Those rugged names to our like mouths grow sleekThat would have made Quintilian stare and gasp.In his ‘Tractate on Education’ too Milton strongly recommends the first two or three books of theInstitutio. The 18th century provided the notable editions of Burmann (1720), Capperonier (1725), Gesner (1738), and witnessed also the commencement of Spalding’s (1798-1816), whose text, as revised by Zumpt and Bonnell, practically held the field till the publication of Halm’s critical edition (1868). Towards the close of last century it would appear that Quintilian was as much studied as he had ever been,—probably by many who believed in, as well as by some who would have rejected the application of the maxim ‘oratornascitur non fit.’ William Pitt, for example, shortly after his arrival at Cambridge (1773), and while ‘still bent on his main object of oratorical excellence,’ attended a course of lectures on Quintilian, which caused him on one occasion to interrupt his correspondence with his father30. His lasting popularity must have been due, not only to his own intrinsic merits, but to the fact that his writings harmonised well with the studies of those days: it was promoted also by the serviceable abridgments of theInstitutio, either in whole or in part, that were from time to time published,—notably that of Ch. Rollin in 1715. In our own day men whose education was moulded on the old lines—such as J. S. Mill—considered Quintilian an indispensable part of a scholar’s equipment. Macaulay read him in India, along with the rest of classical literature. Lord Beaconsfield professed that he was ‘very fond of Quintilian31.’ But by our classical scholars he has been almost entirely neglected, no complete edition having appeared in this country since a revised text was issued in London in 1822. German criticism, on the other hand, has of late paid Quintilian special attention, with conspicuous results for the emendation and illustration of his text: to the great names of Spalding, Zumpt, and Bonnell, must be added those of Halm, Meister, Becher, Wölfflin, and Kiderlin.Besides the literary criticism for which it has always attracted attention, and which will form the subject of the next section, the Tenth Book of theInstitutiocontains valuable precepts in regard to various practical matters which are still of as great importance as they were in Quintilian’s day. Among these are the practice of writing, the use of an amanuensis,the art of revision, the limits of imitation, the best exercises in style, the advantages of preparation, and the faculty of improvisation.The following list ofLoci Memoriales(mainly taken from Krüger’s third edition, pp. 108-110) will give some idea of the various points on which, especially in the later chapters of the Tenth Book, Quintilian states his opinion weightily and often with epigrammatic terseness:1 §112(p. 110) Ille se profecisse sciat cui Cicero valde placebit.2 §4(p. 124) Pigri est ingenii contentum esse iis quae sint ab aliis inventa.2 §7(p. 125) Turpe etiam illud est, contentum esse id consequi quod imiteris.2 §8(p. 126) Nulla mansit ars qualis inventa est, nec intra initium stetit.2 §10(pp. 126-7) Eum vero nemo potest aequare cuius vestigiis sibi utique insistendum putat; necesse est enim semper sit posterior qui sequitur.2 §10(p. 127) Plerumque facilius est plus facere quam idem.2 §12(ibid.) Ea quae in oratore maxima sunt imitabilia non sunt, ingenium, inventio, vis, facilitas, et quidquid arte non traditur.2 §18(p. 131) Noveram quosdam qui se pulchre expressisse genus illud caelestis huius in dicendo viri sibi viderentur, si in clausula posuissent ‘esse videatur.’2 §20(p. 132) (Praeceptor) rector est alienorum ingeniorum atque formator. Difficilius est naturam suam fingere.2 §22(ibid.) Sua cuique proposito lex, suus decor est.2 §24(p. 134) Non qui maxime imitandus, et solus imitandus est.3 §2(p. 136) Scribendum ergo quam diligentissime et quam plurimum. Nam ut terra alte refossa generandis alendisque seminibus fecundior fit, sic profectus non a summo petitus studiorum fructus effundit uberius et fidelius continet.3 §2(p. 137) Verba in labris nascentia.3 §3(ibid.) Vires faciamus ante omnia, quae sufficiant labori certaminum et usu non exhauriantur. Nihil enim rerum ipsa natura voluit magnum effici cito, praeposuitque pulcherrimo cuique operi difficultatem.3 §7(p. 139) Omnia nostra dum nascuntur placent, alioqui nec scriberentur.3 §9(ibid.) Primum hoc constituendum, hoc obtinendum est, ut quam optime scribamus: celeritatem dabit consuetudo.3 §10(ibid.) Summa haec est rei: cito scribendo non fit ut bene scribatur, bene scribendo fit ut cito.3 §15(p. 142) Curandum est ut quam optime dicamus, dicendum tamen pro facultate.3 §22(p. 146) Secretum in dictando perit.3 §26(p. 148) Cui (acerrimo labori) non plus inrogandum est quam quod somno supererit, haud deerit.3 §27(ibid.) Abunde, si vacet, lucis spatia sufficiunt: occupatos in noctem necessitas agit. Est tamen lucubratio, quotiens ad eam integri ac refecti venimus, optimum secreti genus.3 §29(ibid.) Non est indulgendum causis desidiae. Nam si non nisi refecti, non nisi hilares, non nisi omnibus aliis curis vacantes studendum existimarimus, semper erit propter quod nobis ignoscamus.3 §31(p. 149) Nihil in studiis parvum est.4 §1(p. 151) Emendatio, pars studiorum longe utilissima; neque enim sine causa creditum est stilum non minus agere, cum delet. Huius autem operis est adicere, detrahere, mutare.4 §4(p. 152) Sit ergo aliquando quod placeat aut certe quod sufficiat, ut opus poliat lima, non exterat.5 §23(p. 166) Diligenter effecta (sc. materia) plus proderit quam plures inchoatae et quasi degustatae.6 §1(p. 167) Haec (sc. cogitatio) inter medios rerum actus aliquid invenit vacui nec otium patitur.6 §2(p. 168) Memoriae quoque plerumque inhaeret fidelius quod nulla scribendi securitate laxatur.6 §5(ibid.) Sed si forte aliqui inter dicendum effulserit extemporalis color, non superstitiose cogitatis demum est inhaerendum.6 §6(p. 169) Refutare temporis munera longe stultissimum est.6 §6(ibid.) Extemporalem temeritatem malo quam male cohaerentem cogitationem.7 §1(p. 170) Maximus vero studiorum fructus est et velut praemium quoddam amplissimum longi laboris ex tempore dicendi facultas.7 §4(p. 171) Perisse profecto confitendum est praeteritum laborem, cui semper idem laborandum est. Neque ego hoc ago ut ex tempore dicere malit, sed ut possit.7 §12(p. 175) Mihi ne dicere quidem videtur nisi qui disposite, ornate, copiose dicit, sed tumultuari.7 §15(p. 176) Pectus est enim, quod disertos facit, et vis mentis.7 §§16-17(p. 177) Extemporalis actio auditorum frequentia, ut miles congestu signorum, excitatur. Namque et difficiliorem