§ 17. vox, actio ... pronuntiandi ratio. Here actio takes the place of gestus in 7 §9, with the same meaning (the management of the person in speaking): adhibita vocis pronuntiationis gestus observatione. In a wider sense (§19) it is used of ‘delivery’ generally (ὑπόκρισις), occurring more commonly in this sense in previous writers than pronuntiatio, which Quintilian gives as an alternative term in iii. 3, 1: cp. xi. 3, 1 pronuntiatio a plerisque actio dicitur, sed prius nomen a voce, sequens a gestu videtur accipere. Namque actionem Cicero alias (de Or. iii. §222) quasi sermonem, alias (Or. §55) eloquentiam quandam corporis dicit. Idem tamen duas eius partes facit quae sunt eaedem pronuntiationis, vocem atque motum: quapropter utraque appellatione indifferenter uti licet. In xi. 3, 14 he goes on to divide actio into vox and gestus: cp. Dion. Hal. de Dem. 53, where ὑπόκρισις is divided into τὰ πάθη τὰ τῆς φωνῆς and τὰ σχήματα τοῦ σώματος: Cic. Brut. §§141, 239.—Pronuntiandi ... ratio. As voice and gesture (together making up actio or pronuntiatio in the wide sense) have now been mentioned, it is tempting to take this third item in the narrower meaning of ‘articulation,’ in which it occurs 7 §22 tardior pronuntiatio: cp. dilucida pronuntiatio xi. 3, 33: citata ... pressa ib. §111. But the prominence given to it (see on vel potentissima below) seems to make it necessary to understand pronunt. ratio in the widest sense of pronuntiatio (as probably §119), including voice, gesture, and other kindred elements; cp. ad Herenn. §3 pronuntiatio est vocis vultus gestus moderatio cum venustate: Cic. de Inv. §7 pronuntiatio est vocis et corporis moderatio. For accommodata ut see Crit. Notes.

vel potentissima: §15 potentiora. For the supreme importance of ‘delivery’ cp. the well-known story of Demosthenes xi. 3, 6 Demosth. quid esset in toto dicendi opere primum interrogatus, pronuntiationi palmam dedit eidemque secundum ac tertium locum, donec ab eo quaeri desineret, ut eam videri posset non praecipuam sed solam iudicasse. Cp. Cic. Brut. §142: de Or. iii. §213: Or. §56. Cicero’s use of actio for pronuntiatio in these passages is probably the origin of the misunderstanding of this anecdote that shows itself, e.g. in Bacon’s Essay ‘Of Boldnesse.’ Actio is far wider than our English word: for its scope and importance cp. de Orat. i. §18 (Actio) quae motu corporis, quae gestu, quae voltu, quae vocis conformatione ac varietate moderanda est: quae sola per se ipsa quanta sit, &c.

semel: ‘once for all’ 3 §22, and often; Cic. de Off. iii. §62 ut sibi ... semel indicaretur.

frequenter, as often in this sense in Quint. The lexx. give no example from Cicero, but cp. de Nat. Deor. i. 21, 59 Zenonem cum Athenis essem audiebam frequenter: de Fin. i. 5, 16 eos cum Attico nostro frequenter audivi: ii. 4, 12 hoc frequenter dici solet a vobis: v. 3, 8 qui fratrem eius Aristum frequenter audieris: Tusc. Disp. ii. 3, 9 Philo quem nos frequenter audivimus: Or. §221 non modo non frequenter verum etiam raro (Wilkins on de Or. ii. §155, 2nd ed.). Cp. Sandys’ note on Or. §81, where Dr. Reid adds ‘This sense is by no means as uncommon as it is usually thought to be. There are a good many exx. in the Letters.’ So Plin. Ep. i. 1, 1: ix. 23, 1.

suus cuique favor: ‘one’s preference for a particular speaker.’ Instead of the dat., we have ‘est naturalis favor pro laborantibus’ iv. 1, 9: Tacitus uses in and erga c. acc. (Hist. i. 53: Germ. 33.)

