14 ἐγὼ δ᾽ οἶδα μὲν ὅτι ... δημοκρατίας οὔσης οὐκ ἔστι παρρησία πλὴν ... ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ τοῖς κωμῳδιδασκάλοις. Marc. Aurel. xi. 6:) ἡ ἀρχαία κωμῳδία ... παιδαγωγικὴν παρρησίαν ἔχουσα.—For the reading see Crit. Notes.
grandis = ὑψηλός, §77: 2 §16 (where it is opposed to tumidus). Hor. A. P. 93-4 Interdum tamen et vocem comoedia tollit. Iratusque Chremes tumido delitigat ore.
elegans: §§78, 87, 93, 99: 2 §19, ‘choice,’ ‘tasteful.’ Cp. Cic. Brut. §272 verborum delectus elegans. In the treatise ad Herenn. (iv. 12) elegantia stands along with compositio and dignitas as a requisite of style: it includes Latinitas (which avoids solecisms and barbarisms), and explanatio, which uses verba usitata and propria.
venusta: vi. 3, 18 venustum esse quod cum venere quadam et gratia dicatur apparet. Krüger sees in these adjj. a reference to the main characteristics of the three different styles distinguished by rhetoricians, §44.
nescio an ulla: see Crit. Notes.
ut Achillen: Il. ii. 673-4 Νιρεύς, ὃς κάλλιστος ἀνὴρ ὑπὸ Ἴλιον ἦλθε Τῶν ἄλλων Δαναῶν μετ᾽ ἀμύμονα Πηλεΐωνα: ib. 768. Alcaeus fr. 63 Κρονίδα βασιλήας γένος Αἴαν, τὸν ἄριστον πεδ᾽ Ἀχιλλέα.
similior oratoribus: §63 plerumque oratori similis. The same description of the style of the Old Comedy is given by one of the rhetoricians, Walz Rhet. Gr. v. 471 (cp. vi. 164, vii. 932) λόγοειδεστέρα‧ τοῦτ᾽ ἔστιν ἡ κωμικωτέρα καὶ προσβεβληκυῖα λόγῳ πεζῷ κατὰ συνθήκην, ὅθεν τινὲς καὶ ῥητορικὴν ἔμμετρον τὴν κωμῳδίαν ἐκόλεσαν. Students of oratory went to the comic actors for pronuntiatio and gestus: i. 11, 1-14: 12, 14: xi. 3, 181.
I:66 Plures eius auctores, Aristophanes tamen et Eupolis Cratinusque praecipui. Tragoedias primus in lucem Aeschylus protulit, sublimis et gravis et grandiloquus saepe usque ad vitium, sed rudis in plerisque et incompositus; propter quod correctas eius fabulas in certamen deferre posterioribus poetis Athenienses permiserunt, suntque eo modo multi coronati.
§ 66. Aristophanes ... Eupolis ... Cratinus. The same representatives of Old Comedy are named in Hor. Sat. i. 4, 1: cp. Persius i. 123 Audaci quicumque adflate Cratino Iratum Eupolidem praegrandi cum sene palles. So also Dionysius, Art. Rhet. viii. 11, p. 302 R (there is nothing about Old Comedy in the ἀρχ. κρ.): ἡ δὲ κωμῳδία ὅτι πολιτεύεται ἐν τοῖς δράμασι καὶ φιλοσοφεῖ, ἡ τῶν περὶ τὸν Κρατῖνον καὶ Ἀριστοφάνην καὶ Εὔπολιν, τί δεῖ καὶ λέγειν; Velleius i. 16, 3: Diomed. p. 489 K (p. 9 Reiff.) ‘Ar. Eup. et Crat. qui vel principum vitia sectati acerbissimas comoedias composuerunt.’ The chronological order would be, Cratinus (519-422), Aristophanes (448-380), Eupolis (446-410). In 424 B.C. Cratinus with his Πυτίνη (‘Wine-flask’) gained the victory over the Clouds of Aristophanes, while in the previous year Eupolis is said to have helped his greater rival in the composition of the Knights. Cratinus was the real originator of political comedy: see the grammarian quoted by Meineke (i. p. 540): ‘he added a serious moral object to the mere amusement in comedy, by reviling evil-doers (τοὺς κακῶς πράττοντας διαβάλλων, cp. insectandis vitiis) and chastising them with his comedy, as it were with a public scourge’: cp. Platon. de Com. p. 27 οὐ γὰρ ὥσπερ ὁ Ἀριστοφάνης ἐπιτρέχειν τὴν χάριν τοῖς σκώμμασι ποιεῖ ... ἀλλ᾽ ἁπλῶς καὶ κατὰ τὴν παροιμίαν γυμνῇ κεφαλῇ τίθησι τὰς βλασφημίας κατὰ τῶν ἁμαρτανόντων.
primus. Just as in treating of Comedy Quintilian passes over the Megarian farces of Susarion, and such earlier writers as Chionides and Magnes, so now he omits all mention of Pratinas, Choerilus, Thespis and Phrynichus. Thespis introduced the actor (ὑποκριτής) and arranged that the dithyrambic choruses should be interrupted by regular dialogue between the coryphaeus and the actor. This step secured the entrance of the dramatic element, as distinct from the lyric, and made subsequent development easy. Aeschylus is however the real founder of tragedy: he introduced a second actor and subordinated the choral song to the dialogue, besides elaborating the machinery of the stage and the scenic decoration employed thereon. Cp. Hor. A. P. 275 sqq.
sublimis, &c. Cp. Dionysius, l.c., (Usener, p. 21) Ὁ δ᾽ οὖν Αἰσχυλος πρῶτος ὑψηλός τε καὶ τῆς μεγαλοπρεπείας ἐχόμενος, καὶ ἠθῶν καὶ παθῶν τὸ πρέπον εἰδώς, καὶ τῇ τροπικῇ καὶ τῇ κυρίᾳ λέξει διαφερόντως // κεκοσμημενος, πολλαχοῦ δὲ καὶ αὐτος δημιουργὸς καὶ ποιητὴς ἰδίων ὀνομάτων καὶ πραγμάτων.
grandiloquus. Cp. Aristoph. Frogs 823 βρυχώμενος ἥσει ῥήματα γομφοπαγῆ, 939 τὴν τέχνην ... οἰδοῦσαν ὑπὸ κομπασμάτων καὶ ῥημάτων ἐπαχθων, 1004, ἀλλ᾽ ὦ πρῶτος τῶν Ἑλλήνων πυργώσας ῥήματα σεμνὰ καὶ κοσμήσας τραγικὸν λῆρον κ.τ.λ. So too the biographer of Aeschylus, κατὰ δὲ τὴν σύνθεσιν τῆς ποιήσεως ζηλοῖ τὸ ἁδρὸν (see on §44) ἀεὶ πλάσμα ... πᾶσι τοῖς δυναμένοις ὄγκον τῇ φράσει περιθεῖναι χρώμενος. Hor. A. P. 280 ‘et docuit magnumque loqui nitique cothurno.’
rudis et incompositus, ‘uncouth and inharmonious.’ Cp. horride atque incomposite 2 §17: and note on compositus §44. In the de Comp. Verb. c. 22 Dionysius names Aeschylus along with Antimachus as a representative of ἡ αὐστηρὰ ἁρμονία (p. 150 R). For rudis cp. Hor. Sat. i. 10, 66 rudis et Graecis intacti carminis auctor: for incompositus see Introd. p. xlv. The author of the treatise ‘On the Sublime’ qualifies his eulogy of Aeschylus by adding in the same way that his plays were frequently unpolished, ill digested, and rough in style.
in plerisque; neut. ‘in general,’ ‘for the most part.’ See Intod. p. xlvii.
propter quod = quam ob rem: 7 §6: 5 §23. See on §10.
correctas ... permiserunt. This passage has been the subject of much controversy. It seems inconsistent with our knowledge of the statute passed by the orator Lycurgus (396) enacting that official copies of the plays of the three great tragedians should be made, and that no new performance of them should be allowed without a comparison of the acting copy with the State MS. Perhaps Quintilian misunderstood the phrase δράματα διεσκευασμένα, commonly applied to plays revised by the author himself with a view to a second representation. Madvig however (Kl. philol. Schr. 1875, pp. 464-5) thinks it quite probable that revised versions of plays of Aeschylus were allowed to be brought into competition by later poets (say in the latter half of the 4th century), when Aeschylus came in for criticism on the score of the defects alluded to above (rudis et incompositus), but when, on the other hand, creative genius was not so abundant. Krüger quotes Rohde (‘Scenica,’ Rhein. Mus. 1883, vol. 38, p. 289 sqq.), who sees in the words of the scholiast on Arist. Ach. 10 (μόνου αὐτοῦ τὰ δράματα ψηφίσματι κοινῷ καὶ μετὰ θάνατον ἐδιδάσκετο) a compliment paid to Aeschylus alone, and consisting not merely in the appreciative revival of his plays after his death, but in the fact that they were reproduced not as παλαιαί but as new dramas, were provided afresh with choruses by the archon, and were admitted to competition at the great Dionysia (where only new tragedies were represented) if any one appeared, who in the name of the dead poet asked to be provided with a chorus. Cp. οὐκ ὀλίγας μετὰ τελευτὴν νίκας ἀπηνέγκατο, vit. Acschyl. 68, Dindorf5.
I:67 Sed longe clarius inlustraverunt hoc opus Sophocles atque Euripides, quorum in dispari dicendi via uter sit poeta melior inter plurimos quaeritur. Idque ego sane, quoniam ad praesentem materiam nihil pertinet, iniudicatum relinquo. Illud quidem nemo non fateatur necesse est, iis qui se ad agendum comparant utiliorem longe fore Euripiden.
§ 67. longe, with the comp. vi. 4, 21: 3 §13. Cp. Verg. Aen. ix. 556: Vell. ii. 74, 1. In Cicero longe is used only with the superl. (and with alius: pro Caec. i. §3) with the compar. he generally has multo. Quintilian has also longe princeps §61: and multo with superl., e.g. i. 2, 24.
opus: sc. tragoedias in lucem proferendi. See on §9.
in dispari dicendi via. By Dionysius Euripides is made the only representative of the ‘smooth’ style of composition (γλαφυρὰ ἁρμονία, de Comp. Verb. c. 23), while Sophocles represents the middle style (κοινή or μέση ἁρμονία, ib. c. 24). This must of course be kept distinct from the three λέξεις, or styles of diction, which he enumerates in his essay on Demosthenes, c. 1-3.
quaeritur. Modern criticism has taken up the issue, and Euripides has suffered from being identified with what was practically a dramatic revolution. Schlegel depreciated him as contrasting with Sophocles in many points. Mr. Jebb’s utterance will stand: ‘no one is capable of feeling that Sophocles is supreme who does not feel that Euripides is admirable’ (Att. Or. i. p. xcix).
utiliorem: so magis accedit oratorio generi immediately below: Dionysius l.c. xi. (Usener, p. 22) κεκραμένη μεσότητι τῆς λέξεως κέχρηται.
I:68 Namque is et sermone (quod ipsum reprehendunt quibus gravitas et cothurnus et sonus Sophocli videtur esse sublimior) magis accedit oratorio generi, et sententiis densus et in iis quae a sapientibus tradita sunt paene ipsis par, et dicendo ac respondendo cuilibet eorum qui fuerunt in foro diserti comparandus; in adfectibus vero cum omnibus mirus, tum in iis qui in miseratione constant facile praecipuus.
§ 68. quod ipsum reprehendunt: see Crit. Notes.
gravitas ... sublimior. The use of the comparative takes away from the difficulty which commentators have found in the conjunction of sublimior as a predicate with gravitas and cothurnus as well as with sonus.—For cothurnus, cp. Iuv. vi. 634 Fingimus haec, altum Satira sumente cothurnum Scilicet et finem egressi legemque priorum Grande Sophocleo carmen bacchamur hiatu.
sententiis densus: cp. sent. creber §102: and for densus (= pressus) §§73, 76. Euripides had been a pupil of Anaxagoras. Something might be said in support of Halm’s suggestion to insert est after densus.
sapientibus. In Euripides philosophy is brought on the stage, and different theories are put forward in his plays as to such questions as the moral government of the world, the opposition between freedom and authority, the nature of punishment, the question of a future life, &c.
dicendo ac respondendo. In this appears the influence of his sophistic training. Euripides knew his audience, and in his plays the characters indulge to the full all the tendencies that were fostered by the sophistic habit of debate, while the chorus is as it were the jury to which they address their arguments for and against a particular proposition. Cp. Dion. l.c. πολὺς ἐν ταῖς ῥητορικαῖς εἰσαγωγαῖς.
adfectibus ... miseratione. Arist. Poet. 13 τραγικώτατός γε τῶν ποιητῶν φαίνεται.
facile. So facile princeps Cic. ad Fam. vi. 10, 2: facile primus pro Rosc. Amer. §15. For the reading see Crit. Notes.
