§ 1. nobis ipsis opp. to extrinsecus: what we must provide for ourselves, by our own gifts and industry. There is, however, much to be said for Gertz’s conjecture e nobis ipsis, which gives a better antithesis to extrinsecus: cp. 5 §10 plurimum autem parari facultatis existimo ex simplicissima quaque materia.

stilus: see on 1 §2.

M. Tullius: de Orat. i. §150 caput autem est quod, ut vere dicam, minime facimus; est enim magni laboris, quem plerique fugimus: quam plurimum scribere. stilus optimus et praestantissimus dicendi effector ac magister; neque iniuria: nam si subitam et fortuitam orationem commentatio et cogitatio facile vincit, hanc ipsam profecto adsidua ac diligens scriptura superabit: ibid. §257 stilus ille tuus, quem tu vere dixisti perfectorem dicendi esse ac magistrum, multi sudoris est. Cp. iii. §190: Brutus §96 artifex, ut ita dicam, stilus: ad Fam. vii. 25, 2 is (stilus) est dicendi opifex.

L. Crassi. L. Licinius Crassus, B.C. 140-91, was the most illustrious of Roman orators before Cicero, who in the De Oratore seems to make him the mouthpiece of his own opinions. The other leading character in the dialogue is M. Antonius (B.C. 143-87), grandfather of the triumvir. For a parallel estimate of the two see Brutus §143 sq.

personam ... adsignando: cp. 1 §71 plures subire personas.

§ 2. alte refossa: see Crit. Notes. The meaning is that just as deep ploughing produces heavy crops, so progress that is not superficial (non a summo petitus) brings forth fruit more abundantly and secures its permanence. For the figure cp. i. 3, 5 non multum praestant, sed cito. Non subest vera vis nec penitus immissis radicibus nititur, ut quae summo solo sparsa sunt semina celerius se effundunt et imitatae spicas herbulae inanibus aristis ante messem flavescunt. For refodere cp. Lucan, iv. 242 tellure refossa: Plin. N. H. xix. 88 solo quam altissime refosso.

profectus: cp. §15 below, ad profectum opus est studio: i. 3, 5 stat profectus (‘growth’). The word does not occur in Cicero, though it is often used in the same sense by Seneca: e.g. Ep. 71, 35-36, nemo profectum ibi invenit ubi reliquerat ... magna pars est profectus velle proficere: 100, 11 ad profectum omnia tendunt. Quintilian frequently insists that it requires diligent and constant practice: e.g. ii. 7, 1 cum profectus praecipue diligentia constet.

a summo, i.e. from the surface, ‘superficial,’ as i. 3, 5 quae summo solo sparsa sunt semina. The opposite is ‘verus ille profectus et alte radicibus nixus,’ i. 1, 28. Cp. 2 §15. Other instances of such expressions are 1 §13 ex proximo: 7 §7 ad ultimum: §10 ex ultimo: 2 §16 in peius. See Introd. p. xlvii.

sine hac conscientia = sine huius rei conscientia, i.e. without the consciousness of diligent application in composition. In such expressions (frequent with words like cura, metus, spes, timor) the pronoun takes the place of a complementary genitive, suggested by what goes before: cp. i. 10, 28 haec ei cura, &c.: and below 7 §19.

verba in labris nascentia. Cp. Sen. Ep. 10, 3 non a summis labris ista venerunt; habent hae voces fundamentum.

§ 3. illic = stilo sive exercitatione scribendi.

sanctiore ... aerario. The reference is to the reserve treasure (aerarium sanctius) that was never touched except in great emergencies. It was kept in a vault in the Temple of Saturn. Caes. B. C. i. 14, 1: Livy xxvii., 10, 11: Macrob. i. 8, 3: Lucan. Phars. iii. 153 sq.

certaminum: so 1 §4 quo genere exercitationis ad certamina praeparandus sit. Certamen = ἀγών. Cp. 1 §§31, 106, &c.

proferantur: for the subj. (consecutive) cp. 1 §30: 3 §33: 5 §10.

et ... non: not neque, as the negative really connects only with the verb, while et serves simply to introduce usu. Cp. 7 §33.