ille laudantium clamor. Ille again (§16) to denote something notorious: ἐκεῖνος. Ancient audiences were highly appreciative: Isocrates (Panath. §2) speaks of the antitheses, the symmetrical clauses, and other figures which lend brilliancy to oratorical displays, compelling the listeners to give clamorous applause (ἐπισημαίνεσθαι καὶ θορυβεῖν). Cp. xi. 3, 126 conveniet etiam ambulatio quaedam propter immodicas laudationum moras: §131: and see on §18 below. The references in Cicero are numerous: Brut. §§164, 326: de Or. i. §152 haec sunt quae clamores et admirationes in bonis oratoribus efficiunt: ad Att. i. 14, 4 Quid multa? clamores: Or. §§214, 168. Tac. Dial. 39 oratori autem clamore plausuque opus est et velut quodam theatro, with which Andresen compares Brut. §191 poema enim reconditum paucorum approbationem, oratio popularis assensum vulgi debet movere. Plin. Ep. ii. 10, 7: iv. 5, 1: ix. 13, 18.

extorquet: iv. 5, 6 cognoscenti iudicium conamur auferre. For the figure Mayor cps. de Orat. ii. §74 numquam sententias de manibus iudicum vi quadam orationis extorsimus.

§ 18. pudet dissentire: of Cicero §111 in omnibus quae dicit tanta auctoritas inest ut dissentire pudeat.

velut tacita quadam verecundia. Tacitus is used frequently of ‘unexpressed’ thought or feeling: Cic. pro Balb. §2 opinio tacita vestrorum animorum: Cluent. §63 tacita vestra expectatio. Cp. Or. §203 (versuum) modum notat ars, sed aures ipsae tacito eum sensu sine arte definiunt, where Sandys renders ‘by an unconscious intuition’: de Or. iii. §195 magna quaedam est vis incredibilisque naturae; omnes enim tacito quodam sensu sine ulla arte aut ratione quae sint in artibus ac rationibus recta ac prava diiudicant. On these passages Nägelsbach relies to prove that tacitus sensus (not inscius, insciens, nescius, imprudens, &c.) is the right equivalent for ‘the unconscious’—‘das Gefühl, das durch die Sprache nicht zum Ausdruck, mithin nicht zum Bewusstsein gekommen ist, also gleichsam stillschweigend in der Seele ruht.’ The correct Latin for Hartmann’s ‘philosophy of the unconscious’ is therefore ‘Hartmanni quae est de tacito sensu (hominum) philosophia.’ In proof of this the passage in the text is cited (p. 312) and translated ‘durch unbewusste Scheu,’ ‘owing to a sort of unconscious shyness’: cp. vi. 3, 17 urbanitas qua quidem significari video sumptam ex conversatione doctorum tacitam eruditionem, ‘unconsciously acquired’: xi. 2, 17 cum in loca aliqua post tempus reversi sumus quae in his fecerimus reminiscimur personaeque subeunt, nonnunquam tacitae quoque cogitationes in mentem revertuntur, ‘unausgesprochene, im Bewusstsein zurückgedrängte, unbewusst gewordene Gedanken.’

inhibemur ... credere. Cic. pro Rab. Post. §24 cum stultitia sua impeditus sit, quoquo modo possit se expedire. In classical Latin the infinitive is common enough after such verbs in the passive, and an object clause is often met with after prohibere even in the active: after impedire Cicero uses the infinitive only when there is a neuter subject: e.g. de Or. i. §163 me impedit pudor haec exquirere: de Off. ii. 2, 8: de Nat. Deor. i. §87.—For Quintilian’s preference for the infin. cp. §72 meruit credi: §96 legi dignus: §97 esse docti affectant: 2 §7 contentum esse id consequi: 5 §5 qui vertere orationes Latinas vetant. See Introd. pp. lv, lvi.

cum interim: with indic. as §111 below. This is the more common construction in Quintilian: Roby, 1733. Cp. i. 12, 3: ii. 12, 2: xii. 10, 67. So cum interea: Cic. Cluent. §82. The subj. occurs iv. 2, 57. Bonnell-Meister strangely say it = quin etiam here and §111. Translate ‘though all the time’ the taste of the majority is wrong, while the claqueurs will applaud anything. Cp. Crit. Notes.

vitiosa pluribus placent: i. 6, 44 unde enim tantum boni ut pluribus quae recta sunt placeant.