I:69 Hunc admiratus maxime est, ut saepe testatur, et secutus, quamquam in opere diverso, Menander, qui vel unus meo quidem iudicio diligenter lectus ad cuncta quae praecipimus effingenda sufficiat: ita omnem vitae imaginem expressit, tanta in eo inveniendi copia et eloquendi facultas, ita est omnibus rebus, personis, adfectibus accommodatus.
§ 69. testatur: not in any extant fragment, though it is by no means improbable that in some of his numerous plays Menander expressed an admiration for the most popular tragedian of the day.
Menander, 342-290 B.C. At his death the Athenians erected his tomb near the cenotaph of Euripides, in token of the affectionate regard in which he had held the elder poet. ‘Euripides was the forerunner of the New Comedy; the poets of this species admired him especially, and acknowledged him for their master. Nay, so great is this affinity of tone and spirit between Euripides and the poets of the New Comedy, that apothegms of Euripides have been ascribed to Menander and vice versa. On the contrary, we find among the fragments of Menander maxims of consolation which rise, in a striking manner, even into the tragic tone.’ Schlegel. See Meineke Com. Frag. iv. Epimetrum ii., Menander imitator Euripidis.
omnem vitae imaginem. Menander was the ‘mirror of life’: cp. the exclamation of Aristophanes of Byzantium Ὦ Μένανδρε καὶ βίε, πότερος ἄρ᾽ ὑμῶν πότερον ἐμιμήσατο; Manilius v. 470 Menander Qui vitam ostendit vitae. So Cicero in a fragment of the De Republica (or the Hortensius, Usener, p. 120): Comoedia est imitatio vitae, speculum consuetudinis, et veritatis imago.—For this use of exprimere, a figure from the plastic art, cp. Hor. A. P. 32-3.
tauta in eo, &c. Cp. with this Dionysius l.c. (Usener, p. 22) τῶν δὲ κωμῳδῶν μιμητέον τὰς λεκτικὰς ἀρετὰς ἁπάσας‧ εἰσὶ γὰρ καὶ τοῖς ὀνόμασι καθαροὶ καὶ σαφεῖς, καὶ βραχεῖς καὶ μεγαλοπρεπεῖς καὶ δεινοὶ καὶ ἠθικοί. Μενάνδρου δὲ καὶ τὸ πραγματικὸν θεωρητέον.
I:70 Nec nihil profecto viderunt qui orationes, quae Charisi nomini addicuntur, a Menandro scriptas putant. Sed mihi longe magis orator probari in opere suo videtur, nisi forte aut illa iudicia, qua Epitrepontes, Epicleros, Locroe habent, aut meditationes in Psophodee, Nomothete, Hypobolimaeo non omnibus oratoriis numeris sunt absolutae.
§ 70. nihil viderunt: they have not ‘lacked discrimination.’ So, of political insight or foresight, Cic. pro. Leg. Manil. §64 sin autem vos plus in republica vidistis: Phil. ii. §39 cum me vidisse plus fateretur, se speravisse meliora.
Charisius, an Athenian orator, a contemporary of Demosthenes, who wrote speeches for others, in which he was thought to imitate Lysias: he was in turn imitated by Hegesias, Cic. Brut. §286.
addicuntur: Aul. Gell. iii. 3. 13 istaec comoediae nomini eius (Plauti) addicuntur.
in opere suo: ‘I consider that he proves his oratorical ability far more in his own department’ (i.e. as a writer of comedy)—than in those speeches of Charisius, supposing that he did compose them. For opus see on §9: cp. §67.
nisi forte, ironical: see on 5 §6: cp. 2 §8. The formula introduces ‘a case which is in fact inadmissible, but is intended to suggest to another person that he cannot differ from our opinion, without admitting as true a thing which is improbable and absurd,’ Zumpt §526.
iudicia ... meditationes: ‘judicial pleadings,’ speeches suitable to be made before a court—‘extra-judicial pleadings,’ law-school speeches, declamationes, μελέται. Cp. iv. 2, 29 cum sit declamatio forensium actionum meditatio: 5 §14.—The names are those of some of Menander’s comedies: The Trusting, The Heiress, The Locri, The Timid Man, The Lawyer, The Changeling. The second and the last are known to have been imitated by Caecilius. For the reading see Crit. Notes.
numeris: here as at §91 rather than as at §4, where see note. Here it only = partibus and has nothing to do with rhythmical composition. In this sense it is found almost invariably with omnis: Varro apud Aul. Gell. xiii. 11, 1 ipsum deinde convivium constat ex rebus quatuor, et tum denique omnibus suis numeris absolutum est, &c.: Cic. de N. D. ii. §37 mundum ... perfectum expletumque omnibus suis numeris et partibus: de Div. i. §23 quod omnes habet in se numeros: de Off. iii. §14: de Fin. iii. §24 omnes numeros virtutis continent: Sen. Ep. 71 §16 (veritas) habet numeros suos: plena est: 95 §5: Iuv. vi. 249: Tac. Dial. 32 per omnes eloquentiae numeros isse. So viii. pr. §1 per omnes numeros penitus cognoscere.
I:71 Ego tamen plus adhuc quiddam collaturum eum declamatoribus puto, quoniam his necesse est secundum condicionem controversiarum plures subire personas, patrum filiorum, militum rusticorum, divitum pauperum, irascentium deprecantium, mitium asperorum; in quibus omnibus mire custoditur ab hoc poeta decor.
§ 71. plus adhuc quiddam = πλέον τι, or ἔτι καὶ πλέον. Adhuc with compar. (for etiam) is post-Augustan: cp. §99. Here quiddam (like τι) is used to modify the force of the comparative. So adhuc melius ii. 4, 13: adhuc difficilior i. 5, 22: liberior adhuc disputatio vii. 2, 14: and Tac. Germ. 29: Suet. Nero 10: Sen. Ep. 85, 24: Spalding on i. 5, 22.
declamatoribus. Students in the schools of rhetoric, and even speakers of a more mature type, practised declamation at Rome in the shape of oratorical compositions on questions which, though fictitious, were yet akin to such as were argued in the law-courts. The youthful aspirant learned in this way to speak in public (Cic. de Orat. i. §149: Quint. ii. 10, 4: ib. §12), while the orator had the opportunity of perfecting his articulation and delivery. To these two aims the Greek terms μελέτη and φωνασκία correspond: for the first cp. de Orat. i. §251, and for the second Brut. §310. It was in the age of the decadence of Roman oratory that declamation came to be an end in itself. At first it had been merely a preparatory exercise; now, under the head of suasoriae (deliberativae materiae) and controversiae (iudiciales materiae), finished oratorical compositions were produced, graced by all the ornaments of genuine rhetoric. Cp. Tac. Dial. 35.
controversiarum. Cp. iv. 2, 97 evenit aliquando in scholasticis controversiis quod in foro an possit accidere dubito: iii. 8, 51 praecipue declamatoribus considerandum est quid cuique personae conveniat, qui parcissimas controversias ita dicunt ut advocati: plerumque filii, parentes, divites, senes, asperi, lenes, avari, denique superstitiosi, timidi, derisores fiunt, ut vix comoediarum actoribus plures habitus in pronuntiando concipiendi sunt, quam his in dicendo.
decor: see on §27.
I:72 Atque ille quidem omnibus eiusdem operis auctoribus abstulit nomen et fulgore quodam suae claritatis tenebras obduxit. Tamen habent alii quoque comici, si cum venia leguntur, quaedam quae possis decerpere, et praecipue Philemon; qui ut prave sui temporis iudiciis Menandro saepe praelatus est, ita consensu tamen omnium meruit credi secundus.
§ 72. eiusdem operis, i.e. Comedy, not the New Comedy only, as is shown by alii comici below. Along with Menander and Philemon, Velleius (i. 16, 3) and Diomedes (p. 489 K, p. 9 Reiff.) mention Diphilus, on whom both Plautus and Terence drew for material.
nomen: see on §87.
fulgore ... obduxit: ‘has put them in the shade by the brightness of his own glory.’
cum venia: cp. i. 5, 11: Ov. Tr. i. 1, 46 scriptaque cum venia qualiacumque leget: ib. iv. 1, 104 cum venia facito, quisquis es, ista legas. Kiderlin rightly holds this reading to be, not only possible, but at least as appropriate to habent quaedam as any of the conjectures (see Crit. Notes) by which it has been proposed to supplant it. The severe critic will perhaps not find anything in the other comic poets useful for the orator: but he who reads them with indulgence (i.e. making allowance for their poverty as compared with Menander) will find something. It is different with Menander, in whose plays even the rigorous critic will find everything that the orator needs (§69).
Philemon, of Soli in Cilicia, 360-262. Fragments of fifty-six of his ninety plays are extant. His Θησαυρός was used by Plautus for the Trinummus, and his Ἔμπορος for the Mercator.
prave, ‘adverbium pro sententia.’ Cp. iii. 7, 18 quidam sicut Menander iustiora posteriorum quam suae aetatis iudicia sunt consecuti: Aul. Gell. 17, 1 Menander a Philemone nequaquam pari scriptore in certaminibus comoediarum ... saepenumero vincebatur.—See Crit. Notes.
meruit credi = merito creditus est (or creditur). Cp. §74. Elsewhere mereo means little more than adipisci, consequi: §§94, 116: vi. 4, 5 nec immerito quidam ... meruerunt nomina patronorum. For the nomin. with inf. cp. §97 qui esse docti adfectant: Ov. Met. xiii. 314 esse reus merui.
§73-75. Greek Historians:—
In his Ἀρχαίων κρίσις (or περὶ μιμήσεως 2) Dionysius says nothing of Ephorus, Clitarchus, or Timagenes, but draws a more elaborate parallel (Usener, p. 22) between Herodotus and Thucydides, as well as between Philistus and Xenophon: Theopompus he treats by himself. Illustrative passages are found also in the Iudicium de Thucydide and the Epistola ad Cn. Pompeium (de Praecip. Historicis). Cp. also Cicero, de Orat. ii. §55 sq., where the order is Herodotus and Thucydides, Philistus, Theopompus and Ephorus, Xenophon, Callisthenes, and Timaeus. For the last two Quint. substitutes Clitarchus and Timagenes. Cp. Introd. p. xxxiii.
I:73 Historiam multi scripsere praeclare, sed nemo dubitat longe duos ceteris praeferendos, quorum diversa virtus laudem paene est parem consecuta. Densus et brevis et semper instans sibi Thucydides, dulcis et candidus et fusus Herodotus: ille concitatis hic remissis adfectibus melior, ille contionibus hic sermonibus, ille vi hic voluptate.
§ 73. scripsere. In i. 5, 42 Quint. (speaking of the forms scripsere and legere) says ‘evitandae asperitatis gratia mollitum est ut apud veteres pro male mereris, male merere,’ ib. §44 ‘quid? non Livius circa initia statim primi libri, tenuere, inquit, arcem Sabini? et mox, in adversum Romani subiere? sed quem potius ego quam M. Tullium sequor, qui in Oratore, non reprehendo, inquit, scripsere; scripserunt esse verius sentio.’ The passage referred to is Or. §157. The termination -ere for -erunt is ‘found in some of the earliest inscriptions, and is not uncommon in Plautus and Terence, rare in Cicero and Caesar, but frequent in dactylic poets and Livy,’ Roby, §578. Mr. Sandys also quotes Dr. Reid: ‘There is hardly a sound example of -ere in the perfect in any really good MS. of Cicero (see Neue, ii. 390 ff.); and similarly in the case of Caesar.’ Quintilian has permiserunt, §66 (where the later MSS. give -ere): illustraverunt §67: viderunt §70: indulsere §84. See Bonnell, Proleg. de Gramm. Quint. p. xxvii.
nemo dubitat ... praeferendos. The acc. and inf. with dubito (for the negative expression of doubt) is much the more common construction in Quint. (cp. §81, 4 §2), though he also uses quin and subj. (e.g. 2 §1: xii. 1, 42 ad hoc nemo dubitabit quin ... magis e republica sit). A study of the instances in Bonn. Lex. will fail to reveal any principle of difference: cp. vii. 6, 10 quis dubitaret quin ea voluntas fuisset testantis? with ix. 4, 68 quis enim dubitet unum sensum in hoc et unum spiritum esse? and i. 10, 12 atqui claros nomine sapientiae viros nemo dubitaverit studiosos musices fuisse. The acc. with inf. belongs on the whole to the usage of the Silver Age, being frequent in Livy, Nepos (e.g. his opening words ‘non dubito fore plerosque, Attice’), Tacitus, Pliny (e.g. praef. 18 nec dubitamus multa esse), Pliny the Younger, Tacitus and Suetonius. It never occurs in Caesar or Sallust, and in Cicero only in doubtful cases: these are his youthful transl. of Xenophon’s Oeconomicus, where he has (§6) quis enim dubitet nihil esse pulchrius in omni ratione vitae dispositione atque ordine? ad Att. vii. 1, 2, where the passage may be differently construed: de Fin. iii. 11, 38 nihil est enim de quo minus dubitari possit quam et honesta expetenda per se et eodem modo turpia per se esse fugienda. In the last instance the dependent clause ‘de quo ... possit’ = ‘certius’: and after ‘quam’ ‘illud’ may be supplied. On the other hand cp. for quin Rep. i. 23: Brut. §71: de Sen. §31: in Verr. ii. 1, 40. In young Cicero’s letter to Tiro (ad Fam. xvi. 21, 2) we find the acc. c. inf., though below (§7) he has the usual construction.
diversa virtus ... consecuta: as for example from Dionysius, Epist. ad Cn. Pomp. pp. 775-7 R (Usener, p. 57 sq.).
