[23]
First there is οὐσία which Plautus calls essence, the
only available translation: under this category we inquire whether a thing is. Secondly there is quality,
the meaning of which is self-evident. Third comes
quantity, which was subdivided by later philosophers
as dealing with two questions as to magnitude and
number. Next relation, involving questions of competence1 and comparison. This is followed by when
and where. Then come doing, suffering and possessing,
1 See §§ 52, 68 sqq., 84–86, which make the meaning of translatio fairly clear. No exact rendering is satisfactory. Literally it means “transference of the charge”: the sense is virtually the same as that of exceptio (a plea made by defendant in bar of plaintiff's action). “Exception” is too unfamiliar and technical a term. “Competence,” despite its vagueness, is perhaps the least unsatisfactory rendering.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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