cogitationem exprimit et expellit dicendi necessitas, et secundos impetus auget placendi cupido.7 §18(ibid.) Facilitatem quoque extemporalem a parvis initiis paulatim perducemus ad summam, quae neque perfici neque contineri nisi usu potest.7 §20(p. 178) Neque vero tanta esse umquam fiducia facilitatisdebet ut non breve saltem tempus, quod nusquam fere deerit, ad ea quae dicturi sumus dispicienda sumamus.7 §21(p. 178) Qui stultis videri eruditi volunt, stulti eruditis videntur.7 §24(p. 179) Rarum est ut satis se quisque vereatur.7 §26(p. 180) Studendum vero semper et ubique.7 §27(p. 180-1) Neque enim fere tan est ullus dies occupatus ut nihil lucrativae ... operae ad scribendum aut legendum aut dicendum rapi aliquo momento temporis possit.7 §28(p. 181) Quidquid loquemur ubicumque sit pro sua scilicet portione perfectum.7 §28(ibid.) Scribendum certe numquam est magis, quam cum multa dicemus ex tempore.7 §29(p. 181-2) Ac nescio an si utrumque cum cura et studio fecerimus, invicem prosit, ut scribendo dicamus diligentius, dicendo scribamus facilius. Scribendum ergo quotiens licebit, si id non dabitur, cogitandum; ab utroque exclusi debent tamen sic dicere ut neque deprehensus orator neque litigator destitutus esse videatur.III.Quintilians’s Litary Criticism.It was the conviction that a cultured orator is better than an orator with no culture that induced Quintilian to devote so considerable a part of the Tenth Book to a review of Greek and Roman literature. He was aware that in order to speak with effect it is necessary for a man to know a good deal that lies outside the scope of the particular case which he may undertake to plead; and while the ‘firm facility’ἕξιςat which he taught the orator to aim could only be attained by a variety of exercises and qualifications, a course of wide and careful reading must always, he considered, form one of the factors in the combination.In judging of the merits of Quintilian’s literary criticism we must not forget the point of view from which he wrote. He is not dealing with literature in and for itself. His was not the cast of mind in which the faculty of literary appreciation finds artistic expression in the form in which criticism becomes a part of literature itself. We cannot think of the author of the Tenth Book of theInstitutioas one whom a divinely implanted instinct for literature impelled, towards the evening of his days, to leave a record of the personal impressions he had derived from contact with those whom we now recognise as the master-minds of classical antiquity. Quintilian writes, not as the literary man for a sympathetic brotherhood, but as the professor of rhetoric for students in his school. If, in thecourse of his just and sober, but often trite and obvious criticisms, he characterises a writer in language which has stood the test of time, it is always when that writer touches his main interest most nearly, as one from whom the student of style may learn much. In short, his work in the department of literary criticism is done much in the same spirit as that which, in these later days, has moved many sober and sensible, but on the whole average persons, conversant with the general current of contemporary thought, and not without the faculty of appreciative discrimination, to draw up a list of the ‘Best Hundred Books.’ Their aim, however, has been to guide and direct the work of that peculiar product of modern times, the ‘general reader’: Quintilian’s victim was the professed student of rhetoric.But this limitation, arising partly out of the special aim which he had imposed upon himself, partly, also, in all probability, from the constitution of his own mind, ought not to blind us to the value of the comprehensive review of ancient literature which Quintilian has left us in this Tenth Book. “His literary sympathies are extraordinarily wide. When obliged to condemn, as in the case of Seneca, he bestows generous and even extravagant praise on such merit as he can find. He can cordially admire even Sallust, the true fountain-head of the style which he combats, while he will not suffer Lucilius to lie under the aspersions of Horace.... The judgments which he passes may be in many instances traditional, but, looking to all the circumstances of the time, it seems remarkable that there should then have lived at Rome a single man who could make them his own and give them expression. The form in which these judgments are rendered is admirable. The gentle justness of the sentiments is accompanied by a curious felicity of phrase. Who can forget the ‘immortal swiftness of Sallust,’ or the ‘milky richness of Livy,’ or how ‘Horace soars now and then, and is full of sweetness and grace, and in his varied forms and phrases is most fortunately bold’? Ancient literary criticism perhaps touched its highest points in the hands of Quintilian.”32The course of reading which Quintilian recommends is selected with express reference to the aim which he had in view, and which is put prominently forward in connection with nearly every individual criticism. The young man who aspires to success in speaking must have his taste formed: when he reads Homer, let him note that, great poet as Homer is, and admirable in every respect, he is alsooratoria virtute eminentissimus(1 §46). Alcaeus isplerumque oratori similis(1 §63): Euripides is, on that ground, to be preferred to Sophocles (1 §67): Lucan ismagis oratoribus quam poetis imitandus(1 §70): and the old Greek comedy isspecially recommended as a form of poetry ‘than which probably none is better suited to form the orator’ (1 §65). With the prose writers Quintilian is thoroughly at home, and he nowhere lets in so much light on his own sympathies as in the estimates he gives us of Cicero (1 §§105-112) and Seneca (1 §§125-131). His criticism of Cicero is precisely what might have been expected from the general tone of the references throughout theInstitutio. Cicero is Quintilian’s model, to whom he looks up with reverential admiration: he will not hear of his faults. In his own day the great orator had been attacked by Atticists of the severer type for the richness of his style and the excessive attention which they alleged that he paid to rhythm. The ‘plainness’ of Lysias was their ideal, and they failed to recognise the fact that, with the more limited resources of the Latin language, such simplicity and condensation would be perilously near to baldness (cp. note on1 §105). Cicero they regarded as an Asianist in disguise; in the words of his devoted follower, they “dared to censure him as unduly turgid and Asiatic and redundant; as too much given to repetition, and sometimes insipid in his witticisms; and as