Densus, §68. It is opposed to fusus here as in §106 to copiosus. Cp. Dionysius, p. 869 R, τό τε πειρᾶσθαι δι᾽ ἐλαχίστων ὀνομάτων πλεῖστα σημαίνειν πράγματα, καὶ πολλὰ συντιθέναι νοήματα εἰς ἕν.
brevis: Dion. Ἀρχ. κρ. p. 425 R (Usener, pp. 22-3) καὶ τὸ μὲν σύντομόν ἐστι παρὰ Θουκυδίδῃ τὸ δ᾽ ἐναργὲς παρ᾽ ἀμφοτέροις. This is what Dion. calls τὸ τάχος τῆς σημασίας p. 793 R (Us. p. 82).
semper instans sibi, ‘ever pressing on.’ Thucydides does not ‘let things drift,’ but closely follows up each thought, making every word tell, and even hurrying on to a new idea before he has fully developed the previous one: Dion. l.c. καὶ ἔτι προσδεχόμενόν τι τὸν ἀκροατὴν ἀκούσεσθαι καταλιπεῖν. Cp. xi. 3, 164 instandum quibusdam in partibus et densanda oratio. Hor. Ep. i. 2, 71 nec praecedentibus insto: cp. Sat. i. 10, 9 est brevitate opus ut currat sententia neu se impediat verbis lassas onerantibus aures.—Cicero’s references to Thucydides are similar: Orat. §40 Thucydides praefractior nec satis ut ita dicam rotundus; de Orat. ii. §56 creber est rerum frequentia ... porro verbis est aptus et pressus; ibid. §93 (with Pericles and Alcibiades) subtiles, acuti, breves, sententiisque magis quam verbis abundantes; Brut. §29 grandes erant verbis, crebri sententiis, compressione rerum breves et ob eam ipsam causam interdum subobscuri.
dulcis, §77, ‘pleasing,’ cp. voluptate, below. So Cic. Hortens. ‘quid enim aut Herodoto dulcius aut Thucydide gravius?’ Γλυκύτης is one of the essentials of ἡδεῖα λέξις in Dionysius (de Comp. Verb. xi. p. 53 R). In the preceding chapter he has distinguished between ἡ ἡδονή and τὸ καλόν, allowing the latter to Thucydides and both to Herodotus: ἡ δὲ Ἡροδότου σύνθεσις ἀμφότερα ταῦτα ἔχει‧ καὶ γὰρ ἡδεῖά ἐστι καὶ καλή. Hermogenes (ii. p. 226) makes γλυκύτης the characteristic of Herodotus on account of the attractiveness of his digressions.
candidus: §§113, 121: Cic. Orat. §53 elaborant alii in ... puro et quasi quodam candido genere dicendi. So in ii. 5, 19 Quintilian recommends young persons to read candidum quemque et maxime expositum,—Livy rather than Sallust: of Livy he says elsewhere (§101) in narrando mirae iucunditatis clarissimique candoris. The word denotes ‘clearness,’ ‘transparency’: Dion. (Ἀρχ. κρ. R, Us. p. 22) τῆς δὲ σαφηνείας ἀναμφισβητήτως Ἡροδότῳ τὸ κατόρθωμα δέδοται. Such a quality of style is the revelation of a man’s inner nature. It avoids all adventitious ornament (ibid. τῷ ἀφελεῖ αὐτοφυεῖ ἀβασανίστῳ). Undue brevitas often interferes with it (ἀσαφὲς γίγνεται τὸ βραχύ), so that the word gives a partial antithesis to brevis.
fusus supplies the antithesis to densus as well as to semper instans sibi. Cp. §77: ii. 3, 5 constricta an latius fusa oratio: ix. 4, 138 fusi ac fluentes. So Cicero Orat. §39 alter sine ullis salebris quasi sedatus amnis fluit, alter incitatior fertur.
concitatis ... remissis adfectibus. Dionysius, speaking of τῶν ἠθων τε καὶ παθῶν μίμησις (ad Cn. Pomp. p. 776 R, Us. p. 58), says διῄρηνται τὴν ἀρετὴν ταύτην οἱ συγγράφεις‧ Θουκυδίδης μὲν γὰρ τὰ πάθη δηλῶσαι κρείττων, Ἡρόδοτος δὲ τὰ γ᾽ ἤθη παραστῆσαι δεινότερος. So (Ἀρχ. κρ. p. 425 R, Us. p. 23) ἐν μέντοι τοῖς ἠθικοῖς κρατεῖ Ἡρόδοτος, ἐν δὲ τοῖς παθητικοῖς ὁ Θουκυδίδης. Cp. p. 793 R ὑπὲρ ἅπαντα δ᾽ αὐτοῦ ταῦτα τὸ παθητικόν. For the distinction between τὸ ἠθικόν (the appeal to the moral sense) and τὸ παθητικόν (the appeal to the emotions) see Cic. Orat. §128: Quint. vi. 2, §§8-10 Adfectus igitur hos concitatos πάθος illos mites atque compositos ἦθος esse dixerunt, and sq. Cp. §§48 and 101 of this book, and iii. 4, 15 concitandis componendisve adfectibus.
contionibus ... sermonibus: not the same antithesis as narrando ... contionibus §101, q.v. The opposition here is between the set harangues of Thucydides and the less formal conversations of Herodotus. In Thucydides the only dialogues are that between the Melians and the Athenians in Book V, and that between Archidamus and the Plataeans in Book II, whereas Herodotus ‘seldom speaks where there is a fair pretext for making the characters speak.... Even the longer speeches have usually the conversational tone rather than the rhetorical,’ Jebb. (Hild is wrong in referring sermonibus to τὸ πραγματικὸν εἶδος in Dionysius and contionibus to τὸ λεκτικόν: Ἀρχ. κρ. p. 424 R, Us. p. 22: cp. de Admir. Deor. vi. c. 51, p. 1112 R sq.). The speeches of Thucydides are criticised by Dionysius (under the head both of τὸ πραγματικὸν μέρος and τὸ λεκτικόν) in his Iudicium, ch. 34, p. 896 R sq. Herodotus on the other hand (ibid. 23 ad fin.), οὐδὲ δημηγορίαις πολλαῖς ... οὐδ᾽ ἐναγωνίοις κέχρηται λόγοις, οὐδ᾽ ἐν τῷ παθαίνειν καὶ δεινοποιεῖν τὰ πράγματα τὴν ἀλκὴν ἔχει. Dionysius’s own opinion of the speeches in Thucydides is seen from the last chapter of his Iudicium (pp. 950-2 R) to have agreed with that of Cicero, Orator §30: ipsae illae contiones ita multas habent obscuras abditasque sententias vix ut intellegantur. (Cp. Brutus §287.) On this ground he says nihil ab eo transferri potest ad forensem usum et publicum: cp. de Opt. Gen. 15, 16. Dionysius, however (ch. 34 ad init.) indicates that some people thought differently: τῶν δημηγοριῶν ἐν αἷς οἴονταί τινες τὴν ἄκραν τοῦ συγγραφέως εἶναι δύναμιν.—For the speeches see Blass, Att. Bereds p. 231 sq.: and Jebb’s Essay in Hellenica, esp. pp. 269-275.
vi ... voluptate. Many passages may be quoted from Dionysius to illustrate this antithesis: Ἀχρ. κρ. p. 425 R, Usener p. 23 ῥώμῃ δὲ καὶ ἰσχύι καὶ τόνῳ καὶ τῷ περιττῷ καὶ πολυσχηματίστῳ παρηυδοκίμησε Θουκυδίδης: ἡδονῇ δὲ καὶ πειθοῖ καὶ χάριτι ... μακρῷ διενεγκόντα τὸν Ἡρόδοτον εὑρίσκομεν: ad. Cn. Pomp. iii. p. 776 R (Us. p. 58) ἕπονται ταύταις αἱ τὴν ἰσχὺν καὶ τὸν τόνον καὶ τὰς ὁμοιοτρόπους δυνάμεις τῆς φράσεως ἀρεταὶ περιέχουσαι. κρείττων ἐν ταύταις Ἡροδότου Θουκυδίδης. ἡδονὴν δὲ καὶ πειθὼ καὶ τέρψιν καὶ τὰς ὁμοιογενεῖς ἀρετὰς εἰσφέρεται μακρῷ Θουκυδίδου κρείττονας Ἡρόδοτος. So Iud. de Thucyd. 23, p. 866 R πειθοῦς τε καὶ χαρίτων καὶ τῆς εἰς ἀκρὸν ἡκούσης ἡδονῆς ἕνεκα. So in the Epist. ad Pomp. iii. p. 767 R he praises Herodotus for his choice of subject (ὑπόθεσιν ... καλὴν καὶ κεχαρισμένην τοῖς ἀναγνωσομένοις Us. p. 50), while Thucyd. was conscious ὅτι εἰς μὲν ἀκρόασιν ἧττον ἐπιτερπὴς ἡ γραφή ἐστι (de Comp. Verb. p. 165 R). It is his variety (μεταβολὴ καὶ ποικίλον) and the providing of agreeable ἀναπαύσεις that give Hdt. his charm: καὶ γὰρ τὸ βιβλίον ἢν αὐτοῦ λάβωμεν μέχρι τῆς ἐσχάτης συλλαβῆς ἀγάμεθα καὶ ἀεὶ τὸ πλεῖον ἐπιζητοῦμεν p. 772 R: while Thucydides is by comparison ἀσαφὴς καὶ δυσπαρακολούθητος p. 773 (Usener pp. 54-5).
For vi cp. also Orat. §39 alter incitatior fertur, et de bellicis rebus canit etiam quodam modo bellicum: for voluptate Quint. ix. 4, 18 in Herodoto vero cum omnia, ut ego quidem sentio, leniter fluunt, tum ipsa διάλεκτος habet eam iucunditatem ut latentes in se numeros complexa videatur. And again Dionysius, p. 777 R: Us. p. 59 διαφέρουσι δὲ κατὰ τοῦτο μάλιστα ἀλλήλων ὅτι τὸ μὲν Ἡροδότου κάλλος ἱλαρόν ἐστι, φοβερὸν δὲ (‘impressive’) τὸ Θουκυδίδου.
I:74 Theopompus his proximus ut in historia praedictis minor, ita oratori magis similis, ut qui, antequam est ad hoc opus sollicitatus, diu fuerit orator. Philistus quoque meretur qui turbae quamvis bonorum post eos auctorum eximatur, imitator Thucydidi et ut multo infirmior, ita aliquatenus lucidior. Ephorus, ut Isocrati visum, calcaribus eget. Clitarchi probatur ingenium, fides infamatur.
§ 74. Theopompus, of Chios, born about 378 B.C. What Quint. says of him is not found in Dion. though the latter gives him high praise in the Epist. ad Cn. Pomp. p. 782 R sq. Cp. Ἀρχ. κρ. p. 428 sq. He wrote two histories, neither of which has come down to us:—(1) Ἡλληνικά, containing in twelve books the sequel to the Peloponnesian War, down to the battle of Knidos (B.C. 394); and (2) Φιλιππικά, a history of affairs under Philip, in fifty-eight books. Dionysius says that he was the most distinguished of all the pupils of Isocrates, whom he resembled in style (l.c. p. 786). His master said that he needed the bit, as Ephorus (see below) the spur: ii. 8, 11, cp. Brut. §204. Quint. says elsewhere (ix. 4, 35) that, like the followers of Isocrates in general, he was unduly solicitous about avoiding the coalition of vowels: Orat. §151. In the Brutus (§66) Cicero, comparing him with Philistus and Thucydides, says officit Theopompus elatione atque altitudine orationis suae. His fragments are collected in Müller’s Fragm. Histor. Graec. i. pp. 278-333.
praedictis = antea, supra dictis. This is the usual meaning of the word in Quint.: cp. tria quae praediximus iii. 6, 89: vicina praedictae sed amplior virtus viii. 3, 83: ii. 4, 24: ix. 3, 66: Vell. Pat. i. 4, 1: Suet. Aug. 90: Plin. N. H. lxxii. 16, 35. The Ciceronian use appears only in ‘praedicta pernicies’ iii. 7, 19 (cp. iv. 2, 98): vii. 1, 30.
opus: §§31, 67, 69, 70, 96, 123: 2 §21. Cp. Introd. p. xliv.
sollicitatus by his master Isocrates. Cicero tells us this: postea vero ex clarissima quasi rhetorum officina duo praestantes ingenio, Theopompus et Ephorus, ab Isocrate magistro impulsi se ad historiam contulerunt (de Orat. ii. §57).