§ 4. rerum ipsa natura: here of ‘nature’ as a creative agency: cp. §26 below: Munro on Lucretius i. 25.

praeposuitque. When it is clear from the context that there is an opposition, sentences and words of opposite meanings are often coupled (after a negative) not by a disjunctive but by a conjunctive particle, as here: cp. Cic. de Off. i. §22 non nobis solum nati sumus ortusque nostri partem patria vindicat partem amici: ibid. §86 neque opes aut potentiam consectabitur totamque eam (rempublicam) sic tuebitur ut omnibus consulat: Hor. Car. iii. 30, 6 Non omnis moriar, multaque pars mei Vitabit Libitinam. In each instance, however, the positive clause (que, et, atque) is an explanation of, rather than an antithesis to, the negative: the opposition is formal rather than real.

difficultatem. Cp. Hor. Sat. i. 9, 59 Nil sine magno Vita labore dedit mortalibus: Hesiod ἔργα καὶ ἡμέρ. 289 τῆς δ᾽ ἀρετῆς ἱδρῶτα θεοὶ προπάροιθεν ἔθηκαν: Soph. El. 945 πόνου τοι χωρὶς οὐδὲν εὐτυχεῖ, &c. Frag. 364 οὔτοι ποθ᾽ ἅψει τῶν ἄκρων ἄνευ πόνου: Epicharmus in Xenoph. Mem. ii. 1, 20 τῶν πόνων πωλοῦσιν ἡμῖν πάντα τἀγάθ᾽ οἱ θεοί.

quae maxime, v. ch. 5.

iam hinc ordinem sequar, i.e. ‘I shall now proceed to deal with these questions in their order.’ And so follows quomodo in chs. iii-iv, and quae maxime scribi oporteat in ch. v. The phrase is parallel to iii. 6, 104 nunc, quia in tria genera causas divisi, ordinem sequar: cp. ut ordinem sequar ix. 4, 33. In support of Obrecht’s reading hunc ordinem Kiderlin (Blätter f. d. Bayer, Gymn. 1888, pp. 84-5) urges that in the instances quoted for iam hinc (ii. 11, 1, and iii. 1, 1: add viii. 3, 40 iam hinc igitur ad rationem sermonis coniuncti transeamus, and hinc iam viii. pr. 14: ii. 4, 1) there is always a marked transition to a new subject, whereas here the preceding subordinate clause (cum sit ... oporteat) lays down the order that is afterwards followed.—But all that iam hinc means here is simply that the writer will now take the two questions he has proposed in the order stated.

§ 5. dum diligens, without a verb: cp. 1 §94 quamvis uno libro: Cic. Acad. ii. §104 sequentes tantum modo quod ita visum sit, dum sine adsensu: cp. Hirtius in Cic. ad Att. xv. 6, 3 dummodo diligentibus.

optima, i.e. both in thought and word.

protinus goes with gaudeamus, not with offerentibus, which can stand by itself: cp. 1 §§2 and 42. For offerentibus cp. on eminentibus 1 §86.

dilectus ... agendus. This may possibly be one of Quintilian’s military figures: xii. 3, 5 dilectus agere (of an imperator); Tac. Hist. ii. 16, 82, Agric. 7. But cp. also ii. 8, 7 studiorum facere dilectum: Tac. Dial. 22 verbis delectum adhibuit: Cic. de Or. iii. §150 in hoc verborum genere propriorum delectus est habendus quidam atque in aurium quodam iudicio ponderandus est: de Off. i. §149 habere dilectum civis et peregrini: ib. §49: de Fin. v. §90: Brut. §253 verborum dilectum originem esse eloquentiae.

ratio collocandi. For this periphrastic constr. see Nägelsbach §27 ad fin. (p. 130) and note on vim dicendi 1 §1. Cp. Cic. ad Quint. Fr. i. 1, 6, 18 sed nescio quo pacto ad praecipiendi rationem delapsa est oratio mea: pro Rosc. Amer. 1 §3 ignoscendi ratio ... de civitate sublata est.—Dion. Hal. unites ἐκλογὴ τῶν ὀνομάτων with σύνθεσις τῶν ἐκλεγέντων.

numeri: ix. 4, 45 numeros ῥυθμούς accipi volo. Cp. note on 2 §16.

§ 6. repetenda: we must go back on what we have just written.

praeter id quod: cp. 2 §26, and see note on 1 §28.

repetito spatio, i.e. ‘going back to take a spring,’ as is shown by what follows. He passes from the figure involved in calor ... refrixit, and anticipates the idea contained in the next clause: calor ... sumit impetum = calor ... denuo exardescit. Hild compares de Orat. i. §153 for a similar figure: ut concitato navigio, cum remiges inhibuerunt, retinet tamen ipsa navis motum et cursum suum intermisso impetu pulsuque remorum, sic in oratione perpetua, cum scripta deficiunt, parem tamen obtinet oratio reliqua cursum scriptorum similitudine et vi concitata.

quod ... videmus, ut. For a similar instance of the use of the pronoun to anticipate a dependent clause cp. 7 §11. The other two examples commonly given are rather cases of pleonasm, viz. 1 §58 and 5 §18.

conatum longius petant: ‘take a longer run.’ Cp. repetito spatio above.

ad illud quo contenditur spatium, i.e. jump the distance they aim at covering. Quo contenditur = lit. to which their efforts are directed.

retro tendimus. Cp. Verg. Aen. v. 500 Validis flexos incurvant viribus arcus.