spiritless, diffuse, and (save the mark!) even effeminate in his arrangement” (Inst. Or.xii. 10, 12, quoted on1 §105). That this criticism had not been forgotten in Quintilian’s own day is obvious not only from theInstitutiobut also from the discussion in theDialogus de Oratoribus, where Aper is represented as saying “We know that even Cicero was not without his disparagers, who thought him inflated, turgid, not sufficiently concise, but unduly diffuse and luxuriant, and far from Attic” (ch. 18). To such detractors of his great model Quintilian will have nothing to say, and in his criticism of Cicero he gives full expression to his enthusiastic admiration for the genius of one who had brought eloquence to the highest pinnacle of perfection (vi. 31Latinae eloquentiae princeps: cp. x.1 §§105-112: xii. 1, 20stetisse ipsum in fastigio eloquentiae fateor: 10, 12 sqq.in omnibus quae in quoque laudantur eminentissimum).With such an absorbing enthusiasm for Cicero, it was hardly to be expected that Quintilian would show an adequate appreciation of Seneca. Seneca’s influence was the great obstacle in the way of a general return to the classical tradition of the Golden Age, and this was the literary reform which Quintilian had at heart—corruptum et omnibus vitiis fractum dicendi genus revocare ad severiora iudicia contendox.1, 125. It is probable that, in spite of the appearance of candour which he assumes in dealing with him, Quintilian approached Seneca with a certain degree of prejudice33. Quintilian represents the literature of erudition, and hisstandard is the best of what had been done in the past: Seneca was, like Lucan, the child of a new era, to whom it seemed perfectly natural that new thoughts should find utterance in new forms of expression. Seneca’s motto was ‘nullius nomen fero,’—he gave free rein to the play of his fancy, and rejected all method34: Quintilian looked with horror (in the interest of his pupils) on a liberty that was so near to licence, and set himself to check it by recalling men’s minds to the ‘good old ways,’ and extolling Cicero as the synonym for eloquence itself. In such a conflict of tastes as regards things literary, and apart from the ambiguous character of Seneca’s personal career, it is not surprising that Quintilian should have been unfavourably disposed towards him. He had a grudge, moreover, against philosophers in general, especially the Stoics. They had encroached on what his comprehensive scheme of education impelled him to believe was the province of the teacher of rhetoric,—the moral training of the future orator35.He was morbidly anxious to show that rhetoric stood in need of no extraneous assistance: even the ‘grammatici’ he teaches to know their proper place (see esp. i. 9, 6). But it was mainly, no doubt, as representing certain literary tendencies of which he disapproved that Seneca must have incurred Quintilian’s censure. It is probable that in many passages of theInstitutio, where he is not specially named, it is Seneca that is in the writer’s mind: the tone of the references corresponds in several points with the famous passage of the Tenth Book36. In this passageQuintilian is evidently putting forward the whole force of his authority in order to counteract Seneca’s influence. He has kept him waiting in a marked manner, to the very end of his literary review: and when he comes to deal with him he does not confine his criticism to a few words or phrases, but devotes nearly as much space to him as he did to Cicero himself. In his estimate of Seneca nothing is more remarkable than the careful manner in which Quintilian mingles praise and blame. But the praise is reluctant and half-hearted: it is Seneca’s faults that his critic wishes to make prominent. He admits his ability (ingenium facile et copiosum§128), and even goes the length of saying that it would be well if his imitators could rise to his level (foret enim optandum pares ac saltem proximos illi viro fieri§127). But praise is no sooner given than it is immediately recalled. It was his faults that secured imitators for Seneca (placebat propter sola vitiaib.); if he was distinguished for wide knowledge (plurimum studii, multa rerum cognitio§128), he was often misled by those who assisted him in his researches; if there is much that is good in him, ‘much even to admire’ (multa ... probanda in eo, multa etiam admiranda sunt§131), still it requires picking out. In short, so dangerous a model is he, that he should be read only by those who have come to maturity, and then not so much, evidently, for improvement, as for the reason that it is good to ‘see both sides,’—quod exercere potest utrimque iudicium, ib.It has already been suggested that the secret of a great part of Quintilian’s antipathy to Seneca may have been his dislike of the philosophers, whom his imperial patrons found it necessary from time to time to suppress. He was anxious to exalt rhetoric at the expense of philosophy. But he was no doubt also honestly of opinion—and his position as an instructor of youth would make him feel bound to express his view distinctly—that Seneca was a dangerous model for the budding orator to imitate. His merits were many and great: but his peculiarities lent themselves readily to degradation. Quintilian wished to put forward a counterblast to the fashionable tendency of the day, and to recall—in their own interests—to severer models Seneca’s youthful imitators,—those of whom he writesad ea(i.e.eius vitia)se quisque dirigebat effingenda, quae poterat; deinde quum se iactaret eodem modo dicere, Senecam infamabat§127. Seneca was of course not responsible for the exaggerations of his imitators, and Quintilian would never have encouraged in his pupils exclusive devotion to any particular model, especially if that model were characterised by such peculiar features of style as distinguished Sallust or Tacitus. But he could not forgiveSeneca for his share in the reaction against Cicero37. Admirers of Seneca think that he failed to make allowance for the influences at work on the philosopher’s style, and that he judged him too much from the standpoint of a rhetorician. They admit Seneca’s faults—his tendency to declamation, the want of balance in his style, his excessive subtlety, his affectation, his want of method: but they contend that these faults are compensated by still greater virtues38. M. Rocheblave, who possesses the appreciation of Seneca traditional among Frenchmen, follows Diderot in inclining to believe that the philosopher was the victim of envy and dislike39. For himself he protests in the following terms against what he considers the inadequacy of Quintilian’s estimate: ‘Da mihi quemvis Annaei