a conrogatis. The reference is to the claqueurs who were often brought together for a fee to applaud the speakers in the courts: iv. 2, 37 ad clamorem dispositae vel etiam forte circumfusae multitudinis compositi: Plin. Ep. ii. 14, 4 sequuntur auditores actoribus similes, conducti et redempti: manceps convenitur: in media basilica tam palam sportulae quam in triclinio dantur ... heri duo nomenclatores mei ... ternis denariis ad laudandum trahebantur. tanti constat ut sis disertissimus. hoc pretio quamlibet numerosa subsellia implentur, hoc ingens corona colligitur, hoc infiniti clamores commoventur, cum μεσόχορος dedit signum. opus est enim signo apud non intellegentes, ne audientes quidem: nam plerique non audiunt, nec ulli magis laudant.... scito eum pessime dicere qui laudabitur maxime. primus hunc audiendi morem induxit Largus Licinus, hactenus tamen ut auditores corrogaret: ita certe ex Quintiliano, praeceptore meo, audisse memini. Cp. Iuv. vii. 44 with Mayor’s note.

§ 19. gratiam ... non referunt: ‘a depraved taste will fail to give proper recognition to what is more than well spoken.’ For prava iud. cp. §125 severiora iudicia: so ii. 5, 10 iudiciorum pravitate: and §72 below, e contrario: see on ex proximo §16, and cp. Crit. Notes.

nec actionis impetu transcurrit: ‘does not hurry past us with the rapid swoop of oral delivery.’ For the active use see 5 §8 non enim scripta lectione secura transcurrimus sed tractamus singula, which gives the same antithesis as there is between this sentence and the next. For the abl. cp. diversitate 5 §10. See Crit. Notes.

sive ... sive: the subj. of the 2nd person represents the French on or Germ. man with the 3rd person. Cp. ix. 2, 69 ideoque a quibusdam tota res repudiatur, sive intellegatur sive non intellegatur.

repetamus et tractemus: subj. of command ‘we must go back on what we have read and revise (think over) it thoroughly.’ Cp. the antithesis in 5 §8 quoted above. Cic. Or. §118 habeat omnes philosophiae notos ac tractatos locos. See Crit. Notes.

cibos. Note the parallelism between mansos, liquefactos, and demittimus on the one hand, and mollita, confecta, tradatur on the other.—For mansos cp. de Or. ii. §162: qui omnes tenuissimas particulas atque omnia minima mansa ut nutrices infantibus pueris in os inserant. The word mandere (Eng. mange, manger) means originally ‘moisten,’ from root mand-, cp. mad-, madeo. Quint. xi. 2, 41 taedium illud et scripta et lecta saepius revolvendi et quasi eundem cibum remandendi.

digerantur, late Latin for concoquantur, xi. 2, 35 digestum cibum. Introd. p. 1.

lectio = ‘what we read.’

mollita. Herbst and Mayor cite Ov. Met. i. 228 atque ita semineces partim ferventibus artus Mollit aquis; and for confecta (‘chewed,’ ‘masticated’) Columella vi. 2 §14 (of oxen) multi cibi edaces verum in eo conficiendo lenti: nam hi melius concoquunt ... qui ex commodo quam qui festinanter mandunt: Pliny, N. H. xi. §160 (of the teeth) qui digerunt cibum (the incisors) lati et acuti, qui conficiunt (the grinders) duplices. Cp. Cic. N. D. ii. §134: Livy ii. 32, 10. Elsewhere it is used of the action of the stomach on food: Cic. N. D. ii. §137: Pliny N. H. xi. §180: viii. §72.

memoriae imitationique, ‘to the memory for (subsequent) imitation.’

§ 21. saepe enim: cp. xii. 9, 4.

praeparat: cp. iv. 2, 55 hoc faciunt et illae praeparationes, cum reus dicitur robustus, armatus, sollicitus contra infirmos, inermes, securos: ix. 2, 17.

actionis as below §22: 5 §20. Cp. Prima actio in Verrem, &c.

in summa: i.e. will not tell till the end is reached. Cp. iv. 2, 112 cur quod in summa parte sum actionis petiturus, non in primo statim rerum ingressu, si fieri potest, consequar? For summus = extremus, cp. §97 summa in excolendis operibus manus: see Introd. p. xlvi.

suo loco, ‘where they occur,’ not as 5 §23. To appreciate such points thoroughly, we must know their bearing on the whole argument.

ideoque very common in Quint. for itaque: §§27, 31, 102: 2 §§17, 26: 3 §§16, 25, 28, 33: 5 §§5, 16: 6 §§3, 5: 7 §15. So Tac. Dial. 31 ad fin.: Germ. 26.

repetenda as §19.