§ 7. interim = interdum, v. on 1 §9.

danda sunt vela: ‘we must spread our sails before a favouring breeze’ (cp. quo ventus ferebat Caes. B. G. iii. 15, 3). So Ep. ad Tryph. §3 permittamus vela ventis et oram solventibus bene precemur. The figure is frequent in Cicero: quocunque feremur danda nimirum vela sunt Orat. §75: ad id unde aliquis flatus ostenditur vela do (i.e. set my sails to catch the breeze from a particular quarter) de Orat. ii. §187. So Martial (of Nerva’s modesty) Pieriam tenui frontem redimire corona Contentus, famae nec dare vela suae viii. 70.

dum ... non, instead of ne, as sometimes in poetry. Here the negative attaches closely to the verb: cp. §3. So xii. 10, §48 dum rem contineant et copia non redundent. Quintilian never uses dummodo: only dum, or modo. Si modo (si quidem), which Meister cites, is different: it expresses the limitation of a hypothesis.

dum nascuntur: cp. 1 §16 excipimusque nova illa velut nascentia cum favore ac sollicitudine.

nec for ne ... quidem: ii. 13, 7 alioqui nec scriberem: v. 10, 119 alioqui nec dixissem: ix. 2, 67 quod in foro non expedit, illic nec liceat (not in Cicero). For other instances see Bonn. Lex. nec η and neque ζ: Roby 2230b: Madvig de Finibus pp. 816-822.

facilitatem: abstract for concrete = quae facilius scripta sunt. Cp. initiis below, and 2 §2.

§ 8. Sallustium: see on 1 §101.

Vergilium: Aul. Gell. N. A. 17, 10 Dicere solitum ferunt parere se versus more atque ritu ursino. Namque ut illa bestia fetum ederet ineffigiatum informemque, lambendoque id postea, quod ita edidisset, conformaret et fingeret; proinde ingenii quoque sui partes recentes rudi esse facie et imperfecta, sed deinceps tractando colendoque reddere iis se oris et vultus lineamenta. So too in the Donatus Life of Vergil ix: Cum Georgica scriberet traditur cotidie meditatos mane plurimos versus dictare solitus, ac per totum diem retractando ad paucissimos redigere, non absurde carmen se ursae more parere dicens et lambendo demum effingere.

die, for in die. Cp. Hor. Sat. ii. 1, 3 putat ... mille die versus deduci posse: i. 4, 9 in hora saepe ducentos ... dictabat versus. So bisque die Verg. Ecl. iii. 34: Cic. pro Rosc. Am. 46 §132 in anno: ad Fam. xv. 16, 1 in hora.

Varius, see on 1 §98. His biographical sketch of his lifelong friend was entitled De ingenio moribusque Vergilii. Aul. Gell. (xvii. 10) speaks of the Amici familiaresque P. Vergilii in eis quae de ingenio moribusque eius memoriae tradiderunt.

§ 9. sollicitudinem: 1 §20 scribendi sollicitudinem: and §20, below, scribentium curam.

initiis = incipientibus: cp. 2 §2. So also ii. 4, 13 quatenus nullo magis studia (= studiosi) quam spe gaudent.

compositio: 1 §79: cp. §§44, 46. The three essentials are here enumerated: thought (res), language (verba), arrangement (compositio).

in officio: cp. viii. pr. §30 erunt in officio. As in a well-ordered establishment, he says, everything will be found fulfilling its proper function.

§ 11. officiis civilibus: ‘the duties of a citizen,’ here with special reference to legal practice and the advocacy of cases in courts of law: 7 §1: cp. Suet. Tib. 8 civilium officiorum rudimentis. The phrase in its widest application includes all the ‘civilities’ and attentions which one citizen may be expected to show to another, especially in the relation of patron and client: e.g. officio togae virilis interfui, Plin. Ep. i. 9 §2. Casaubon defines officium ‘cum honoris causa praesentiam nostram alicui commodamus’: for instances of its use in this sense cp. Plin. Ep. i. 5, 11: i. 13, 7: ii. 1, 8: Hor. Epist. i. 7, 8 officiosaque sedulitas et opella forensis: Sat. ii. 6, 24 officio respondeat (‘answer duty’s call,’ Palmer).

velint: potential, as often. The clause stands by itself, and there is no need for supposing the omission of the relative.

increduli quidam: ‘a diffident sort of people,’ ‘somehow afraid of themselves.’ For quidam cp. 1 §76. It is employed, as often by Cicero, to show that the word used is as near the author’s meaning as possible, though sometimes it is joined with an expression that is merely a makeshift: cp. τινες. It indicates an undefined degree of the adjective with which it is connected, and has sometimes a modifying, sometimes an intensifying effect: here the former is not so probable considering the strength of the phrase that follows, ‘sinning grievously against their natural gifts.’

diligentiam is pred.: supply esse. The subject is facere ... difficultatem.