Philistus, of Syracuse, born about B.C. 430. He was a contemporary of both the Dionysii, by the elder of whom he was exiled and by the younger recalled. He wrote a history of Sicily in two parts,—περὶ Σικελίας μὲν τὴν προτέραν ἐπιγραφων, περὶ Διονυσίου δὲ τὴν ὑστέραν, Dion. ad Pomp. p 780 R (Us. p. 61). Cicero says he liked the latter: me magis de Dionysio delectat, ad Q. Fr. ii. 13, 4.—Müller, Fragm. Hist. Gr. i. 185-192.
meretur qui: see on §72.
quamvis bonorum. For this brachyology cp. §94, and note: Livy ii. 54 §7 nec auctor quamvis audaci facinori deerat: ibid. 51 §7. Cp. quamlibet properato 3 §19. Introd. p. liv.
eximatur: with ex or de in classical Latin, as in the phrase ex reis eximi, aliquem de reis eximere (Cic.) For the dat. cp. i. 4, 3 ut auctores alios omnino exemerint numero (opp. to in ordinem redigere): Hor. Car. ii. 2, 19 Phraaten numero beatorum eximit virtus. The same meaning appears in xii. 2, 28 quid ... eximat nos opinionibus vulgi. In Tac. the dat. is common in the sense of to ‘free from’: infamiae, morti, ignominiae. What follows might be a condensation of Dion.’s criticism of Philistus: Φίλιστος δὲ μιμητής ἐστι Θουκυδίδου, ἔξω τοῦ ἤθους‧ ᾧ μὲν γὰρ ἐλεύθερον καὶ φρονήματος μεστόν‧ τούτῳ δὲ θεραπευτικὸν τῶν τυράννων καὶ δοῦλον πλεονεξίας, Ἀρχ. κρ. p. 426 R, Us. p. 24: cp. ad Pomp. v. (p. 779 R) Φίλιστος δὲ Θουκυδίδη μᾶλλον <ἂν> δοξεῖεν ἐοικέναι, καὶ κατ᾽ ἐκεῖνον κοσμεῖσθαι τὸν χαρακτῆρα: Cic. de Orat. ii. 57 hunc (Thucydidem) consecutus est Syracosius Philistus qui, cum Dionysii tyranni familiarissimus esset, otium suum consumpsit in historia scribenda, maximeque Thucydidem est, sicut mihi videtur, imitatus.
infirmior: Cic. ad Q. Fr. ii. 13, 4 Siculus ille (Philistus) capitalis, creber, acutus, brevis, paene pusillus Thucydides: Dionysius, Ἀρχ. κρ. (p. 427 R, Us. p. 25) μικρὸς δὲ ἐστι καὶ ταπεινὸς κομιδῇ ταῖς ἐκφράσεσιν ... οὐδὲ ὁ λόγος τῷ μεγέθει τοῦ πράγματος ἐξισοῦται: ad Pomp. (p. 781 R) μικρός τε περὶ πᾶσαν ἰδέαν ἐστὶ καὶ ἐντελής κ.τ.λ.
aliquatenus with comparative, instead of the ablative aliquanto, just as he uses longe and multum for multo. So xi. 3, 97 aliquatenus liberius.
lucidior: τῆς δὲ λέξεως τὸ μὲν γλωσσηματικὸν καὶ περίεργον οὐκ ἐζήλωκε Θουκυδίδου (Ἀρχ. κρ. l.c.). Yet Dionysius blames him, even more than Thucyd., for ἀταξία τῆς οἰκονομίας, and adds that, like Thucyd., δυσπαρακολούθητον τὴν πραγματείαν τῇ συνχύσει τῶν εἰρημένων πεποίηκε.
Ephorus, of Cumae in Aeolis, was a contemporary of Philip and Alexander: fl. cir. B.C. 340. He wrote a Universal History down to his own times. Like Theopompus, he was a pupil of Isocrates (de Orat. ii. §57: iii. §36: Orator §191); and Dionysius mentions him, along with Theopompus, as the best example, among historians, of ἡ γλαφυρὰ καὶ ἀνθηρὰ σύνθεσις, just as Isocrates was among rhetoricians (de Comp. Verb. 23, p. 173 R). Plutarch (Dion. 36) blames him for his sophistical tendencies: Polybius (v. 33, 2) praises his wide knowledge.
calcaribus. Brutus §204 ut Isocratem in acerrimo ingenio Theopompi et lenissimo Ephori dixisse traditum est, alteri se calcaria adhibere, alteri frenos: de Orat. iii. 9, 36 quod dicebat Isocrates, doctor singularis, se calcaribus in Ephoro contra autem in Theopompo frenis uti solere: Hortensius: quid ... aut Philisto brevius aut Theopompo acrius aut Ephoro mitius inveniri potest? Cp. also ad Att. vi. 1, 12: Quint, ii. 8, 11. So Suidas, ὁ γοῦν Ἰσοκράτης τὸν μὲν Θεόπομπον ἔφη χαλινοῦ δεῖσθαι, τὸν δὲ Ἔφορον κέντρου (s.v. Ephorus). A similar story is told of Plato, teacher of Aristotle and Xenocrates; and of Aristotle, who in turn taught Theophrastus and Callisthenes.
Clitarchus, of Megara, a contemporary of Alexander the Great, whom he accompanied on his expeditions, and whose history he wrote, in twelve books, down to the battle of Ipsos. He also wrote a history of the Persians before and after Xerxes. Cicero alludes (Brutus §42 sq.) to his romantic turn: concessum est rhetoribus ementiri in historiis, ut aliquid dicere possint argutius (‘more racily’); ut enim tu nunc de Coriolano, sic Clitarchus, sic Stratocles de Themistocle finxit: de Legg. i. 2.
I:75 Longo post intervallo temporis natus Timagenes vel hoc est ipso probabilis, quod intermissam historias scribendi industriam nova laude reparavit. Xenophon non excidit mihi, sed inter philosophos reddendus est.
§ 75. Timagenes belongs to the Augustan Age. He is said to have been a native of Syria, who came to Rome after the capture of Alexandria (B.C. 55). At Rome he founded a school of rhetoric, and wrote a history of Alexander the Great and his successors. He was a friend of Asinius Pollio, and enjoyed the patronage of Augustus till he incurred his censure for having spoken too boldly of the members of the Imperial family: Hor. Ep. i. 19, 15. Quintilian might have filled the gap (intervallo temporis) between Clitarchus and Timagenes with such names as Timaeus (de Orat. ii. §58), Polybius, and Dionysius himself.
historias scribendi: cp. §34 and 2 §7. The plural is used of historical works, in the concrete: the sing. generally of history as a mode of composition: §§31, 73, 74, 101, 102; 5 §15,—seldom as 1. 8, 20 cum historiae cuidam tanquam vanae repugnaret. Cp. Hor. Sat. i. 3, 89 amaras porrecto iugulo historias captivus ut audit: Car. ii. 12, 9 pedestribus dices historiis praelia Caesaris. Cicero has the sing. most frequently: Brutus §287 si historiam scribere ... cogitatis: but the pl. occurs ib. §42 (quoted above).
Xenophon §§33 and 82. By Dionysius he is treated as a historian, and compared to Philistus. The philosophic character of his work is however indicated in several places: e.g. Ἀρχ. κρ. (p. 426 R, Us. p. 24) ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ τοῦ πρέποντος τοῖς προσώποις πολλάκις ἐστοχάσατο, περιτιθεὶς ἀνδράσιν ἰδιώταις καὶ βαρβάροις ἐσθ᾽ ὅτε λόγους φιλοσόφους: ad Cn. Pomp. 4 (p. 777) τὰς ὑποθέσεις τῶν ἱστοριῶν ἐξελέξατο καλὰς καὶ μεγαλοπρεπεῖς καὶ ἀνδρὶ φιλοσόφῳ προσηκούσας‧ τήν τε Κύρου παιδείαν, εἰκόνα βασιλέως ἀγαθοῦ καὶ εὐδαίμονος κ.τ.λ.. Besides Cicero (de Orat. ii. §58 denique etiam a philosophia profectus—Xenophon—scripsit historiam), Diogenes Laertius and Dio Chrysostom speak of Xenophon as a philosopher, all probably following an ancient authority. See Usener, p. 117, and cp. Introd. p. xxxiii.
inter. Becher notes this use of the prep. ( = ‘among a number of’) as occurring first in Livy. Cp. §116 ponendus inter praecipuos.
§§76-80. Attic Orators:—
I:76 Sequitur oratorum ingens manus, ut cum decem simul Athenis aetas una tulerit. Quorum longe princeps Demosthenes ac paene lex orandi fuit: tanta vis in eo, tam densa omnia, ita quibusdam nervis intenta sunt, tam nihil otiosum, is dicendi modus, ut nec quod desit in eo nec quod redundet invenias.
ut cum. So utpote cum Cic. ad Att. v. 8, 1 and Asinius Pollio ad Fam. x. 32, 4: quippe cum ad Att. x. 3. Bonn. Lex. s.v. ut (B ad fin.) gives other exx. from Quintilian: e.g. v. 10, 44: vi. 1, 51: 3, 9: ix. i, 15.
decem. This is not a round number (Hild), but indicates a recognised group of orators, generally considered to have been canonised by the critics of Alexandria, in the course of the last two centuries before the Christian era. Brzoska, however, in a recent paper (De canone decem oratorum Atticorum quaestiones—Vratislaviae, 1883) develops with great probability the view of A. Reifferscheid, that the canon originated, towards the end of the second cent. B.C., with the school of Pergamus, where special attention was paid to rhetoric and grammar, which the Alexandrian critics neglected in favour of poetry. The group consisted of Antiphon, Andocides, Lysias, Isocrates, Isaeus, Demosthenes, Aeschines, Lycurgus, Hyperides, and Dinarchus. Of these Quintilian omits here Antiphon, Andocides, Isaeus, Lycurgus, and Dinarchus, though all except the last-named are mentioned in xii. 10, §§21-22. Demetrius of Phalerum is thrown in at the end, probably after Cicero (see on §80). The earliest reference to the Ten Orators as a recognised group occurs in the title of a lost work by Caecilius of Calacte,—περὶ χαρακτῆρος τῶν δέκα ῥητόρων. But though Caecilius was a contemporary of Dionysius at Rome in the age of Augustus, and is known to have been intimate with him (p. 777 R, Us. p. 59), there is no reference in Dionysius’s writings to the canon thus adopted. Mr. Jebb thinks he may have deliberately disregarded it as not helpful for the purpose with which he wrote, viz. to establish a standard of Greek prose by a study of the orators as representing tendencies in the historical development of the art of oratory (Att. Or. Introd. p. 67: but see Brzoska, pp. 20-22). Besides this decem in Quintilian (cp. on ceteros §80), the number ten is again recognised in the treatise on the Lives of the Ten Orators, wrongly attributed to Plutarch, by Proclus (circ. 450 A.D.), and by Suidas (circ. 1100). In selecting the five whom he treats here, Quintilian would seem to have followed Dionysius. In the De Oratoribus Antiquis, 4 (p. 451 R), he gives a chronological classification (κατὰ τὰς ἡλικίας), taking Lysias, Isocrates, and Isaens to represent the first series (ἐκ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων: cp. his aetate Lysias maior §74); and Demosthenes, Hyperides, and Aeschines for the next. Elsewhere (de Din. Iud. i. p. 629 R) he arrives at the same result on another principle, Lysias, Isocrates, and Isaeus being classed as εὑρεταὶ ἰδίου χαρακτῆρος, while the other three (Aeschines now taking the second place, as emphatically at p. 1063 R) appear as τῶν εὑρημένων ἑτέροις τελειωταί. Of Demosthenes, Hyperides, and Aeschines he says: ἡ γὰρ δὴ τελειοτάτη ῥητορικὴ καὶ τὸ κράτος τῶν ἐναγωνίων λόγων ἐν τούτοις τοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἔοικεν εἶναι, de Isaeo Iud. p. 629 R. The Ἀρχαίων κρίσις briefly characterises, in the order in which they are named, Lysias, Isocrates, Lycurgus, Demosthenes, Aeschines, and Hyperides; Quintilian omits Lycurgus, the paragraph about whom in the Ἀρχ. κρ. is suspected by Claussen (p. 352). (Brzoska notes that Quintilian’s list is identical with that given by Cicero de Orat. iii. 28: and from a comparison of de Opt. Gen. Or. §7—qui aut Attici numerantur aut dicunt Attice—he infers that the canon was probably known also to Cicero.) We have separate treatises by Dionysius on Lysias, Isocrates, and Isaeus (the εὑρεταί), but those in which he discussed Demosthenes, Hyperides, and Aeschines (the τελειωταί), are no longer extant. Instead we have the first part of a longer work on Demosthenes (περὶ τῆς λεκτικῆς Δημοσθένους δεινότητος pp. 953-1129 R), and a bibliographical account of Dinarchus. Antiphon he only alludes to briefly (de Isaeo, 20), in company with Thrasymachus, Polycrates, and Critias: cp. Quint, iii. 1, 11.