librorum ignarum, et dicito num ex istis Quintiliani laudibus non modo perspicere, sed suspicari etiam possit quanto sapientiae doctrinaeque gradu steterit scriptor qui in tota latina facundia optima senserit, humanissima docuerit, maxima et multo plurima excogitaverit, ita ut, multis ex antiqua morali philosophia seu graeca seu latina depromptis, adiectis pluribus, potuerit in unum propriumque saporem omnia illa quasi sapientiae humanae libamenta confundere? Credisne a tali lectore scriptorem vivo gurgite exundantem, sensibus scatentem, legentes in perpetuas rapientem cogitationes, eum denique quem ob vim animi ingeniique acumen iure anteponat Tullio Montanius noster40, protinus agnitum iri? ...facile credo pusillas Fabii laudes multum infra viri meritum stetisse (quod detrectationis sit tutissimum genus) omnes mecum confessuros’ (pp. 44-5).Whether they were altogether deserved or not, there can be no doubtthat the strictures made by so great a literary leader as Quintilian was in his own day must have greatly contributed to the overthrow of Seneca’s influence. There is more than one indication, in the literature of the next generation, that he is no longer regarded as a safe model for imitation. Tacitus, in reporting the panegyric which Nero delivered on Claudius after his death, and which was the work of Seneca, says that it displayed much grace of style (multum cultus), as was to be expected from one who possessedingenium amoenum et temporiseiusauribus accommodatum(Ann. xiii. 3). Suetonius tell us how Caligula disparaged thelenius comtiusque scribendi genuswhich Seneca represented; and here (Calig. 53) occurs a similar reference to a fame that had passed away,—Senecamtummaxime placentem, just as the elder Pliny, writing about the time of Seneca’s death, speaks of him asprincepstumeruditorum(Nat. Hist. xiv. 51). Later writers, such as Fronto and Aulus Gellius41were much more unreserved and even immoderate in their censure. And it is a remarkable fact (noted by M. Rocheblave) that the name of the great Stoic nowhere occurs in the writings of his successors, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. He who had been the greatest literary ornament of Nero’s reign disappears almost from notice in the second century.In regard to the general body of Quintilian’s literary criticism, the question of greatest interest for modern readers is the degree of its originality. How far is Quintilian giving us his own independent judgments on the writings of authors whom he had read at first hand? How far is he merely registering current criticism, which must already have found more or less definite expression in the writings and teaching of previous rhetoricians and grammarians? The circumstances of the case make it impossible for us to approach the special questions which it involves with any great prejudice in favour of Quintilian’s originality in general. The extent of his indebtedness to previous writers, as regards the main body of his work, may be inferred from a glance at the ‘Index scriptorum et artificum’ in Halm’s edition. In many places he is merely simplifying the rules of the Greek rhetoricians whom he followed. Probably he was not equally well up in all the departments of the subject of which he treats, and he naturally relied, to some extent, on the works of those who had preceded him. But did he take his literary criticism from others? Was Quintilian one of those reprehensible persons who do not scruple to borrow, and to give forth as their own, the estimate formed and expressedby some one else of authors whose works they may never themselves have read?In endeavouring to find an answer to this question, it will be convenient to consider Quintilian’s criticism of the Greek writers apart from that which he applies to his own countrymen, with whose works he mighta prioribe expected to be more familiar. The notes to that part of the Tenth Book in which he deals with Greek literature (1 §§46-84) will show too many instances of parallelism for us to believe that, in addressing himself to this portion of his subject, Quintilian scrupulously avoided incurring any obligations to others42. No doubt in his long career as a teacher he had come into contact with traditional opinion as to the merits and characteristics not only of the Greek but also of the Latin writers; and in the two years which he tells us he devoted to the composition of theInstitutio43he may still further have increased his debt to extraneous sources. It was in fact impossible that Quintilian should have been unaware of the nature of the criticism current in his own day, and of what had previously been said and written by others. But he is not to be thought of as one who, before indicating his opinion of a particular writer, carefully refers, not to that writer’s works, but to the opinion of others concerning them. The cases in which he reproduces, in very similar language, the verdict of others are not always to be explained on the hypothesis of conscious borrowing44. The coincidences which can be traced certainly do detract from the originality of his work.But we do not need to believe that, in writing his individual criticisms, Quintilian always had recourse to the works of others: he no doubt had them at hand, and his career as a teacher had probably impressed on his memory manydictawhich he could hardly fail to reproduce, in one form or another, when he came to gather together the results of his teaching.Literary criticism at Rome before Quintilian’s time is associated mainly with the names of Varro, Cicero, and Horace45. Varro was the author of numerous works bearing on the history and criticism of literature: such were hisde Poetis,de Poematis,περὶ χαρακτήρων,de Actionibus Scaenicis,Quaestiones Plautinae. Our knowledge of their scope and character is however derived only by inference from a few scattered fragments, and in regard to these it is impossible to say definitely to which of his treatises they severally belong. Quintilian’s references to his literary activity as well as his great learning (vir Romanorum eruditissimusx.1, 95), and the quotation of his estimate of Plautus (ib. §99), are sufficient evidence that he was not unacquainted with Varro’s writings. Cicero he knew probably better than he knew any other author: the extent of his indebtedness to such works as theBrutusmay be inferred from the parallelisms which occur in his treatment of the Attic orators (x.1, 76-80). He dissents expressly from Horace’s estimate of Lucilius (ib. §94): and the frequency of his references to other literary judgments of Horace (cp. §§24, 56, 61, 63) shows that he must have been in the habit of illustrating his teaching