§ 12. validius. Common in Quintilian: iii. 8, 61 verborum autem magnificentia non validius est adfectanda suasorias declamantibus, sed contingit magis: vi. Prooem. §8 quo me validius cruciaret: ix. 2, 76 quanto validius bonos inhibet pudor quam metus. The superlative is frequent in Pliny: e.g. validissime placere Ep. i. 20, 22: te validissime diligo iii. 15, 2: vi. 8, 9 validissime vereor: ix. 35, 1 validissime cupere. Cp. Caelias in Cic. ad Fam. viii. 2, 1 ego quum pro amicitia validissime facerem ei. Horace has valdius oblectat populam A. P. 321: cp. Ep. i. 9, 6.

omnia sua: cp. 1 §130 (of Seneca) si non omnia sua amasset: ibid. §88 (of Ovid) nimium amator ingenii sui.

narrasse: Quintilian always uses the perfect infin. after memini, even where the person who recalls the event was a witness of it. The rule is thus stated by Roby §1372 ‘Memini is used with the present (and sometimes the perfect) infinitive of events of which the subject himself was witness, with the perfect infinitive of events of which the subject was not witness.’ On this Dr. Reid has a valuable note de Amic. §2: ‘The rule may be somewhat more precisely stated thus: If the person who recalls an event was a witness of it, he may either (a) vividly picture to himself the event and its attendant circumstances so that it becomes really present to his mind’s eye for the moment, in which case he uses the present infinitive, or (b) he may simply recall the fact that the event did take place in past time, in which case the perfect infinitive is used. If he was not a witness, he evidently can conceive the event only in the latter of these two ways. As regards (a) cp. Verg. Ecl. ix. 52 longos cantando puerum memini me condere soles with Georg. iv. 125 memini me Corycium vidisse senem. Examples like the latter of these two are more numerous than is commonly supposed.’

Iulius Secundus, 1 §120.

§ 13. Iulius Florus is generally supposed to be identical with the individual to whom, as one of the comites of Tiberius Claudius in his mission to the East, Horace addresses (B.C. 20) the Third Epistle of the First Book: cp. also ii. 2. Horace indicates his young friend’s ability in the following lines (i. 3, 21) Non tibi parvum Ingenium, non incultum est et turpiter hirtum: Seu linguam causis acuis, seu civica iura Respondere paras, seu condis amabile carmen, Prima feres hederae victricis praemia. The scholiast Porphyrio tells us that he wrote satires: Hic Florus fuit satirarum scriptor, cuius sunt electae ex Ennio, Lucilio, Varrone satirae, ‘by which is meant, doubtless,’ says Prof. Wilkins, ‘that he re-wrote some of the poems of these earlier authors, adapting them to the taste of his own day, much as Dryden and Pope re-wrote Chaucer’s tales.’ There is, however, a chronological difficulty in the identification of the Florus who was a young man in B.C. 20 with the Florus who was the patruus of Iulius Secundus, a contemporary of Quintilian (aequalem meum), who died towards the end of Domitian’s reign before he had completed the natural term of life (si longius contigisset aetas 1 §120). Seneca (Controv. ix. 25, 258) mentions a Iulius Florus who was a pupil of Porcius Latro (fl. cir. B.C. 17). There is also the Gaulish nobleman who headed a rebellion among the Treveri, and afterwards committed suicide, A.D. 21 (Tac. Ann. iii. 40-42). Hild identifies this Florus with the one in the text: but it is absolutely impossible that the Florus who died in A.D. 21 can have seen Secundus (scholae adhuc operatum), who cannot have been born till about twenty years later.

in eloquentia. The genitive is more common with princeps: 1 §58: viii. 6, 30 Romanae eloquentiae principem: vi. 3, 1.