Athenis. Dionysius groups the orators of whom he treats under the title Ἀττικοί (p. 758 R, ἐν τῇ περὶ τῶν Ἀττικῶν πραγματείᾳ ῥητόρων). Ammon (pp. 81-82) points out that Demetrius Magnes used the same appellation (Dion. de Din. i. p. 631 R), and further suggests that the Attic canon is already indicated in Cicero de Opt. Gen. Or. §13 ex quo intellegitur quoniam Graecorum oratorum praestantissimi sint ii qui fuerunt Athenis, eorum autem princeps facile Demosthenes, hunc si qui imitetur eum et attice dicturum et optime, ut quoniam attici propositi sunt ad imitandum bene dicere id sit attice dicere.
aetas una, used here in a wide sense (as is shown by aetate ... maior, below). The period referred to extends from the latter part of the 5th to the latter part of the 4th century B.C. So Cicero, Brut. §36 haec enim aetas effudit hanc copiam: where he gives a place among the others to Demades.
longe princeps: Dion. de Thucyd. Iud. 55, p. 950 R, Δημοσθένει ὃν ἁπάντων ῥητόρων κράτιστον γεγενῆσθαι πειθόμεθα: cp. de vi Demosth. 33, p. 1058 R sq.
vis, δεινότης. Dion. de Thucyd. Iud. 53, p. 944 R τὴν ἐξεγείρουσαν τὰ πάθη δεινότητα (of Demosthenes): cp. p. 865 τὸ ἐρρωμένον καὶ ἐναγώνιον πνεῦμα ἐξ ὧν ἡ καλουμένη γίγνεται δεινότης: Cic. de Orat. iii. 28 vim Demosthenes habuit. For the place of vis in oratory cp. Orat. §69, and de Orat. ii. 128-9.
densa: §§68, 73, 106. So pressus: Introd. p. xliii. The Greek equivalent is τὸ πυκνόν, ἡ πυκνότης. Dionysius attributes his brevity and conciseness, as well as his energy and power of rousing the emotions, to the influence of Thucydides.
quibusdam, inserted on account of the metaphor, as often in Cicero, e.g. de Orat. i. §9 procreatricem quandam et quasi parentem: Brut. §46 eloquentia est bene constitutae civitatis quasi alumna quaedam: and constantly in translating Greek words and phrases (cp. Reid on Acad. i. 5, 20 and 24). For nervis intenta cp. εὔτονος τῇ φράσει, Ἀρχ. κρ. p. 433 R: also ix. 4, 9, and note on 1 §60.
tam nihil otiosum, i.e. everything is so much to the point. Cp. i. 1, 35 otiosas sententias, of copy-book headings that have no point: viii. 3, 89 ἐνέργεια ... cuius propria sit virtus non esse quae dicuntur otiosa: ibid. 4, 16: ii. 5, 7: Sen. Epist. 100, 11 exibunt multa nec ferient et interdum otiosa praeterlabetur oratio. In Tac. Dial. §§18 and 22 the meaning is ‘spiritless,’ ‘wearisome’ (cp. lentitudo and tepor §21). In Quintilian there is also the idea of ‘superfluous,’ ‘unprofitable’: i, 12, 18 otiosis sermonibus, useless gossip: ii. 10, 8: viii. 3, 55 quotiens otiosum fuerit et supererit: ix. 4, 58 adicere dum non otiosa et detrahere dum non necessaria. Cp. Introd. p. xlv.
is dicendi modus: Cic. Orat. §23 hoc nec gravior exstitit quisquam nec callidior nec temperatior.
quod desit: a reminiscence of Cic. Brut. §35 nam plane quidem perfectum et cui nihil admodum desit Demosthenem facile dixeris. Quintilian qualifies his eulogy in comparing him with Cicero §107 below: cp. xii. 12, 26, and Cic. Orat. §§90 and 104. See Crit. Notes.
I:77 Plenior Aeschines et magis fusus et grandiori similis, quo minus strictus est; carnis tamen plus habet, minus lacertorum. Dulcis in primis et acutus Hyperides, sed minoribus causis— ut non dixerim utilior— magis par.
§ 77. Plenior ... magis fusus: opposed to tam densa omnia, above. Aeschines had not the terseness and intensity of Demosthenes, but was not without a certain fluent vehemence of his own. Cicero mentions levitas and splendor verborum as characteristics of Aeschines, Orat. §110; and Dionysius, Ἀρχ. κρ. p. 434 R, has ἀτονώτερος μὲν τοῦ Δημοσθένους, ἐν δὲ τῇ λέξεων ἐκλογῇ πομπικός ἅμα καὶ δεινός ... καὶ σφόδρα ἐνεργὴς καὶ βαρὺς καὶ αὐξητικὸς καὶ πικρὸς καὶ ... σφοδρός: Cic. de Orat. iii. §128 sonitum Aeschines habuit. For a comparison between the two great rivals v. Jebb’s Alt. Or. ii. 393 sq. See also Cicero’s de Optim. Gen. Orat., which was written as a preface to his translation of Aeschines’s speech against Ctesiphon and Demosthenes on the Crown.
grandiori is certainly not neuter (sc. generi dicendi) as Krüger (2nd edition), who compares the plural maioribus §63 (where however we have aptior, not similior), and ii. 11, 2, which is quite different: moreover Quintilian never uses grandius by itself to designate the more sublime style, and with such an expression as ‘grandiori generi dicendi’ he would have employed magis accedit (§68) or propior est (§78) rather than similis. If the text is allowed to stand grandiori must be masc. (just like strictus) and be used in a good sense: e.g. Cic. de Opt. Gen. Or. §9 imitemur Lysiam, et eius quidem tenuitatem potissimum: est enim multis in locis grandior: Brut. §203 fuit Sulpicius ... grandis et ut ita dicam tragicus orator: Orat. §119 quo grandior sit et quodam modo excelsior. Similis gets the force of a comparative from magis preceding, and minus following it (cp. §93 tersus atque elegans maxime: xii. 6, 6 a quam maxime facili ac favorabili causa) so that we may render ‘he has an appearance of greater elevation in proportion as his style is less compressed.’ See Crit. Notes.
minus strictus = remissior, cp. ἀτονώτερος above. Instead of being nervis intenta (εὔτονος) his style was characterised as προπετής (‘headlong’) by the critics.
carnis ... lacertorum. The style of Aeschines is deficient in compact force: it is often overcharged and redundant (cp. πομπικός and αὐξητικός above). So also Dem. Or. 19 (of Aeschines) §133 σεμνολόγος: §255 σεμνολογεῖ. For lacerti cp. Brut. §64 in Lysia saepe sunt etiam lacerti sic ut fieri nihil possit valentius.
Hyperides, one of the leading orators of the patriotic party, was put to death by order of Antipater, B.C. 322, just seven days before the death of Demosthenes, with whom he had generally acted, though differences arose between them in later life.
Dulcis: §73. So Dion. Ἀρχ. κρ. p. 435 R χάριτος μεστός: cp. de Din. Iud. 8, p. 645 R, where he says that the imitators of Hyperides, by failing to reproduce his exquisite charm, as well as his force, became dry and rough in style: διαμαρτόντες τῆς χάριτος ἐκείνου καὶ τῆς ἄλλης δυνάμεως αὐχμηροί τινες ἐγένοντο.
acutus. Cic. de Orat. iii. §28 acumen Hyperides ... habuit: Orat. §110 nihil argutiis et acumine Hyperidi (cedit Demosthenes). Acumen (§§106, 114) is the quality required for the tenue genus which aims at instructing (Cic. de Orat. ii. §129: Quint, xii. 10, 59): it appeals mainly to the intellect. Here therefore acutus means ‘pointed,’ ‘direct’: cp. xii. 10, 39, Orat. §§20, 84, 98, where it is used of style. Subtilis and acutus sometimes go together as characteristics of the plain style: so in 5 §2 subtilitas is ascribed to Hyperides. On the other hand acutus is used (§84 below) expressly of power of thought as opposed to power of expression: cp. too §83 inventionem acumine opposed to eloquendi suavitate, and §81 acumine disserendi ... eloquendi facultate. So it may be that Quintilian uses acutus here to represent Dionysius: εὔστοχος μὲν ... καὶ συνέσει πολλῇ κεχορήγηται (p. 434 R).
minoribus causis. Cp. with this the criticisms of Longinus, Hermogenes, and others in Blass’s preface to the Teubner text. The author of περὶ ὕψους says:—“He knows when it is proper to speak with simplicity, and does not, like Demosthenes, continue the same key throughout,” §34, and below: “Nevertheless all the beauties of Hyperides, however numerous, cannot make him sublime. He never exhibits strong feeling, has little energy, rouses no emotion” (Havell). His style is “that of a newer school than Demosthenes—of the school of Menander and the New Comedy, to whom long periods and elaborate structure seemed tedious, and who affected short and terse statement, clear and epigrammatic points, smart raillery, and an easy and careless tone even in serious debate. Hence the critics, such as Quintilian, think him more suited to slight subjects.” Mahaffy, ii. p. 377. Dionysius says εὔστοχος μὲν σπάνιον δ᾽ αὐξητικός: he hits his mark neatly, but seldom lends grandeur to his theme by amplification. His Funeral Oration is an exception: here he has ‘thoroughly caught from Isocrates the tone of elevated panegyric’ (Jebb). His reputation as a wit and an easy-going member of society may have helped to produce on casual students the impression Quintilian wishes to convey: ‘unquestionably one great secret of his success as a speaker,’ says Mr. Jebb, ‘was his art of making a lively Athenian audience feel that here was no austere student of Thucydides, but one who was in bright sympathy with the everyday life of the time.’ For his wit cp. Cic. Orat. §90 and Sandys’ note. Dionysius’s judgment is given at length in Jebb’s Attic Orators, ii. p. 383 sq.
ut non dixerim = ne dicam. Cp. 2 §15, and note. Tacitus makes a similar use of the potential perfect in secondary clauses.—For utilior Maehly needlessly conjectures futilibus.
I:78 His aetate Lysias maior, subtilis atque elegans et quo nihil, si oratori satis sit docere, quaeras perfectius; nihil enim est inane, nihil arcessitum, puro tamen fonti quam magno flumini propior.