§ 22. illud, like ἐκεῖνο to introduce what follows: §67: 2 §7: 5 §11: 7 §32.

causas quarum orationes: Cic. de Senect. §38 causarum illustrium quascunque defendi nunc cum maxime conficio orationes.

utrimque, §131: 5 §20.

Demosthenis et Aeschinis. The reference is to the De Corona of Demosthenes and Aeschines Contra Ctesiphontem,—both translated by Cicero (Opt. Gen. Or. §14): also to the De Falsa Legatione and Aeschines Contra Timarchum.

Servi Sulpici: see on §116.

Messallae: see on §113.

pro Aufidia. From iv. 2, 106 it would appear that Messalla was prosecutor in this case: but in vi. 1, 20 that rôle is assigned to Sulpicius. Schöll has proposed to alter the text of the latter passage as follows: ut Servium Sulpicium Messalla contra Aufidiam ne signatorum, ne ipsius discrimen obiciat sibi praemonet. It is probable that the case concerned an inheritance.

Pollionis: see on §113.

Cassi: see on §116.

reo Asprenate. C. Nonius Asprenas, a friend of Augustus, was prosecuted by Cassius for poisoning, and was defended by Pollio, Suet. Aug. 56. In xi. 1, 57 Quint. urges that an accuser should always appear reluctant to press the charge, and adds ‘ideoque mihi illud Cassi Severi non mediocriter displicet: di boni, vivo, et, quo me vivere iuvet, Asprenatem reum video.’ Pliny (N. H. 35, 46) tells us that 130 guests were poisoned.

§ 23. quin etiam: see Crit. Notes.

minus pares, i.e. in point of rhetorical worth. For si ... aliquae cp. 2 §23: 6 §5.

recte requirentur, i.e. ‘it will be well to get them up.’

Ciceronis orationes: ‘pro Ligario,’ and ‘in Verrem.’ The former was impeached by Q. Tubero (B.C. 46) in respect of having sided with the Pompeians in Africa. ‘Cicero defended him successfully before Caesar in the forum (Plut. Cic. 39); the speech was greatly admired at the time (ad Att. xiii. 12 §2: 19 §2: 20 §2: 44 §3) and since, for, short as it is, it is often cited by Quint. and the other rhet. lat.’ (Mayor).

Hortensi pro Verre, B.C. 70. Nothing of Hortensius remains, so that posterity has not had the opportunity which Cicero hoped it would enjoy: dicendi autem genus quod fuerit in utroque orationes utriusque etiam posteris nostris indicabunt (Brut. §324). Quint. does not mention him among the Roman orators, §§105-122. His oratory depended greatly for its effect on his graceful delivery, and he was not to be judged by his written speeches: Cic. Or. §132 dicebat melius quam scripsit Hortensius: he ‘spoke better, i.q. was accustomed to speak better than he has written,—than he shows himself in his written speeches which are still extant’ (Sandys): cp. Quint. xi. 3, 8 where he extols his effective delivery and goes on ‘cuius rei fides est quod eius scripta tantum intra famam sunt, qua diu princeps oratorum aliquando aemulus Ciceronis existimatus est, novissime, quoad vixit, secundus, ut appareat placuisse aliquid eo dicente quod legentes non invenimus.’—For other references to the case of Verres, see vi. 3, 98: 5, 4.

utile erit scire: see Crit. Notes.

de domo Ciceronis. Cicero’s house was destroyed at the instigation of Clodius, after his banishment in B.C. 58. On his return he delivered his speech pro Domo Sua before the Pontiffs, and the senate decreed that his house should be restored at the public cost.

dixit Calidius. His speech must have been something more than a mere rhetorical exercise, as some have supposed: it probably argued the question before a tribunal in a different form. For Calidius see Brut. §274 non fuit orator unus e multis, potius inter multos prope singularis fuit, &c. Cp. xi. 3, 123 and 155: xii. 10, 11 subtilitatem Calidii (‘finished elegance’): ib. §37. He was born B.C. 97; was praetor 57; and died 47.

Brutus, M. Iunius (B.C. 85-42) justified in this speech the murder of Clodius, not (as Cicero had done) by the statement that Clodius had plotted Milo’s death, but on the ground that he was a bad citizen and deserved to die: iii. 6, 93. Other references are §123 and 5 §20.

egisse: to have actually delivered it: opposed to scripsit.