Galliarum. Eloquence flourished in Gaul under the Empire. At Lugdunum Caligula instituted (A.D. 39-40) a contest in Greek and Latin oratory (certamen Graecae Latinaeque facundiae, Suet. Calig. 20). Cp. Iuv. i. 44 Aut Lugdunensem rhetor dicturus ad aram.

quoniam introduces what is virtually a parenthesis, referring not to the whole sentence but only to Galliarum.

ibi demum: 1 §44: 2 §8: 6 §5. Here it leads up to alioqui (apart from this fact: moreover) (1 §64): it was in Gaul that he practised, but he would have shone anywhere.

alioqui: 1 §64. Here it = apart from this fact, even if compared with orators of other countries. Transl. ‘besides,’ and cp. Tac. Ann. iv. 37 validus alioqui spernendis honoribus: Hist. ii. 27: iii. 32. Other instances in Quintilian are ii. 1, 4: 15, 9: iv. pr. 6: v. 9, 11, &c.

inter paucos, ‘as few have ever been’: Livy xxii. 7, 1 inter paucas memorata populi Romani clades: cp. xxiii. 44, 4: xxxviii. 15, 9; Q. Curtius iv. 8, 7 in paucis Alexandro carus: cp. vi. 8, 2.

illa propinquitate, i.e. his relationship to Secundus, of whom Quintilian speaks with pride as a friend and contemporary 1 §120.

Is fuit ... Is cum: one of Quintilian’s negligences: cp. 2 §23.

adhuc = etiam tum, as Livy xxi. 48 Scipio quamquam gravis adhuc vulnere erat. Strictly adhuc is applicable to what continues up to the time of speaking: here of continuance in past time. Introd. p. l.

operatum: cp. Tac. Ann. iii. 42 nobilissima Galliarum subole liberalibus studiis ibi operata (v. 2): reipublicae Livy iv. 60, 2: conubiis arvisque novis operata iuventus Verg. Aen. iii. 136.

adductae. So adducere frontem Sen. Ben. i. 1: cp. attrahere frontem 6, 7: cp. contrahere frontem Cic. pro Cluent. §72. The opposite is frontem remittere: Pliny, Ep. ii. 5, 5. Cp. sollicitam explicuere frontem Hor. Car. iii. 29, 16. Obductus is used in a similar sense: cp. Hor. Epod. xiii. 5 obducta solvatur fronte senectus: Iuv. Sat. ix. 2 quare ... tristis occurras fronte obducta.

§ 14. Tertium diem ... quod. Quod does not here = ex quo, as it denotes not point of time, but duration: in the direct it would be quod non invenio, not quod (ex quo) non inveni. An exact analogy is Plaut. Amphit. i. 1, 148 (302) iam diu ’st quod ventri victum non datis (where, however, Fleckeisen reads quom, and is followed by Palmer). The commentators quote Pliny, Ep. iv. 27, 1 Tertius dies est quod audivi recitantem Sentium: but there quod = ex quo, just as ut is used for ex quo Stich. 29 Nam viri nostri domo ut abierunt hic tertiust annus. Nägelsbach (note on p. 167) says this construction of Quintilian’s was imitated not only by Pliny (l.c.), but by others: Schmalz, Antibarbarus, s.v. e, ex. It might, however, be argued that we ought to read quum (quomomni): C. ad Fam. xv. 14 Multi anni sunt cum M. Attius in meo aere est, and often elsewhere, e.g. de Off. ii. §75 (Roby §1723). If quod stands it must = ‘as regards the fact that he could find no exordium, it was now the third day’: cp. the German ‘es ist schon der dritte Tag dass,’ &c.

omni labore: a modal ablative, ‘in spite of every effort.’ There are two instances in Cicero of a similar use of the ablative, with the gerundive: pro Mur. §17 qui non modo Curiis, Catonibus, Pompeiis, antiquis illis fortissimis viris, sed his recentibus, Mariis et Didiis et Caeliis, commemorandis iacebant: = quamvis Curios, &c., commemorarent: de Off. i. 2 §5 quis est enim qui nullis officii praeceptis tradendis philosophum se audeat dicere? = quamvis non tradat.

materiae: cp. v. 10, 9 quo apparet omnem ad scribendum destinatam materiam ita appellari (sc. argumentum): ‘a theme on which he had to write.’ There seems no reason why materiae should not be taken as genitive, though Hild and others make it dative of the remote object of inveniret.

§ 15. sine dubio. This substantival use of the neuter adj. with prep. is frequent in Cicero, but does not occur in Caesar or Sallust. Nägelsb. Stil. §21: cp. Introd. p. liii.

ratio, ‘judgment’ (λόγος), such as rational human beings may be expected to show (cp. humano quodam modo, below). In this sense ratio and consilium are often found together. A parallel passage is ii. 11, §4 Quin etiam in cogitando nulla ratione adhibita aut tectum intuentes magnum aliquid, quod ultro se offerat, pluribus saepe diebus expectant, aut murmure incerto velut classico instincti concitatissimum corporis motum non enuntiandis sed quaerendis verbis accommodant.

resupini (‘with upturned face’) goes closely with spectantes tectum: cp. Martial ix. 43, 3 Quaeque tulit spectat resupino sidera vultu.

quod sit tempus. xi. 1, 46 Tempus quoque ac locus egent observatione propria; nam et tempus tum triste tum laetum, tum liberum tum angustum est, atque ad haec omnia componendus orator.

humano quodam modo, ‘in true human or rational fashion,’ i.e. without looking for inspiration to—the ceiling! Cp. instincti, quoted above, and 7 §14 deum tunc affuisse, &c. For quidam see §11.