§ 78. aetate maior. The date of his birth has been variously fixed at B.C. 459 and B.C. 436: see Sandys, Introd. to Orator, p. xiii, and note; Wilkins, de Orat. i. (2nd ed.), p. 33. Jebb gives the approximate date of his extant work as 403-380 B.C.
subtilis atque elegans. Cic. Orat. §30 subtilem et elegantem: Brut. §35 egregie subtilis scriptor et elegans, quem iam prope audeas oratorem perfectum dicere: ibid. §64: de Orat. iii. §28 subtilitatem ... Lysias habuit: Orat. §110 nihil Lysiae subtilitate (cedit Demosthenes). It is the ‘plain elegance’ of Lysias, his artistic and graceful plainness, that Quintilian is commending: cp. ix. 4, 17 nam neque illud in Lysia dicendi textum tenue atque rasum laetioribus numeris corrumpendum erat: perdidisset enim gratiam, quae in eo maxima est, simplicis atque inaffectati coloris, perdidisset fidem quoque.—Subtilitas and elegantia go together 2 §19.
subtilis. Originally ‘suited for weaving’ (* sub–telis from tela—Wharton). From this the word came to be used metaphorically:—(1) ‘graceful,’ ‘refined,’ ‘delicate’: subtilitas pronuntiandi, de Orat. iii. §42, ‘graceful refinement of utterance’: (2) ‘precise,’ ‘accurate,’ common in Cicero to represent ἀκριβης: cp. praeceptor acer atque subtilis, Quintilian i. 4, 25: (3) ‘plain,’ ‘unadorned’: especially subtile genus dicendi (xii. 10, 58) = τὸ ἰσχνὸν γένος, the ‘plain’ style of rhetorical composition, which, with a careful concealment of art, imitated the language of ordinary life, unlike the ‘grand’ style, which was more artificial, seeking by the use of ornament to rise above the common idiom. The sense in which the word is used here is mainly (3): it represents what Dionysius says Ἀρχ. κρ. p. 432 R, (Us. p. 28) ἰσχνότητι γὰρ τῆς φράσεως σαφῆ καὶ ἀπηκριβωμένην ἔχουσι τὴν τῶν πραγμάτων ἔκθεσιν. But there is a reference also to (1), helped out by the addition of elegans, ‘choice,’ ‘tasteful.’ The style of Lysias was plain, but not without Attic refinement.
docere. So Dion., in eulogising him for τὴν δεινότητα τῆς εὑρέσεως, says (de Lysia 15, p. 486 R), τὰ πάνυ δοκοῦντα τοῖς ἄλλοις ἄπορα εἶναι καὶ ἀδύνατα εὔπορα καὶ δυνατὰ φαίνεσθαι ποιεῖ. He could make the most of his case: persuasiveness (πιθανότης) is mentioned (ibid. 13) as one of his leading characteristics. ‘His statements of facts,’ says Mr. Jebb (ii. 182), ‘are distinguished by conciseness, clearness, and charm, and by a power of producing conviction without apparent effort to convince’: cp. Dion. de Lysia 18, p. 492 R ἐν δὲ τῷ διηγεῖσθαι τὰ πράγματα ... ἀναμφιβόλως ἡγοῦμαι κράτιστον αὐτὸν εἶναι πάντων ῥητόρων, ὅρον τε καὶ κάνονα τῆς ἰδέας ταύτης αὐτὸν ἀποφαίνομαι: and below, αἱ διηγήσεις ... τὴν πίστιν ἅμα λεληθότως συνεπιφέρουσιν. But that this is not the whole office of the orator Quintilian himself declares iv. 5, 6 non enim solum oratoris est docere, sed plus eloquentia circa movendum valet. Cp. iii. 5, 2: Brut. §105: de Orat. ii. §128. In regard to this, Lysias is comparatively weak: ‘he cannot heighten the force of a plea, represent a wrong, or invoke compassion, with sufficient spirit and intensity,’ Jebb: in the words of Dion. (19, p. 496 R), περὶ τὰ πάθη μαλακώτερός ἐστι: he understands οὔτε αὐξήσεις οὔτε δεινώσεις οὔτε οἴκτους. Cp. 13 ad fin.
nihil ... inane: cp. Orator §29 dum intellegamus hoc esse Atticum in Lysia, non quod tenuis sit atque inornatus sed quod nihil habeat insolens aut ineptum.
nihil arcessitum: Cp. Dion. de Lysia 13 ad fin. p. 483 R ἀσφαλής τε μᾶλλόν ἐστιν ἢ παρακεκινδυνευμένη, καὶ οὐκ ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον ἰσχὺν ἱκανὴ δηλῶσαι τέχνης ἐφ᾽ ὅσον ἀλήθειαν εἰκάσαι φύσεως. Cp. 8, p. 468 ἀποίητός τις καὶ ἀτεχνίτευτος ὁ τῆς ἁρμονίας αὐτοῦ χαρακτήρ. So Ἀρχ. κρ. πρὸς τὸ χρήσιμον καὶ ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστιν αὐτάρκης—Krüger3 suggests nihil enim inest inane. For the order see Introd. p. liii.
magno flumini: cp. Cicero, Orator §30 nam qui Lysiam sequuntur causidicum quemdam sequuntur, non illum quidem amplum atque grandem, subtilem et elegantem tamen et qui in forensibus causis possit praeclare consistere. Cp. Dion. 13, p. 482, where he says that, besides pathos, Lysias wants also grandeur and spirit: ὑψηλὴ δὲ καὶ μεγαλοπρεπὴς οὐκ ἔστιν ἡ Λυσίου λέξις, οὐδὲ καταπληκτικὴ μὰ Δία καὶ θαυμαστή ... οὐδὲ θυμοῦ καὶ πνεύματος ἐστι μεστή. Cicero says he shows elevation at times, though grandeur was seldom possible in the treatment of the subjects he chose. Cp. the whole passage, de Opt. Gen. Oratorum §9 Imitemur si potuerimus, Lysiam, et eius quidem tenuitatem potissimum. Est enim multis locis grandior; sed quia et privatas ille plerasque et eas ipsas aliis et parvarum rerum causulas scripsit videtur esse ieiunior, cum se ipse consulto ad minutarum genera causarum limaverit. He therefore prefers Demosthenes as a model on account of his power: ib. §10 ita fit ut Demosthenes certe possit summisse dicere, elate Lysias fortasse non possit.
Lysias was the favourite model of those who at Rome, in Cicero’s time, sought to bring about the revival of Atticism. The unaffected simplicity of his diction, his purity, lucidity, and naturalness amply entitled him to this distinction. Dionysius’ criticism is most appreciative: he praises the style of Lysias ‘not only for its purity of diction, its moderation in metaphor, its perspicuity, its conciseness, its terseness, its vividness, its truth to character, its perfect appropriateness, and its winning persuasiveness; but also for a nameless and indefinable charm, which he compares to the bloom of a beautiful face, to the harmony of musical tones, or to perfect rhythm in the marking of time’—v. de Lysia xi, xii.: Sandys, Introd. to Orator, p. xvi.
I:79 Isocrates in diverso genere dicendi nitidus et comptus et palaestrae quam pugnae magis accommodatus omnes dicendi veneres sectatus est, nec immerito: auditoriis enim se, non iudiciis compararat: in inventione facilis, honesti studiosus, in compositione adeo diligens ut cura eius reprehendatur.
§ 79. Isocrates, the most celebrated of all the ancient teachers of rhetoric, and called the father of eloquence (ille pater eloquentiae, de Orat. ii. §10) from the number of orators produced by his school. His home is described as being a school of eloquence and manufactory of rhetoric for the whole of Greece, from which, as from the Trojan horse, there came forth heroes only: Brut. §32 Isocrates, cuius domus cunctae Graeciae quasi ludus quidam patuit atque officina dicendi: de Orat. ii. §94 cuius e ludo tamquam ex equo Troiano meri principes exierunt: Orat. §40 domus eius officina habita eloquentiae est. He is said to have died of voluntary starvation shortly after the battle of Chaeronea (338 B.C.) at the advanced age of 97. The story of his death is examined by Jebb, ii. 31.
in diverso genere dicendi. The pupil of Gorgias, according to Aristotle (v. Quint, iii. 1, 13), Isocrates worked out his master’s theory of elaborately ornate and rhythmical style of composition. His is not the subtile genus of which Lysias is the best representative: suavitas (‘smoothness’) rather than subtilitas (‘plainness’) is his chief characteristic (de Orat. iii. §28). He carefully cultivated the period, to which he gave a large and luxuriant expansion: Or. §40 primus instituit dilatare verbis et mollioribus numeris explere sententias: Dion. de Isocr. 13, p. 561 R ὁ τῶν περιόδων ῥυθμός, ἐκ παντὸς διώκων τὸ γλαφυρόν. In comparing him with Lysias (de Isocr. ii.-iii.), Dion. notes that his style is less terse and compact, and characterised by a kind of opulent diffuseness (κεχυμένη πλουσίως), as well as by a more free use of metaphor and other tropes.
nitidus: its opposite is sordidus (viii. 3, 49): cp. Brut. §238 non valde nitens sed plane horrida oratio. So nitidum et laetum (genus verborum) de Orat. i. §81: where Wilkins says the word is used ‘especially of things which are bright, because of the pains bestowed on them,’ and cps. Hor. Ep. i. 4, 15 ‘nitidum bene curata cute vises.’ There is the same opposition between niddus and horridus Orat. §36: squalidus, ibid. §115: cp. de Orat. iii §51 ita de horridis rebus nitida ... est oratio tua: de Legg. i. 2, 6 (of Caelius Antipater) habuitque vires agrestes ille quidem atque horridas, sine nitore et palaestra: Brut. §238 (of C. Macer) non valde nitens, non plane horrida oratio.
comptus—κομψεύεται, Dion. Ἀρχ. κρ.: cp. viii. 3, 42 non quia comi expolirique non debeat (oratio). With nitidus et comptus cp. Cicero’s statement that he had lavished on a Greek version of the story of his consulship, ‘all the fragrant essences of Isocrates and all the little perfume-boxes of his pupils’: totum Isocrati μυροθήκιον atque omnes eius discipulorum arculas, ad Att. ii. 1, §1.
palaestrae quam pugnae: Cp. Orat. §42 of epideictic oratory (dulce ... orationis genus) pompae quam pugnae aptius gymnasiis et palaestrae dicatum, spretum et pulsum foro: de Orat. i. §81 nitidum quoddam genus est verborum et laetum et palaestrae magis et olei quam huius civilis turbae ac fori. So of Demetrius non tam armis institutus quam palaestrae, Brut. §37. For the meaning cp. ibid. §32 forensi luce caruit intraque parietes aluit eam gloriam. Isocrates had not the vigorous compression of style necessary for real contests, πανηγυρικώτερος ἐστι μᾶλλον ἢ δικανικώτερος ... καὶ πομπικός ἐστι ... οὐ μὴν ἀγωνιστικός Dion. Ἀρχ. κρ., p. 432 R: Pseudo-Plut. Vit. X Or. p. 845 (Φιλιππος) ἐκάλει τοὺς μὲν αὐτοῦ (Δημοσθένους) λόγους ὁμοίους τοῖς στρατιώταις διὰ τὴν πομπικὴν δύναμιν, τοὺς δ᾽ Ἰσοκράτους τοῖς ἀθληταῖς. For the figure involved in pugnae (ἀγών) cp. §§29, 31: 3, 3: 5, 17. Cicero says the pupils of Isocrates were great alike on parade and in actual combat: eorum partim in pompa partim in acie illustres esse voluerunt, de Orat. §94. See Jebb, ii. 70-71.
veneres: in this sense only in poetry and post-Augustan prose, and generally in the singular. Cp. Hor. Ars Poet. 320 Fabula nullius veneris sine pondere et arte. Cp. §100 illam solis concessam Atticis venerem: vi. 3, 18 venustum esse quod cum gratia quadam et venere dicatur apparet: iv. 2, 116 narrationem ... omni qua potest gratia et venere exornandam puto: Seneca, de Benef. ii. 28, 2 habuit suam venerem: Plin. 35, 10, 36 §79 (of paintings) deesse iis unam illam suam venerem dicebat quam Graeci charita vocant.
sectatus est: cp. Dion. de Isocr. 2, p. 538 R ὁ γὰρ ἀνὴρ οὗτος τὴν εὐέπειαν ἐκ παντὸς διώκει, καὶ τοῦ γλαφυρῶς λέγειν στοχάζεται μᾶλλον ἢ τοῦ ἀφελῶς. There is a certain elaborate affectation about Isocrates: what in Lysias is the gift of nature he attempts to gain by the aid of art,—πέφυκε γὰρ ἡ Λυσίου λέξις ἔχειν τὸ χαρίεν, ἡ δ᾽ Ἰσοκράτους βούλεται ibid. p. 541. For the whole passage cp. Orat. §38 In Panathenaico autem (§§1, 2) Isocrates ea se studiose consectatum fatetur; non enim ad iudiciorum certamen sed ad voluptatem aurium scripserat.
nec immerito: see on §27.
auditoriis ... non iudiciis: cp. §36: Dion, de Isocr. 2, p. 539 R ἀναγνώσεώς τε μᾶλλον οἰκειότερός ἐστιν ἢ ῥήσεως‧ τοιγάρτοι τὰς μὲν ἐπιδείξεις τὰς ἐν ταῖς πανηγύρεσι καὶ τὴν ἐκ χειρὸς θεωρίαν φέρουσιν αὐτοῦ οἱ λόγοι, τοὺς δ᾽ ἐν ἐκκλησίαις καὶ δικαστηρίοις ἀγῶνας οὐχ ὑπομένουσι Aristotle, Rhet. i. a 9 (p. 1368 a) διὰ τὴν ἀσυνήθείαν τοῦ δικολογεῖν. Isocrates himself tells us that it was his weakness of utterance and timidity of disposition that precluded him from public appearances: Panath. §10 οὕτω γὰρ ἐνδεὴς ἀμφοτέρων ἐγενόμην, φωνῆς ἱκανῆς καὶ τόλμης, ὡς οὐκ οἶδ᾽ εἰ τις ἀλλος τῶν πολιτῶν. Cp. Cic. de Rep. iii. 30, 42 duas sibi res quominus in volgus et in foro diceret confidentiam et vocem defuisse: Plin. Ep. vi. 29, 6 infirmitate vocis, mollitie frontis, ne in publico diceret impediebatur. Moreover he laid claim to being a teacher of morality; and looking on rhetoric as the highest and most important branch of education, he spoke with contempt of those who wrote for the law-courts, and with whom victory was the only object: Jebb, ii. p. 7 and p. 43: Isocr. Panegyr. §11 with Sandys’ note.
