“
[33]
The above
include practically all the devices of thought which
may be employed for the adornment of our speech.
As regards diction, this may either be employed like
weapons for menace and attack, or handled merely
for the purpose of display. For example, sometimes
the repetition of words will produce an impression
of force, at other times of grace. Again, slight
changes and alterations may be made in words,
the same word may be repeated sometimes at the
beginning of a sentence and sometimes at the end,
or the sentence may be made to open and close with
the same phrase.1 One verb may be made to serve
the purpose of a number of clauses, our words may
be worked up to a climax, the same word may be
repeated with a different meaning or reiterated at
the opening of one sentence from the close of the
preceding, while we may introduce words with
similar terminations or in the same cases or
balancing or resembling each other.”
1 This appears to be the meaning of impetus and concursio, but there can be no certainty. The long list of technical terms which follows provides almost insuperable difficulty to the translator, since many can neither be translated nor even paraphrased with certainty. Quintilian himself is not always certain as to their meaning: see ix. iii. 90. For adiunctio, see Q's remarks on ἐπεζευγμένον Ix. iii. 62. conversio (§ 33) is illustrated by Auct. ad Herenn. iv. 19. by Poenaspopulus Romanus iustitia vicit, armis vicit, liberalitate vicit, while in § 34 it is a form of antithesis (e. g. “eat to live, not live to eat”). For revocatio verbi, see ix. iii. 44; for transgressio VII. vi. 62, for contrarium and immutatio see ix. iii. 90. declinatio is explained by Cicero in Orator 135 as occurring when we pass something by and show why we do so. reprehensio means correction of the expression as opposed to the correction of thought referred to above. For the obscure and perhaps corrupt clause quod de singulis rebus propositis duetum refertur ad singula see on IX. iii. 83. dubitatio is the hesitation between two expressions in contrast to the hesitation between two alternative conceptions. alia crrectio cannot be clearly distinguished from reprehensio; but cp. IX. ii. 60, paenitentia dicti. dissipatio is illustrated in IX. iii. 39. diiunctio is not to be confused with the disiunctio of IX. iii. 45. Here it refers to the conclusion of each separate proposition with its appropriate verb, and is the opposite of adiunctio (above). The meaning of relatio is unknown even to Quintilian (see ix. iii. 97), while he is doubtful as to the meaning of circumscriptio(see x. iii. 90);perhaps=periphrasis.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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