§ 16. certa, fixed and definite, as belonging necessarily to the subject, and suggested at once by the thought of it. Pleraque is not limited to initia, though the next sentence is (unde incipiant).

non ... putemus: v. on 2 §27. Emphasis is secured both by the use of non for ne, and by its place in the sentence.

immutescamus, very rare for obmutescamus, Stat. Theb. v. 542 ruptis immutuit ore querelis: vi. 184.

alioqui. The condition implied in the word is here expressed in the clause which follows: cp. §30 below. Introd. p. li.

§ 17. diversum with the dat. (like contrarium) is common in Quintilian and later writers: Cicero has ab c. abl. Cp. Hor. Ep. i. 18, 5 Est huic diversum vitio vitium prope maius: Caesar B.C. iii. 30, 2 diversa sibi consilia.

silvam. This word is here used as a translation of ὕλη, properly timber for building, then, metaphorically, raw material, or as here ‘rough draft.’ Cic. Orat. §12 omnis enim ubertas et quasi silva dicendi ducta ab illis (philosophis) est, nec satis tamen instructa ad forenses causas: §139 quasi silvam vides: de Or. ii. 65 infinita silva: iii. 93 rerum est silva magna: 103 primum silva rerum (ac sententiarum) comparanda est: 118 qui loco omnis virtutum et vitiorum est silva subiecta: 54 ea est ei (oratori) subiecta materies (ὑποκειμένη ὕλη): de Inv. i. 34 quandam silvam atque materiam ... omnium argumentationum: Suet. Gram. 24 Reliquit non mediocrem silvam observationum sermonis antiqui (Probus). The philosophical definition of ὕλη; is given in Isidorus, Orig. xiii. 3, 1 hylen (ὕλην) Graeci rerum quamdam primam materiam dicunt, nullo prorsus modo formatam, sed omnium corporalium formarum capacem, ex qua visibilia haec elementa formata sunt.

componunt, of ‘arrangement’: cp. 1, §§44, 66, 79.

levitas, ‘superficiality,’ want of thoroughness and solidity: opp. to gravitas. Cp. 7, §4 manet eadem quae fuit incipientibus difficultas.—The improvement extends only to the verba and numeri, not to the substance.

§ 18. protinus = statim ab initio.

opus ducere: 5 §9 velut eadem cera aliae aliaeque formae duci solent: ii. 4, 7 si non ab initio tenuem nimium laminam duxerimus et quam caelatura altior rumpat. The same figure is used Hor. Sat. i. 10, 43-44 forte epos acer ut nemo Varius ducit. So carmen ducere Ov. Trist. i. 11, 18: iii. 14, 32: ex Pont. i. 5, 7: ducere versus, Trist. v. 12, 63. In all these the metaphor is originally from drawing out the threads in spinning: cp. Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 225 tenui deducta poemata filo: Sat. ii. 1, 3 putat ... mille die versus deduci posse. In reference to statuary we have Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 240 ducent aera fortis Alexandri vultum simulantia: Verg. Aen. vi. 84, 7 vivos ducent de marmore vultus.

caelandum, ‘chiselled,’ ‘filed’: Hor. Ep. ii. 2, 92 caelatumque novem Musis opus.

sequemur: so 1 §58 revertemur: 7, 1 renuntiabit: a common use of the future in rules. Warmth of feeling, he says, will often compensate for want of finish.

§ 20. impropria = quae significatione deerrant. Cp. i. 5, 46 dubito an id improprium potius appellem; significatione enim deerrat. On verba propria see 1 §6.

consequantur: i.e. such utterances do not come up either to the care with which one writes or the animation with which one speaks.

at idem ille introduces the second objection to dictation: §21 supplies a third and §22 a fourth.

incertior in intellegendo, i.e. not to be depended upon to understand what is dictated to him. See Crit. Notes. Against legendo it must be urged that the reference to reading is not very appropriate: the author would not be likely to call on the scribe to read what he had written, except at an appropriate pause, otherwise he would himself be to blame for the interruption to the ‘swing’ (cursus) of his thoughts.

offensator, a ἅπαξ λεγόμενον, whence the use of velut. It is employed here of one whose slowness or muddle-headedness is always bringing the author to a standstill. Cp. offensantes 7 §10.

quae erat: cp. §17 quae fuit levitas.

concepta mentis intentio, i.e. the thread of ideas. Concipere is of frequent occurrence in Quintilian: 7 §14: xi. 3, 25: ix. i, 16: ii. 20, 4: vi. 2, 33, &c. For the gen. cp. animi intentio i. 1, 34. The reading conceptae mentis (see Crit. Notes) is supported by i. 2, 29 praeceptores ipsos non idem mentis ac spiritus in dicendo posse concipere: the genitive would then be objective, as §23 below: perhaps ‘attention to the conceived thought.’

excutitur: Aristoph. Clouds 138 καὶ φροντίδ᾽ ἐξήμβλωκας ἐξευρημένην.

