[12]
The pro Milone1 will give us an
example of argument from the greater to the less:
“They say that he who confesses to having killed a
man is not fit to look upon the light of day. Where
is the city in which men are such fools as to argue
thus? It is Rome itself, the city whose first trial
on a capital charge was that of Marcus Horatius,
the bravest of men, who, though the city had not
yet attained its freedom, was none the less acquitted
by the assembly of the Roman people, in spite of
the fact that he confessed that he had slain his
sister with his own hand.” The following2 is an
example of argument from the less to the greater:
“I killed, not Spurius Maelius, who by lowering the
price of corn and sacrificing his private fortune fell
under the suspicion of desiring to make himself
king, because it seemed that he was courting popularity with the common people overmuch,” and so
on till we come to, “No, the man I killed (for my
client would not shrink from the avowal, since his
deed had saved his country) was he who committed
abominable adultery even in the shrines of the gods”;
then follows the whole invective against Clodius.
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