by quotations from the works of that cultured critic of literature and life.But the author with whom Quintilian’s literary criticism has most in common is undoubtedly Dionysius of Halicarnassus. It is true that in the Tenth Book he nowhere expressly mentions him; but references to him by name as an authority on rhetorical matters are common enough in other parts of theInstitutio46. Quintilian no doubt knew his works well, especially that which originally consisted of three booksπερὶ μιμήσεως47. The second book of this treatise has long been known to scholarsin the shape of a fragmentary epitome, which presents so many striking resemblances to the literary judgments contained in the first chapter of Quintilian’s Tenth Book, that early commentators, such as, for instance, H. Stephanus, concluded that Quintilian had borrowed freely from the earlier writer:multa hinc etiam mutuatum constat; quibus modo nomine suppresso pro suis utitur, modo addito verboputantsua non esse declarat. The parallelisms in question were fully drawn out by Claussen in the work mentioned above, though Usener justly remarks that he wrongly includes a good deal that was the common property not only of Dionysius and Quintilian, but of the whole learned world of the day: they will all be found duly recorded in the notes to this edition,1 §§46-84.The general resemblances between Quintilian and Dionysius are apparent in their order of treatment. In his introduction to theIudicium de Thucydide, the latter sets forth the plan of his second book in terms which present many points of analogy with the scheme of the Tenth Book of theInstitutio:ἐν τοῖς προεκδοθεῖσι Περὶ τῆς μιμήσεως ὑπομνηατισμοῖς ἐπεληλυθὼς οὓς ὑπελάμβανον ἐπιφανεστάτους εἶναι ποιητάς τε καὶ συγγραφεῖς ... καὶ δεδηληκὼς ἐν ὀλίγοις τίνας ἕκαστος αὐτῶν εἰσφέρεται πραγματικάς τε καὶ λεκτικὰς ἀρετὰς καὶ πῇ μάλιστα χείρων ἑαυτοῦ γίνεται ... ἵνα τοῖς προαιρουμένοις γράφειν τε καὶ λέγειν εὖ καλοὶ καὶ δεδοκιμασμένοι κανόνες ὦσιν ἐφ᾽ ὧν ποιήσονται τὰς κατὰ μέρος γυμνασίας, μὴ πάντα μιμούμενοι τὰ παρ᾽ ἐκείνοις κείμενα τοῖς ἀνδράσιν, ἀλλὰ τὰς μὲν ἀρετὰς αὐτῶν λαμβάνοντες, τὰς δ᾽ ἀποτυχίας φυλαττόμενοι‧ ἁψάμενός τε τῶν συγγραφέων ἐδήλωσα καὶ περὶ Θουκουδίδου τὰ δοκοῦντά μοι συντόμῳ τε καὶ κεφαλαιώδει γραφῇ περιλαβών, ... ὡς καὶ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἐποίησα‧ οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἀκριβῆ καὶ διεξοδικὴν δήλωσιν ὑπὲρ ἑκάστου τῶν ἀνδρῶν ποιεῖσθαι προελόμενον εἰς ἐλάχιστον ὄγκον συναγαγεῖν τὴν πραγματείαν.In like manner Quintilian, addressing himself throughout to young men aspiring to success as public speakers, enumerates the various authors who seem to be fit subjects for reading and imitation. While admitting that some benefit may be derived from almost every writer (1 §57), he confines himself to the most distinguished in the various departments of literature (§44paucos enim, qui sunt eminentissimi, excerpere in animo est); and even with regard to these he warns his readers, as Dionysius does, that they are not to imitate all their characteristics, but only what is good (1 §24:2 §§14-15).The order of treatment is almost identical in the two writers. First come the poets, with the writers of epic poetry at their head: these are not only named in the same order (Homer, Hesiod, Antimachus, Panyasis), but they are commended in very similar terms. But if Quintilian had been translating directly from Dionysius, it is very probable that he would have mentioned him by name, instead of concealing his obligationsby the use of such a phrase asputant(in speaking of Panyasis—see note on§54). If he goes on to add some criticisms which are not in Dionysius, viz. on Apollonius Rhodius, Aratus, Theocritus, and to mention also Pisander, Nicander, and Euphorion, it is with the express intimation that they do not rank in the canon fixed by thegrammatici,—the very reason for which these writers had been omitted by Dionysius. The Greek rhetorician says nothing of the elegiac and iambic poets mentioned by Quintilian,—the former in general terms (princepshabeturCallimachus,secundasconfessione plurimorumPhiletas occupavit§58), the latter with express reference to the judgment of Aristarchus on the great Archilochus (§59)48. In treating of the lyric poets, Quintilian mentions the number nine (§61), which Dionysius does not; but as regards the substance of his criticisms, he is again almost in exact agreement with his predecessor. Both refer to Pindar, Stesichorus, Alcman, and Simonides, with the trifling difference that in Dionysius Simonides comes second instead of fourth on the list. In§65Quintilian proceeds to deal with the Old Comedy, which finds no place in the treatise of Dionysius, as we now have it. And there is very little that corresponds with Dionysius in the sections on Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. But it is noticeable that in both Euripides is made to form the transition to Menander and the New Comedy.In regard to the poets, then, it seems probable that, while Quintilian was no doubt familiar with the work of Dionysius, he is rather incorporating in his criticism the traditions of the literary schools than borrowing directly from a single predecessor. Claussen was of opinion that the latter is the true state of the case, and he even goes so far (p. 348) as to suppose that the original work of Dionysius (of which the treatise long known as theἈρχαίων κρίσιςor theDe Veterum Censurais only a fragmentary epitome) must have contained notices of the elegiac and iambic poets corresponding with those in Quintilian, as well as of the old comic dramatists and of additional representatives of the New Comedy. But a comparison of the various passages on which a judgment may be based seems to make it certain that, while taking advantage of his knowledge of previous literary criticism (scraps of which he may have accumulated for teaching purposes during his long career), he is not slavishly following any single authority49: cp.