§ 21. quaeque ipsa: i.e. per se: so §23 below, quae ipsa delectant.

frontem et latus ... obiurgare. I venture to insert this conjecture in the text, as justified both by the MSS. tradition (see Crit. Notes) and by the context. Quintilian is speaking not of the gestures by which animation is imparted to an actual effort of oratory, but of such little mannerisms as the men of his day indulged in when in the throes of solitary composition,—just as they bite quill pens to pieces or scratch their heads now. For frontem obiurgare cp. Brut. §278 nulla perturbatio animi nulla corporis, frons non percussa, non femur, quoted xi. 3, 123: femur pectus frontem caedere ii. 12, 10: ut frontem ferias Cic. ad Att. i. 1, 1, though this last passage implies a more vexatious state of distraction.

obiurgare, i.e. caedere, ferire, plectere. Gertz objected to latus obiurgare on the ground that obiurgare by itself could not mean to ‘strike.’ We have ablatives in Pers.v. 169 solea puer obiurgabere rubra: Sen. de Ira iii. 12, 6 servulum istum verberibus obiurga: Suet. Calig. §20 ferulis obiurgari: id. Otho §2 flagris: Petronius 34 colaphis. But in all these the abl. is needed to define the meaning of obiurgare, while no one could mistake latus obiurgare.

leviter dicendi genus: cp. §17 levitas. The reference is to listlessness and carelessness of style, ‘not the kind that beats the desk or savours of the bitten nail,’—without earnestness or feeling.

nec pluteum caedit. The pluteus or pluteum is the back board of the ‘lecticula lucubratoria’ in which writing was done in a recumbent position. The quotation is from Sat. i. 106, where Persius pictures a drivelling versifier, listlessly pouring forth his verses without any physical exertion or trace of feeling.

demorsos sapit ungues: imitated from Hor. Sat. i. 10, 70, speaking of what Lucilius would do if he lived now: in versu faciendo Saepe caput scaberet, vivos et roderet ungues.

nisi cum soli sumus. This refers to practice only. A different point of view is stated in i. ii. §31, where Quintilian sums up in these words, Non esset in rebus humanis eloquentia, si tantum cum singulis loqueremur.

§ 22. ut semel ... dicam: 1 §17.

secretum in dictando. This is the fourth objection. Cp. 7 §16 cum stilus secreto gaudeat atque omnes arbitros reformidet. Hirt (Substantivierung des Adj. bei Quint.—Berlin, 1890) notes that this use of the nom. neut. standing by itself is not so common as other cases: he cites about a dozen instances, e.g. iv. 1, 41 honestum satis per se valet: v. 11, 13 dissimile plures casus habet: vi. 3, 84 inopinatum et a lacessente poni solet. See Crit. Notes.

protinus: see on 1 §3, §42.

aptissima in hoc. A poetical constr.: only here in Quintilian, instead of dat. or ad. Livy xxviii. 31 genere pugnae in quod minime apti sunt: Ovid Metam. xiv. 765 formas deus aptus in omnes.

nemora silvasque. Quintilian is speaking of oratory: poetry on the other hand may fitly seek its inspiration in solitude. Tac. Dial. ix. poetis ... in nemora et lucos id est in solitudinem recedendum est: cp. xii nemora vero et luci et secretum ipsum, &c. The poet’s love of retirement and the necessity for his being exempted from the fears and anxieties of the vulgar is in fact a commonplace in Latin literature: Horace, Car. i. 1, 30: 32, 1: iv. 3, 10 sq.: Ep. ii. 2, 77: A. P. 298: Ovid, Tristia i. 1, 41 Carmina secessum scribentis et otia quaerunt, cp. v. 12, 3: Iuv. vii. 58: Pliny ix. 10 §2 (to Tacitus) poemata quiescunt, quae tu inter nemora et lucos commodissime perfici putas: so for study of all kinds i. 6, 2; cp. ix. 36, 6.

beatiorem spiritum: i. §27, §44 (spiritus: cp. 5 §4 sublimis spiritus): and i. §61, §109 (beatus). Cp. dives vena in Hor. A. P. 409.