inventione: here Dionysius says he is in no way inferior to Lysias: ἡ μὲν εὕρεσις τῶν ἐνθυμημάτων ἡ πρὸς ἕκαστον ἁρμόττουσα πρᾶγμα πολλὴ καὶ πυκνὴ καὶ οὐδὲν ἐκείνης (sc. Lysiae) λειπομένη Iud. de Isocr. 4, p. 452 R.
honesti studiosus. This may refer to the diction of Isocrates: cp. Dion. Iud. 2, p. 538 R, where his λέξις is said to be ἠθική τε καὶ πιθανή: and again de Dem. p. 963. Cp. ix. 4, 146-7, on which Becher mainly relies for his proposal (supported by Hirt. Berl. Jahr. xiv. 1888, p. 59) to take ‘honesti studiosus in compositione’ together: compositio debet esse honesta, iucunda, varia ... cura ita magna ut sentiendi atque eloquendi prior sit: so viii. 3, 16. But two considerations seem to prove the correctness of the traditional interpretation and punctuation: (1) the ascription of honestum (in an ethical sense) to Isocrates is peculiarly appropriate, and the word is constantly used in this sense by Quintilian (see Bonn. Lex. s.v. ii γ): and (2) diligens could hardly stand alone, divorced from in compositione: and moreover a similar expression (in compositione adeo diligens, &c.) is used by Dionysius, ἐν τῇ συνθέσει τῶν ὀνομάτων ... Ἰσοκράτην περιεργότερον (de Isocr. Iud. 11, p. 557 R): cp. p. 538. There is a similar criticism at §118 in cura verborum nimius et compositione nonnumquam longior.
As to (1) cp. Jebb, ii. pp. 44-5. The high moral tone of Isocrates is seen both in his choice of noble themes and in the care with which he ever keeps the higher aspects of his subject in view. Dion. Iud. 4, p. 543 R μάλιστα δ᾽ ἡ προαίρεσις ἡ τῶν λόγων περὶ οὓς ἐσπούδαζε καὶ τῶν ὑποθέσεων τὸ κάλλος ἐν αἷς ἐποιεῖτο τὰς διατριβάς‧ ἐξ ὧν οὐ λέγειν δεινοὺς μόνον ἀπεργάσαιτ᾽ ἂν τοὺς προσέχοντας αὐτῷ τὸν νοῦν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ ἤθη σπουδαίους ... κράτιστα γὰρ δὴ παιδεύματα πρὸς ἀρετὴν ἐν τοῖς Ἰσοκράτους ἐστὶν εὑρεῖν λόγοις. (2) Though Becher points to the chiasmus obtained by punctuating ‘in inventione facilis, honesti studiosus in compositione’ (cp. §97: Bonn. Lex. pr. lxviii) the rhythm of the sentence tells the other way; and to his objection that the ethical point of view does not belong to the history of literature (especially when inserted between two such words as inventio and compositio) we can only answer that Quintilian is not an artist in style, and that the ethical tone of Isocrates is too characteristic to have been overlooked.
There is no need for Maehly’s conjecture ‘disponendi studiosus’: nor for Eussner’s proposal to invert the clauses and read ... ‘compararat, honesti studiosus: in inventione facilis, in comp. a. d.’ &c.: on the ground that honesti studiosus refers to the γένος ἐπιδεικτικόν of Isocrates, which is regulated by honestum, as the δημηγορικόν is by utile, and the δικανικόν by iustum.
compositione: §§44, 66; ix. 4, 116: quem in poemate locum habet versificatio eam in oratione compositio: ad Her. iv. 12, 18 compositio est verborum constructio quae facit omnes partes orationis aequabiliter perpolitas: Ἀρχ. κρ. p. 433 R, (Us. p. 28) καὶ αὐτοῦ μάλιστα ζηλωτέον τὴν τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐκλογὴν καὶ συνέχειαν. ‘Isocrates was the earliest great artist in the rhythm proper to prose,’ Jebb, ii. pp. 60-1. Cicero, Brutus §32 primus intellexit etiam in soluta oratione, dum versum effugeres, modum tamen et numerum quendam oportere servari: Orat. §174.
cura ... reprehendatur. This refers especially to his studied avoidance of hiatus: cp. ix. 4, 35 nimiosque non immerito in hac cura putant omnes Isocratem secutos, praecipueque Theopompum. So Orat. §151 in quo quidam Theopompum etiam reprehendunt ... etsi idem magister eius Isocrates—(with Sandys’ note). Dionysius (de Isocr. 2) contrasts in general terms his σύνθεσις (compositio) with that of Lysias, noting especially the point here alluded to: p. 558 R περιεργοτέραν, and de Dem. 4, pp. 963-4 R. Plutarch, de gloria Athen. p. 350 E πῶς οὖν οὐκ ἔμελλεν ἅνθρωπος (Isocr.) ψόφον ὅπλων φοβεῖσθαι καὶ σύρρηγμα φάλαγγος ὁ φοβούμενος φωνῆεν φωνήεντι συγκροῦσαι καὶ συλλαβῇ τὸ ἰσόκωλον ἐνδεὲς ἐξενεγκεῖν; Jebb, ii, pp. 66-7. With such excessive solicitude we can understand how Isocrates should have taken ten years to write the Panegyricus (4 §4).
The judgments of Cicero and Dionysius will be found conveniently summarised in Sandys’ Introd. to Orator, pp. xx-xxii.
I:80 Neque ego in his de quibus sum locutus has solas virtutes, sed has praecipuas puto, nec ceteros parum fuisse magnos. Quin etiam Phalerea illum Demetrium, quamquam is primum inclinasse eloquentiam dicitur, multum ingenii habuisse et facundiae fateor, vel ob hoc memoria dignum, quod ultimus est fere ex Atticis qui dici possit orator; quem tamen in illo medio genere dicendi praefert omnibus Cicero.
§ 80. ceteros: cp. on decem §76. The use of the word involves a reference to a recognised group, from which he has omitted Antiphon, Andocides, Isaeus, Lycurgus, and Dinarchus. So Dion. p. 451 R, after mentioning Lysias, Isocrates, Isaeus, Demosthenes, Hyperides, Aeschines, says οὓς ἐγὼ τῶν ἄλλων ἡγοῦμαι κρατίστους. Demetrius is evidently an addition by Quintilian himself, as is shown by the use of quin etiam.
Demetrius, of Phalerum, governed Athens, under Cassander, from 317 B.C. till he was overthrown by Demetrius Poliorcetes in 307. He fled to Thebes and thence to Egypt, where he died in 283, after assisting Ptolemy to draw up laws and found his famous library. In citing him after the Attic orators, Quintilian seems to follow Cicero, Brut. §37 Phalereus ... successit eis senibus adulescens, &c. The same order (Phalereus before Demetrius) occurs in Cicero, de Legg. iii. 14: de Orat. ii. §95: de Rep. ii. 2: Brut. §285.—For illum see on §17.
inclinasse: Brut. §38 (where primus has been used (Halm) as an argument against primum in the text, though Quintilian is only quoting from memory, as often, cp. §94): hic primus inflexit orationem et eam mollem teneramque reddidit et suavis, sicut fuit, maluit esse quam gravis. He impaired the strength of Attic oratory, depriving it of what Cicero calls its ‘sap and fresh vigour’ (sucus ille et sanguis incorruptus), and substituting an ‘artificial gloss’ (fucatus nitor): processerat enim in solem et pulverem, non ut e militari tabernaculo, sed ut e Theophrasti doctissimi hominis umbraculis. ibid. §37. Of all the orators who flourished after Demosthenes (when alia quaedam molliora ac remissiora genera viguerunt) he was the most polished: de Orat. ii. §95. He was more florid than Hyperides and Lysias, Brut. §285. In the Orator, §§91-2, Cicero says that his diction has a smooth and tranquil flow, and is also ‘lit up by the stars of metaphor and metonymy’: oratio cum sedate placideque labitur, tum illustrant eam quasi stellae quaedam tralata verba atque immutata. Cp. de Off. i. §3 disputator subtilis, orator parum vehemens, dulcis tamen, ut Theophrasti discipulum possis agnoscere.
multum ingenii ... et facundiae: Diog. Laert. v. 82 χαρακτὴρ δὲ φιλόσοφος, εὐτονίᾳ ῥητορικῇ καὶ δυνάμει κεκραμένος.
ultimus ... ex Atticis: Brut. §285 mihi quidem ex illius orationibus redolere ipsae Athenae videntur.
medio genere dicendi: the ‘middle’ style: see on §44. In xii. 10, 59 he says of this style ‘ea fere est ratio ut ... delectandi sive conciliandi praestare videatur officium’: with which cp. Cicero of Demetrius, delectabat magis Athenienses quam inflammabat.—Of the middle style generally Cicero says (Orator, §21) est autem quidam interiectus inter hos medius et quasi temperatus nec acumine posteriorum nec flumine utens superiorum, vicinus amborum, in neutro excellens, utriusque particeps, vel utriusque, si verum quaerimus, potius expers; isque uno tenore, ut aiunt, in dicendo fluit nihil adferens praeter facilitatem et aequabilitatem, aut addit aliquos ut in corona toros (‘raised ornaments’ or ‘knots’) omnemque orationem ornamentis modicis verborum sententiarumque distinguit.
praefert omnibus Cicero: de Orat. ii. §95 omnium istorum mea sententia politissimus: Orat. §92 in qua (sc. media orationis forma) multi floruerunt apud Graecos, sed Phalereus Demetrius meo iudicio praestitit ceteris.—For quem tamen see Crit. Notes.
§§ 81-84. Greek Philosophers:—
In this paragraph there is a correspondence between the criticisms of Quintilian and those of Cicero and Dionysius. In the Ἀρχ. κρ. (ch. 4, Us. pp. 26-7) the latter recommends the study of the Pythagorean philosophers (μεγαλοπρεπεῖς γὰρ τῇ λέξει καὶ ποιητικοί), holding up Xenophon and Plato as the best models, and eulogising also Aristotle and his followers: μιμητέον δὲ ... μάλιστα Ξενοφῶντα καὶ Πλάτωνα ... παραληπτέον δὲ καὶ Ἀριστοτέλη εἰς μίμησιν ... φιλοτιμώμεθα δ᾽ αὐτοῦ καὶ τοῖς μαθηταῖς ἐντυνχάνειν. Quintilian’s selection of Theophrastus is probably motived by the passage in Cicero, Orat. §2 (already quoted by him in §33): philosophi quidam ornate locuti sunt, siquidem et Theophrastus divinitate loquendi nomen invenit et Aristoteles Isocratem ipsum lacessivit et Xenophontis voce Musas quasi locutas ferunt et longe omnium, quicunque scripserunt aut locuti sunt, exstitit et gravitate et suavitate princeps Plato.
I:81 Philosophorum, ex quibus plurimum se traxisse eloquentiae M. Tullius confitetur, quis dubitet Platonem esse praecipuum sive acumine disserendi sive eloquendi facultate divina quadam et Homerica? Multum enim supra prosam orationem et quam pedestrem Graeci vocant surgit, ut mihi non hominis ingenio, sed quodam Delphici videatur oraculo dei instinctus.