§52datur palma(Hesiodo,)§53grammaticorum consensus,§54ordinem a grammaticis datum,§58princeps habeturandconfessione plurimorum,§59ex tribus receptis Aristarchi iudicio scriptoribus iamborum,§64quidam(probably including Dionysius),§67inter plurimos quaeritur,§72consensu ... omnium. And the tone and substance of his estimate of Homer, of Euripides, and of Menander50, seem to show that he was prepared to rely, when necessary, on his own independent judgment (cp.meo quidem iudicio§69), especially in dealing with the poets who would be of greatest service for his professed purpose.In both Dionysius and Quintilian the poets are followed by the historians. The order in Dionysius is Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Philistus, and Theopompus; in Quintilian, Thucydides, Herodotus, Theopompus, Philistus,—with short notices of Ephorus, Clitarchus and Timagenes. The insertion of the three additional names, and the precedence given to Theopompus, are not the only points in which Quintilian differs here from Dionysius, who is known in this case to have limited himself to the five names in question (Epist. ad Pomp. 767 R: Usener, p. 50, 10): Xenophon is by Quintilian expressly postponed for treatment among the philosophers. In this he probably followed an older tradition, which survived also elsewhere. Cicero speaks of Xenophon as a philosopher (de Orat. ii. §58): in Diogenes Laertius (ii. 48) it is said of himἀλλὰ καὶ ἱστορίαν φιλοσόφων πρῶτος ἔγραψε—a remark which Usener (p. 113) thinks was probably derived from some library list in which Xenophon was ranked among the writers of philosophy; and Dio Chrysostom (Or. xviii.) omits him from his list of the historians, and includes him in that of the Socratics.These discrepancies may be relied on to disprove Claussen’s allegation that Dionysius’s treatise is Quintilian’sprimus et praecipuus fons. It is quite as probable that, in dealing with the historians, he had before him the passage in the second book of Cicero’sOrator, to which reference has already been made (§55sq.). There Cicero mentions Herodotus, Thucydides, Philistus, Theopompus, and Ephorus, with the addition of Xenophon, Callisthenes and Timaeus. He may also have had at hand the great orator’s lost treatiseHortensius, two fragments of which contain short characterisations of Herodotus, Thucydides, Philistus, Theopompus, and Ephorus51: in writing it Cicero probably followed some list similarto those which were accessible both to Dionysius and Quintilian52. Again there is sufficient resemblance here between Quintilian and Dio Chrysostom (as also in regard to Euripides and Menander: Dio Chr. 6, p. 477 sq.) to justify the supposition that they followed the same tradition. Dio expressly elevates Theopompus to the second rank (10, p. 479),τῶν δὲ ἄκρων Θουκυδίδης ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ καὶ τῶν δευτέρων Θεόπομπος‧ καὶ γὰρ ῥητορικόν τι περὶ τὴν ἀπαγγελίαν τῶν λόγων ἔχει.. With this compare Quintilian’s words:Theopompus his proximus ut in historia praedictis minor, ita oratori magis similis(§74). Ephorus, on the other hand, is expressly eliminated by Dio.It is perhaps in dealing with the orators that Quintilian gives the surest proofs that he is not following any individual guide. The parallel passages cited in the notes to§§76-80are by no means confined to the writings of Dionysius, though here again words and phrases occur (see esp. the note onhonesti studiosus, in compositione adeo diligens, &c.,§79) which seem to suggest that Quintilian must have kept a common-place book into which he ‘conveyed’ points which struck him as just or appropriate in the literary criticism of others53. Unlike Dionysius, however, he refers to the canon of the ten orators (§76) which the recent work of Brzoska, following A. Reifferscheid, has shown to have originated not with the critics of Alexandria, but with those of Pergamum54. It is noticeable that the five orators whom Quintilian selects for notice out of this canon are identical with those enumerated, in reverse order, by Cicero, de Orat. iii. 28.In their treatment of the philosophers, the chief point in common between Dionysius and Quintilian is that both put Plato and Xenophon before Aristotle. And, though they agree generally in the terms in which they speak of Aristotle, there is no other noteworthy coincidence. The section on Theophrastus and the Stoics has nothing corresponding to it in Dionysius: here, as elsewhere in the account of philosophy, Cicero was laid under contribution.We may infer, then, on the whole, that in regard to his judgments of the Greek writers Quintilian followed the established order of the literary schools, and incorporated with the expression of his own opinion much that was traditional in their thought and phraseology. He cannot be supposed to have followed any single authority: he must rather be considered to have gleaned in the whole field of the literature of criticism fromTheophrastus (x.1, 27) down to his own day. He accepted from others, with probably few modifications, the approved lists of poets, historians, orators, and philosophers, and adopted the conventional practice of writing careful and well-considered criticisms upon them—“somewhat cut and dried criticisms,” as Prof. Nettleship says of Dionysius, “which seldom lack sanity, care, and insight, but which are rather dangerously suited for learning by heart and handing on to future generations of pupils.” These lists of ‘classical’ writers may probably be traced back, in the main, to the literary activity of the critics of Alexandria. They would no doubt be well known to the Greek rhetoricians who were at work on the education of the Roman youth as early as the beginning of the first centuryB.C., and may have served as the basis of their prelections to their pupils. Criticism (κρίσις ποιημάτων, κριτικὴ) was an essential part of the office of the ‘grammaticus55.’In speaking of his duties, which fall under the two main heads ofrecte loquendi scientiaandpoetarum enarratio, Quintilian adds (i. 4, 3):et mixtum his omnibusiudiciumest; quo quidem ita severe sunt usi veteres grammatici ut non versus modo censoria quadam virgula notare et libros, qui falso viderentur inscripti, tamquam subditos submovere familia permiserint sibi, sed auctores alios in ordinem redegerint, alios omnino exemerint numero. Beginning with a critical examination of individual texts, the ‘grammatici’ gathered up the results of their work, on the literary side, in short characterisations of the various writers whom they made the subject of their study, and finally drew up lists of the best authors in each department of literature, with a careful indication of their good points as well as of the features in which they were not to be used as models. This process received a more or less final form at the hands of Aristophanes of Byzantium and his follower Aristarchus (see on x.1, 54), the latter of whom probably introduced such modifications in the list of his predecessor as approved themselves to his own judgment (cp. x.1, 59tres receptosAristarchi iudicioscriptores iamborum). The influence of this method in Roman literature may be seen, early in the first century, in the so-called ‘canon’ of Volcatius Sedigitus, preserved by Gellius (15, 24)56: he makes a list of ten Latin comedians, on the analogy of the canon of the ten Attic orators. The list