§ 23. hortator: cp. Liv. xxvii. 18, 14 foederum ruptor dux et populus: Cic. pro Mil. §50 ipse ille latronum occultator et receptor locus. Introd. p. xlv.

quae ipsa: §21 above. Cic. Tusc. Disp. v. 21, 62 iam ipsae defluebant coronae.

bona fide, ‘earnestly and conscientiously’: ut non fallat (sc. animus) sed officiis suis probe sufficiat (Wolff). The phrase is borrowed from the language of the law-courts, where it was applied to judicial awards made not according to any positive enactment but in equity. Cicero, de Off. iii. 61 et sine lege iudiciis, in quibus additur ex fide bona. See Holden’s note ad loc.

§ 24. late circumspiciendi. Wölfflin thinks that Quintilian designedly avoided such alliterations as ‘longe lateque circumspicere’: cp. Sall. Iug. 5, Tac. Hist. iv. 50. In viii. 3, 65 he has ‘vultum et oculos’ instead of ‘ora et oculos’: and ‘satis’ by itself, or ‘satis abunde,’ instead of ‘satis superque.’

remittere ... intendere: the figure is derived from the use of the bow.

§ 26. in hoc, i.e. for night work (= in hoc studiorum genere; viz. cum lucubramus).

frugalitas: regularity of life, in a wide sense (as moderatio, temperantia, σωφροσύνη): cp. xii. 1, 8 Age non ad perferendos studiorum labores necessaria frugalitas? quid ergo ex libidine ac luxuria spei? Cic. pro Deiot. ix. §26.

cum ... convertimus: the temporal signification of cum c. ind. passes here into the causal. Cp. i. 6, 2 auctoritas ab oratoribus vel historicis peti solet ... cum summorum in eloquentia virorum iudicium pro ratione, et vel error honestus est magnos duces sequentibus.—Becher on the other hand (followed by Krüger 3rd ed.) insists that the use is here exclusively temporal, and that the clause is merely a development of ‘cum lucubramus,’— the idea contained in the foregoing in hoc (sc. stud. genere).

cui: sc. labori scribendi.

inrogandum = impendendum, tribuendum.

supererit ... deerit. Tr. ‘only so much as would be superfluous for sleep, not insufficient.’ The meaning is clear: we must not encroach on the time necessary for the repose of mind and body,—‘not more than what is not needed for sleep, and what will not be missed.’ For what may seem a superfluous addition cp. 1 §115 si quid adiecturus sibi non si quid detracturus fuit: Verg. Aen. ix. 282 ‘tantum fortuna secunda Haud adversa cadat.’ The juxtaposition of compounds of esse is very common: esp. superesse, deesse. Asin. Pollio, ad Fam. x. 33, 5: Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 63, 2: Cic. in Gellius i. 22, 7: Val. Max. viii. 7, 2: Suet. Aug. 56 (Schmalz). See Crit. Notes.

§ 27. si vacet ... occupatos. The antithesis should be noted: the days are long enough when one has nothing else to do: it is the busy man who is driven to encroach on the night.

§ 32. contra = ex adverso. Space must be left for corrections and additions opposite to what has been written: there must be blank pages. Cp. contra 1 §114.

adiciendo, ‘for making additions,’ comes under the head of the ‘dative for work contemplated’ Roby §§1156 and 1383. So Tacitus constantly uses the dative of gerund or gerundive in a final sense after verbs and adjectives. See Crit. Notes.

aut certe, with no previous aut: cp. ix. 2, 94: 3, 60. For novorum cp. subitis 7 §30, and see Introd. p. xlvii.

confundant: potential. It states a possibility: faciunt a fact.

expertus with acc. and inf. is rare.

studiosum: 1 §45.

alioqui: see Introd. p. li.

versuum: 1 §38.

§ 33. locus ... loci. There is something of Quintilian’s not infrequent negligence of style in the repetition of the word, especially as by locus he means only ‘room,’ while loci are the different parts of the composition.

notentur, ‘jot down.’

inrumpunt, ‘break in upon us,’ with a force that is hard to resist (cp. memoriam sui intentos below).

sensus: ‘ideas’: viii. 5, 2 sententiam veteres quod animo sensissent vocaverunt ... sed consuetudo iam tenuit ut mente concepta sensus vocaremus, lumina autem praecipueque in clausulis posita sententias: 5 §5: 7 §6.

interim ... interim: frequent in Quintilian (see Introduction p. li.) for nunc ... nunc, modo ... modo.

optime sunt: §31 = optimum est eos esse.

inventione: ‘line of thought.’

in deposito: ‘in store,’ ‘in a place of safety,’ i.e. noted down: see Introd. p. xlvii. The phrase is borrowed from law: vii. 2, 51 depositi quaestiones, Pandects, xxxvi. 3, 5.