Cornelius Celsus: see on §124.

et Pollio et Messalla. The first et is not correlative to the second, but adds to the et pro Milone clause a third example, as the et before nobis pueris does a fourth. Spalding thought that et ... et was here = tam ... quam.

defenderunt eosdem: e.g. Liburnia ix. 2, 34.

nobis pueris: an autobiographical reminiscence. Cp. i. 7, 27: vi. 3, 57: viii. 3, 22-3: ib. 1, 31: x. 1, 86: viii. 3, 76: 5, 21: i. 5, 24: v. 6, 6.

Voluseno Catulo: not mentioned elsewhere.

Domiti Afri: see on §§86, 118. Of his orations, those on behalf of Volusenus and Cloatilla seem to have been the most celebrated: cp. viii. 5, 16: ix. 2, 20: 3, 66. For his work on Testimony, see v. 7, 7: and for his ‘libri urbane dictorum’ vi. 3, 42.

Crispi Passieni. He was the stepfather of Nero, according to Suetonius (Nero, 6), and died A.D. 49. In vi. 1, 50 we have a reference to a speech of his on behalf of his wife Domitia. Seneca, Nat. Quaest. iv. pr. §6 says of him ‘quo ego nil novi subtilius in omnibus rebus, maxime in distinguendis et curandis vitiis.’ In speaking of Caligula’s obsequiousness under Tiberius, Tacitus (Ann. vi. 20) says ‘unde mox scitum Passieni oratoris dictum percrebruit neque meliorem umquam servum neque deteriorem dominum fuisse.’ His father’s oratory is highly praised by M. Seneca, who ranks him after Pollio and Corvinus (Contr. 13, 17: Exc. Contr. 3 pr. 10, 14), and appears also to mention the grandfather (Contr. 10 pr. 11). Seneca the philosopher refers to the hereditary eloquence of the family in the epigram he addresses to Crispus: Maxima facundo vel avo vel gloria patri (vi. 9). Pliny, Ep. vii. 6, 11.

Decimi Laeli: probably the same as the Laelius Balbus who undertook an impeachment under Tiberius: Tac. Ann. vi. 47. In the next chapter we are told that the punishment which overtook him (deportation and loss of senatorian rank) was a source of satisfaction ‘quia Balbus truci eloquentia habebatur, promptus adversum insontes.’

ferebantur: ‘were in circulation,’ ‘were talked of’; cp. §129: 7 §30: vii. 224: i. pr. §7. Cic. Brut. §27 ante Periclem cuius scripta quaedam feruntur: Suet. Iul. 20: Tac. Dial. 10 ad fin.

§ 25. homines. Cp. Petronius 75 nemo nostrum non peccat: homines sumus non dei: ib. 130 fateor me, domina, saepe peccasse; nam et homo sum et adhuc iuvenis.

deteriora: cp. §127 sq. (of the imitation of Seneca’s faults): 2 §§15, 16.

facilius: Iuv. xiv. 40 quoniam dociles imitandis turpibus ac pravis omnes sumus. So Hor. Ep. i. 19, 17 decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile.

abunde, often used to heighten the force of adjs. and advbs. Cp. xi. 1, 36 abunde disertus: xii. 11, 19 abunde satis: Hor. Sat. i. 2, 59: Sall. Iug. 14: Liv. viii. 29. See on §94: and cp. §104.

vitia magnorum: cp. de Or. ii. §90 non ut multos imitatores saepe cognovi, qui aut ea quae facilia sunt aut etiam illa quae insignia ac paene vitiosa consectantur imitando—in eo ipso quem delegerat imitari etiam vitia voluit.

§ 26. circumspecto. So verba non circumspecta Ov. Fast. v. 539: also in Sueton., Colum., Seneca, and Val. Max. Cp. v. 7, 31: xii. 10, 23.

plerisque: see Introd. p. xlvi.

damnent. Strabo vii. 3, p. 300, in speaking of Callimachus, who censured Homer, περὶ ὧν ἀγνοοῦσιν αὐτοί, περὶ τούτων τῷ ποιητῇ προφέρουσι.

ac si: 2 §8. It almost = quod si: both relate to what has gone before.

alteram = alterutram: ‘on one side or on the other.’ Cp. ii. 6, 2: v. 10, 69 ex duobus quorum necesse est alterum verum (esse): i. 4, 24: ix. 3, 6. So also in Cicero: e.g. ad Att. xi. 18, 1: Acad. ii. 43. 132.

maluerim: see on fuerit §37.