[50]
But both the
last example and the last but one involve a different
figure as well, which, owing to the absence of
connecting particles, is called dissolution (asyndeton),
and is useful when we are speaking with special
vigour: for it at once impresses the details on the
mind and makes them seem more numerous than
they really are. Consequently, we apply this
figure not merely to single words, but to whole
sentences, as, for instance, is done by Cicero in his
reply1 to the speech which Metellus made to
the public assembly: “I ordered those against
whom information was laid, to be summoned, guarded,
brought before the senate: they were led into the
senate,” while the rest of the passage is constructed
on similar lines. This kind of figure is also called
brachylogy, which may be regarded as detachment
without loss of connexion. The opposite of this
figure of asyndeton is polyxyndeton, which is characterised by the number of connecting particles employed.
1 Only a few fragments remain.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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