§ 81. confitetur: xii. 2, 23 nam M. Tullius non tantum se debere scholis rhetorum quantum Academiae spatiis frequenter ipse testatus est: neque se tanta unquam in eo fudisset ubertas si ingenium suum consaepto fori non ipsius rerum natura finibus terminasset. In the Orator, §12, Cicero tells us he had got his oratory not from the narrow schoolrooms and mechanical workshops of the rhetoricians, but from the groves of the Academy, the real school for every kind of discourse: fateor me oratorem, si modo sim aut etiam quicunque sim, non ex rhetorum officinis sed ex Academiae spatiis exstitisse; illa enim sunt curricula multiplicium variorumque sermonum in quibus Platonis primum sunt impressa vestigia. Cp. Tac. Dial. de Or. §32. In the De Div. ii. §4 Cicero speaks of his rhetorical works as bordering on philosophy: quumque Aristoteles itemque Theophrastus, excellentes viri cum subtilitate tum copia, cum philosophia dicendi etiam praecepta coniunxerint, nostri quoque oratorii libri in eundem numerum referendi videntur.
praecipuum: cp. Orat. §62 (quoted above) longe omnium ... princeps Plato. So Dionysius ad Pomp. p. 752 R: de Dem. 41, p. 1083 R.
sive ... sive: cp. xii. 10, 26 quae defuisse ei sive ipsius natura seu lege civitatis videntur: Cic. pro Clu. §76. Sive is frequently used as a single disjunctive, to give one word as an alternative for another: i. 4, 20 vocabulum sive appellationem nomini subiecerunt: xii. 10, 59 delectandi sive ... conciliandi officium. Cp. too Cic. de Am. §100 ex quo exardescit sive amor sive amicitia—a kind of brachyology: de Orat. ii. §70 in hac sive ratione sive exercitatione dicendi,—a shorter formula than ib. §29 hoc totum, quicquid est, sive artificium sive studium dicendi.
divina. Cic. Tusc. Disp. i. §79 quem (Platonem) omnibus locis divinum, quem sapientissimum, quem sanctissimum, quem Homerum philosophorum appellat (Panaetius). Cp. Dion. de Dem. 23, p. 1024 R πάντων ... φιλοσόφων τε καὶ ῥητόρων ἑρμηνεῦσαι τὰ πράγματα δαιμονιώτατον..
Homerica: §86 ut illi naturae caelesit atque immortali cesserimus: §§48, 65.
prosam orationem et. The omission of et, proposed by recent editors, would make Quintilian give a rather useless synonym for prosa oratio, which (like prosa by itself) he often uses without explanation. Prosa oratio is used of prose as contrasted with verse (cp. xi. 2, 39 facilius versus ediscimus quam prosam orationem): pedestris oratio includes all composition of a prosaic order, not necessarily prose only: so Horace speaks of his Satires as Musa pedestris (Sat. ii. 6, 17): pedestres historiae in Car. ii. 12, 9 are prose histories: sermo pedester in A. P. 95 (tragicus plerumque dolet sermone pedestri) is homely language: cp. ib. 229, and Ep. ii. 1, 251. So Plato, Soph. 237 A πεζῇ τε ὧδε ἑκάστοτε λέγων καὶ μετὰ μέτρων: Aristoph. Fr. 713 παῦσαι μελῳδοῦς᾽ ἀλλὰ πεζῇ μοι φράσον. Palmer (on Hor. Sat. l.c.) cites also Luc. de Consecr. Hist. 8 πεζή τις ποιητική of a bombastic history: and adds ‘the metaphor is from a person soberly jogging on on foot, contrasted with the dashing pace of a mounted cavalier.’—For prose Cicero uses oratio soluta (Brut. §32) to which he opposes vincula numerorum (Orat. §§64, 77: de Orat. iii. §184).—Numerous examples of a similar use of et are cited, Bonn. Lex. s.v. et iii.
quodam Delphici, &c. See Crit. Notes. For quodam cp. §109 dono quodam providentiae genitus: xii. 11, 5 ductus amore quodam operis: ib. 10 §21: ix. 2, 76: and §82 below; and for Delphici ... dei Cic. de Legg. i. §58 cuius praecepti tanta vis ... est ut ea non homini cuipiam sed Delphico deo tribueretur.
I:82 Quid ego commemorem Xenophontis illam iucunditatem inadfectatam, sed quam nulla consequi adfectatio possit? ut ipsae sermonem finxisse Gratiae videantur, et quod de Pericle veteris comoediae testimonium est in hunc transferri iustissime possit, in labris eius sedisse quandam persuadendi deam.
iucunditatem: so Tac. Dial. 31. Dionysius’s criticism is fuller: καθαρὸς τοῖς ὀνόμασι καὶ σαφὴς καὶ ἐναργής, καὶ κατὰ τὴν σύνθεσιν ἡδὺς καὶ εὔχαρις: Diog. Laert. ii. 57 ἐκαλεῖτο δὲ καὶ Ἀττικὴ Μοῦσα γλυκύτητι τῆς ἑρμηνείας: Suidas Ξενοφῶν Ἀττικὴ μέλιττα ἐπανομάζετο: Brutus, §132 molli et Xenophonteo genere sermonis: cp. ibid. §292: Orat. §32 cuius sermo est ille quidem melle dulcior sed a forensi strepitu remotissimus: de Orat. ii. §58 leniore quodam sono est usus, et qui illum impetum oratoris non habeat, vehemens fortasse minus, sed aliquanto tamen est, ut mihi quidem videtur, dulcior.—For inadfectatus, see Introd. p. xlii.
Gratiae: for the form of expression cp. Orat. §62 Xenophontis voce Musas quasi locutas ferunt (x. 1 §33). So §99 below: Plin. Ep. ii. 13, 7: Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 27.
de Pericle. So xii. 2, 22: 10, 65: Pliny, Ep. i. 20, 17 nec me praeterit summum oratorem Periclem sic a comico Eupolide laudari ... πειθώ τις ἐπεκάθητο τοῖσι χείλεσιν κ.τ.λ. (The line is given in Kock’s Fragmenta 1, p. 281 πειθώ τις ἐπεκάθιζεν ἐπὶ τοῖς χείλεσιν: so Meineke ii. p. 458.) Brutus §38 quemadmodum de Pericle scripsit Eupolis: §59 πειθώ quam vocant Graeci, cuius effector est orator, hanc Suadam appellavit Ennius ... ut quam deam in Pericli labris scripsit Eupolis sessitavisse huius hic medullam nostrum oratorem (sc. Cethegum) fuisse dixerit. (Cp. de Orat. iii. §138.) The phrase of which this is the explanation (suadae medulla—the essence, marrow, of persuasiveness) is used again de Sen. §50: cp. Quint, ii. 15, 4. Horace has Suadela, Ep. i. 6, 38.
quandam, i.e. something which may be called persuadendi dea: cp. quodam below, and quibusdam §76: xii. 10, ii quadam eloquentiae frugalitate. See Crit. Notes.
I:83 Quid reliquorum Socraticorum elegantiam? Quid Aristotelen? Quem dubito scientia rerum an scriptorum copia an eloquendi suavitate an inventionum acumine an varietate operum clariorem putem. Nam in Theophrasto tam est loquendi nitor ille divinus ut ex eo nomen quoque traxisse dicatur.
elegantiam: §114: 2 §19: ‘chaste simplicity,’ Frieze.
Aristotelen. It is to be noticed that in both Dionysius and Quintilian, Aristotle comes after Plato and Xenophon: Ἀρχ. κρ. 4, (Us. p. 27) παραληπτέον δὲ καὶ Ἀριστοτέλη εἰς μίμησιν τῆς τε περὶ τὴν ἑρμηνείαν δεινότητος καὶ τῆς σαφηνείας καὶ τοῦ ἡδέος καὶ πολυμαθοῦς: Brut. §121 quis Aristotele nervosior? Orat. §172 quis omnium doctior, quis acutior, quis in rebus vel inveniendis vel iudicandis acrior Aristotele fuit?
scientia ... copia ... suavitate: Orat. §5 admirabili quadam scientia et copia: Topica 1 §3 dicendi incredibili quadam quum copia tum etiam suavitate: cp. de Inv. ii. §6.
acumine: see on §77.
nam has come to serve as a transition-formula: so §§9, 12, 50: 4, 4. It generally involves an ellipse: cp. Sall, Iug. ch. 19, 2: 31, 2: 82, 2: Cicero, Tusc. Disp. iv. §52.
Theophrasto. Brut. §121 quis Theophrasto dulcior? Theophrastus succeeded Aristotle in the conduct of his school B.C. 322, and died 287.
tam est loquendi nitor ille divinus ut. Becher takes tam closely with divinus, making tam divinus est the pred. and loquendi nitor ille the subj.: and so Krüger (3rd ed.). For the order of words he compares §122 habebunt magnam eos qui nunc vigent materiam vere laudandi, and adds (Quaest. p. 18) ‘omnino autem tenendum est perplexam et arcessitam verborum turbam magis quam ordinem (Bonn. Proleg. lxxviii.) aetatis argenteae scriptoribus in deliciis fuisse, quae intellectum legentium non tam adiuvet quam impediat.’ We might also cp. §76 tam nihil otiosum, and 7 §27. Even in Cicero a similar separation occurs: pro Cael. §16 nunquam enim tam Caelius amens fuisset: in Verr. v. §121 quis tam fuit illo tempore durus et ferreus. Kiderlin, however (Hermes 23, p. 109), challenges this explanation, contending that the words loquendi nitor ille divinus are obviously meant to be taken together, and that ille makes it impossible to join tam and divinus. He rejects as inappropriate the analogies cited from Brutus §58 (cp. §§174, 41): ad Q. Fr. i. 2, 3 §9 (atque ego haec tam esse quam audio non puto—where it has been proposed to insert a word): ad Fam. vi. 7, 1. But more weight should be attached to the following passages to which K. himself refers: Quint. ii. 16, 15 (sed ipsa ratio neque tam nos iuvaret neque tam esset in nobis manifesta, nisi, &c.) and viii. 3, 5 (et fulmina ipsa non tam nos confunderent si, &c.). Kiderlin however holds that all those passages differ from this, inasmuch as either there is a negative with tam, or it is joined with an adverb, or it follows quam immediately. He rejects Spalding’s tantus est, and proposes to read tam manifestus est: manifestus goes well with the preceding sentence, where Quintilian does not know which of Aristotle’s great points to praise most, while with Theophrastus there is no such doubt, since his loquendi nitor is so striking that he is said, &c. K. thinks that manifestus (which is a favourite word of Quintilian: see Bonn. Lex.) might easily have fallen out, as tam est and manifest are pretty much alike.—In support of the reading loquendi (for which Meister gives, by a misprint, eloquendi), Kiderlin points out that Quintilian probablv wished to translate φράζειν.
nitor: cp. §§33, 9, 79 (where see note on nitidus): Cicero, de Fin. iv. 3, 5 primum enim ipsa illa, quae subtiliter disserenda erant, polite apteque dixerunt, tum definientes, tum partientes, ut vestri etiam; sed vos (Stoici) squalidius; illorum (sc. Peripateticorum et Academicorum) vides quam niteat oratio. Of the Peripatetics generally he says (Brutus §120) in doctrina atque praeceptis disserendi ratio coniungitur cum suavitate dicendi et copia.
nomen traxisse: Orat. §62 siquidem et Theophrastus divinitate loquendi nomen invenit: Diog. Laert. v. 38 τοῦτον, Τύρταμον λεγόμενον, Θεόφραστον διὰ τὸ τῆς φράσεως θεσπέσιον Ἀριστοτέλης μετωνόμασεν.
I:84 Minus indulsere eloquentiae Stoici veteres, sed cum honesta suaserunt tum in colligendo probandoque quae instituerant plurimum valuerunt, rebus tamen acuti magis quam (id quod sane non adfectaverunt) oratione magnifici.
§ 84. Stoici veteres. See xii. 1, 24 sq. for a discussion of the various philosophical systems in regard to their fitness for oratorical purposes. For the comparative unfitness of the Stoic writers see esp. Cic. de Orat. iii. 18, 66: de Fin. iv. 28, 78 sq.: de Orat. ii. 38, 159. So too Brutus §114 (Stoicorum) peracutum et artis plenum orationis genus scio tamen esse exile nec satis populari adsensioni adcommodatum: §118 ut omnes fere Stoici prudentissimi in disserendo sint et id arte faciant sintque architecti paene verborum, eidem traducti a disputando ad dicendum inopes reperiantur.
quae instituerant: ‘their principles.’ De Off. i. 1, 1 praecepta institutaque philosophiae: de Am. §13: de Fin. v. 3, 7 scripta et instituta: Brut. §31 and esp. §119.
colligendo: ‘arguing,’ not necessarily here of the formal process of syllogistic reasoning. Cp. xii. 2, 10 ambigua aperire et perplexa discernere et de falsis iudicare et colligere et resolvere quae velis oratorum est.
rebus acuti: ‘shrewd thinkers,’ rather than masters of the grand style. For the constr. (where in Greek the pr. part. would have been used) cp. §80 vel ob hoc memoria dignum.
quod sane non adfect. Cp. Sen. Ep. 108, 35 illud admoneo, auditionem philosophorum lectionemque ad propositum beatae vitae trahendam, non ut verba prisca aut ficta captemus et translationes improbas figurasque dicendi, sed ut profutura praecepta et magnificas voces et animosas, quae mox in rem transferantur: sic ista ediscamus ut quae fuerint verba sint opera.