Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Book 6
Harold Edgeworth Butler, Ed.

[112] I may also add the words used by Cicero in a letter¹ to Caerellia to explain why he endured the supremacy of Caesar so patiently: “These ills must either be endured with the courage of Cato or the stomach² of Cicero,” for here again the word “stomach” has a spice of humour in it. I felt that I ought not to conceal my feelings on this point. If I am wrong in my views, I shall not, at any rate, lead my readers astray, since I have stated the opposite view as well, which they are at liberty to adopt if they prefer it.

IV. With regard to the principles to be observed in forensic debate,³ it might seem that I should delay such instructions until I had finished dealing with all the details of continuous speaking, since such debates come after the set speeches are done. But since the art of debate turns on invention alone, does not admit of arrangement, has little need for the embellishments of style, and makes no large demand on memory or delivery, I think that it will not be out of place to deal with it here before I proceed to the second of the five parts,⁴ since it is [p. 503] entirely dependent on the first. Other writers have omitted to deal with it on the ground perhaps that they thought the subject had been sufficiently covered by their precepts on other topics.