[24]
But it is important to enquire to what
extent tropes of this kind should be employed by
the orator. For though we often hear “Vulcan”
used for fire and to say vario Marte pugnatum est for
“they fought with varying success” is elegant and
idiomatic, while Venus is a more decent expression
than coitus, it would be too bold for the severe style
demanded in the courts to speak of Liber and Ceres
when we mean bread and wine. Again, while usage
permits us to substitute that which contains for that
which is contained, as in phrases such as “civilised
cities,” or “a cup was drunk to the lees,” or “a
happy age,”
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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