[43]
Be this as it may, two epithets directly attached
to one noun are unbecoming even in verse. There
are some writers who refuse to regard an epithet as a
trope, on the ground that it involves no change. It
[p. 327]
is not always a trope, but if separated from the word to
which it belongs, it has a significance of its own and
forms an antonomasia. For if you say, “The man
who destroyed Numantia and Carthage,” it will
be an antonomasia, whereas, if you add the word
“Scipio,” the phrase will be an epithet. An epithet
therefore cannot stand by itself.
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