of the Alexandrine critics was probably in the hands of Cicero, as Usener has shown (pp. 114-126), when he wrote his ‘Hortensius,’—a treatise which seems to have originally contained an introductory sketch of the great contributors to the various departmentsof literature, by way of preparation for the main purpose of the dialogue,—the praise of philosophy57. Then there is Dio Chrysostom, a writer who flourished not long after Quintilian himself, and whose reproduction of similar judgments has already been noted. Such divergences as occur may probably be accounted for, at least in part, by the different points of view from which the various critics wrote. In the preliminary sketch in theHortensiusthe object seems to have been not the education of youth but the recreation of maturity: Dio draws a careful distinction between the branches which serve for the student of rhetoric, and those which may be expected to benefit and delight men who have finished their studies: Quintilian’s aim, again and again reiterated, is to lay down a course of reading suited to form the taste of a young man aspiring to success as a speaker.The probability that there existed such traditional lists as those referred to (which would also be of service in the arrangement of the great public libraries), is strikingly illustrated in Usener’sEpilogus(p. 128 sq.) by the publication of one which may here be transcribed as of great interest to readers of Quintilian. It will be noticed that though the philosophers are omitted, it contains many points of analogy with that followed by Quintilian, particularly the addition of the later elegiac poets, Philetas and Callimachus. Names only are given, without any criticism attached58.Greek numerals were printed with overlines ¯. They are shown here in ´ form to reduce text-display problems.Ποιηταὶ πέντε‧ Ὅμηρος Ἡσίοδος Πείσανδρος Πανύασις Ἀντίμαχος.ἰαμβοποιοὶ τρεῖς‧ Σημονίδης Ἀρχίλοχος Ἱππῶναξ.τραγῳδοποιοὶ ε´‧ Ἀισχύλος Σοφοκλῆς Εὐριπίδης Ἴων Ἀχαιός.κωμῳδοποιοὶ ἀρχαίας ζ´‧ Ἐπίχαρμος Κρατῖνος Εὔπολις Ἀριστοφάνης Φερεκράτης Κράτης Πλάτων.μέσης κωμῳδίας β´‧ Ἀντιφάνες Ἄλεξις Θούριος.νέας κωμῳδίας ε´‧ Μένανδρος Φιλιππίδης Δίφιλος Φιλήμων Ἀπολλόδωρος.ἐλεγείων ποιηταὶ δ´‧ Καλλῖνος Μιμνέρμος Φιλητᾶς Καλλίμαχος.λυρικοι θ´‧ Ἀλκμάν Ἀλκαῖος Σαπφώ Στησίχορος Πίνδαρος Βακχυλίδης Ἴβυκος Ἀνακρέων Σιμωνίδης....ῥητορες θ´‧ Δημοσθένης Λυσίας Ὑπερείδης Ἰσοκράτης Ἀισχίνης Λυκοῦργος Ἰσαῖος Ἀντιφῶν Ἀνδοκίδης.ἱστορικοὶ ι´‧ Θουκυδίδης Ἡρόδοτος Ξενοφῶν Φίλιστος Θεόπομπος Ἔφορος Ἀναξιμένης Καλλισθένης Ἑλλάνικος Πολύβιος.In regard to the historians, Usener notes that this list seems to indicate the principle on which they were selected and arranged. They are enumerated in pairs, Herodotus and Thucydides coming first, with their imitators Xenophon and Philistus immediately following them. Then come Theopompus and Ephorus, as representing the second rank; and next the historians of Alexander’s victories, Anaximenes and Callisthenes (cp. Cic. de Orat. ii. §58), in place of whom Clitarchus is mentioned by Quintilian. Peculiar features about the list given above are that Thucydides comes first of all (just as Demosthenes does among the orators), and that, perhaps to make up the number ten, a fifth pair of historians is added,—Hellanicus from those of older date, and Polybius to represent more recent writers.Usener states the conclusion at which he arrives in the following words, which may be accepted with the proviso that they are not to be taken as meaning that Quintilian was altogether ignorant of what Dionysius wrote:Iudicia de poetis scriptoribusque Graecis non a Dionysio Quintilianus mutuatus est. Igitur ne Dionysius quidem sua profert, sed diversum uterque exemplum iudiciorum ut plerumque consonantium expressit. Fontis utrique communis antiquitatem Hortensius Tullianus cum Dione comparatus demonstravit. Posteriore tempore cum eruditionis copia in angustae memoriae paupertatem sensim contraheretur, iudiciis neglectis sola electorum auctorum nomina relicta sunt et laterculi formam induerunt.Quintilian did not transcribe his criticisms of Greek literature from Dionysius. He had no need to do so: the materials from which Dionysius had drawn were available also to him. This is sufficient to account for the resemblances in their critical judgments. But on the other hand it is improbable that Quintilian, in the course of his reading and teaching, had not studied the writings of Dionysius; and some at least of the coincidences to which prominence is given in the notes in this edition must have been the result of his acquaintance with the work of his predecessor.In his review of Latin literature, Quintilian is no doubt giving us the fruit of his own study and independent judgment, though here again the notes will indicate that he was familiar with what other writers, such as Cicero and Horace, had said before in the way of literary criticism. The examination of his estimate of Seneca has already proved that he did not hesitate to formulate his own opinions, and to press them, whennecessary, upon his pupils. A reference to theAnalysis(pp. 3-5) will show that in this part of his work Quintilian follows the method which had been traditionally applied to the criticism of the Greek writers. The same order is preserved (§85); the various departments of literature are each compared with the corresponding departments in Greek (§§93,99,101,105,123); and individual writers are pitted against each other, and are sometimes characterised in similar terms. In all this Quintilian is consistent with the scheme according to which he had evidently determined to arrange his work: he is consistent also with the general tradition of literary criticism among his countrymen. “As Latin literature since Naevius had adopted Greek models and Greek metres, every Latin writer of any pretensions took some Greek author as his ideal of excellence in the particular style which he was adopting. Criticism accordingly drifted into the vicious course of comparison; of pitting every Latin writer against a Greek writer, as though borrowing from a man would constitute you his rival. Thus Ennius was a Homer, Afranius a Menander, Plautus an Epicharmus, before the days of Horace: in Horace’s time there were three Homers, Varius, Valgius, and Vergil. Cicero and Demosthenes were compared by the Greek critics in the Augustan age, and by the time of Quintilian Sallust has become the Latin Thucydides, Livy the Latin Herodotus59.” It is this idea of making ‘canons’ of Latin writers, to correspond as nearly as possible with those which he had accepted from former critics for the classical writers of Greece, that gives an air of artificiality to Quintilian’s criticism of Latin literature, and interferes somewhat with the general effect which his sane and sober appreciations would otherwise produce. The individual estimates are in the main all that could be wished for, notably the enthusiastic eulogy of Cicero (§§105-112), which it is interesting to compare with a similar passage in the treatise ‘On the Sublime.’ “The same difference,” says the writer, “may be discerned in the grandeur of Cicero as compared with that of his Grecian rival. The sublimity of Demosthenes is generally sudden and abrupt: that of Cicero is equally diffused. Demosthenes is vehement, rapid, vigorous, terrible; he burns and sweeps away all before him; and hence we may liken him to a whirlwind or a thunderbolt: Cicero is like a widespread conflagration, which rolls over and feeds on all around it, whose fire is extensive and burns long, breaking out successively in different places, and finding its fuel now here, now there60.” Excellent also are the shorter characterisations of such writers as Sallust (immortalem Sallusti velocitatem1 §102), of Livy (Livi lactea ubertas1 §32:mirae iucunditatis clarissimiquecandoris§101), of Ovid (nimium amator ingenii sui§88), and of Horace (et insurgit aliquando et plenus est iucunditatis et gratiae et varius figuris et verbis felicissime audax§96). But the general impression we derive is that Quintilian is producing many of his criticisms to order, as it were: so much is he tied down to the plan he has adopted. It is to this same method of mechanical comparison—born of the artificial traditions of the literary schools—that we owe Plutarch’s ‘Parallel Lives’; and it has not been without imitators in more recent times61.IV.Style and Language.Quintilian’s own style is pretty much what might be expected from the tone of his judgments on others. Cicero was his model, Seneca represented to him everything that was to be avoided: but the interval of a hundred years which separated him from the former was a sufficient barrier to anything more than an approximation to his style, while on the other hand he does not succeed in emancipating himself entirely from the literary tendencies of his own time, which found so complete expression in the writings of Seneca. All the writers of what is known as the Silver Age possess certain marked characteristics, which differentiate them from the best models of the republican period; and of these Quintilian has his share. But he did not fall in with the fashionable depreciation of those models. He knew that it was impossible to bring back the Latinity of the Golden Age in all its characteristic features; but he could at least lift up his voice against the affectation and artificiality of his contemporaries, who looked upon that Latinity as tame, insipid, and commonplace. The point of view from which, as we have already seen, he regarded Seneca may be stated with a wider application:corruptum et omnibus vitiis fractum dicendi genus revocare ad severiora iudicia contendo, x.1, 125.The depravation of taste which had gone hand in hand with the moral and social degeneration of the Roman people, in the era of transition from republic to empire, has already been touched upon in the discussionof Quintilian’s criticism of Seneca. The literary public had lost all appetite for the natural straightforwardness of the Ciceronian style: it craved for something akin to the highly seasoned dishes by which the epicures of the day sought to stimulate a jaded palate62. It was not enough now to clothe the thought in pure, clear, and elegant language, even when adorned by a wealth of expression that bordered on exuberance, and made musical by the exquisite modulation of the period. No one could win a hearing who did not countenance the fashionable craze for affectation, abruptness, and extravagance. Directness, ease, and intelligibility were no recommendations63. In order to strike and stimulate, everything must be full of point. Feebleness of thought was considered to be redeemed by epigram and formal antithesis. The amplitude and artistic symmetry of the Ciceronian period gave place to a broken and abrupt style, the main object of which was to arrest attention and to challenge admiration. Showy passages were looked for, expressed in new and striking phraseology, such as could be reproduced and even handed on to others64. The charm of style and the test of its excellence consisted in its being artificial, inflated, meretricious, involved, obscure—in a word, depraved65.Quintilian’s distaste for the prevailing fashion inclined him to return to the models of the best republican period. Exclusive devotion to one particular type was forbidden him, if by nothing else, by his own declared principles,—non qui maxime imitandus et solus imitandus est(2 §24); and accordingly, in spite of his great admiration for Cicero, we find several well-marked features of difference between him and his master, not only in the use of words, but also in the structure and composition of sentences66. Indeed, it could not have been otherwise. Quintilian’s mission was to restore to Latin composition the direct and natural character of the earlier style; but he could not extirpate that tendency to poetical expression which had taken root at Rome as far back as thedays of Sallust, and was fostered and encouraged in his own time by the wider study of Greek. He was conscious also of the need of making some concessions to the popular demand for ornament. The power of the ‘sententious’ style proved itself even on its critic and antagonist. That he was aware of the compromise he was making is clear from such a passage as the following, in which he indicates how Cicero may be adapted to contemporary requirements:ad cuius (Ciceronis) voluptates nihil equidem quod addi possit invenio,nisi ut sensus nos quidem dicamus plures: nempe enim fieri potest salva tractatione causae et dicendi auctoritate, si non crebra haec lumina et continua fuerint et invicem offecerint. Sed mehactenus cedentemnemo insequatur ultra, &c. (xii. 10, 46-7). There was a point beyond which he refused to go: clearness and simplicity must never be sacrificed to effect. These qualities may be claimed for Quintilian’s style; it is also sufficiently varied for his subject. When it is obscure, we must remember the defective state in which his text has come down to us67.It is quite possible to exemplify from the Tenth Book alone the main features in which Quintilian’s language and style differ from those of Cicero. And first, in regard to his vocabulary, a list may be appended of words which, though not peculiar to Quintilian, are yet not to be found in the republican period68.Amaritudo, figuratively (Plin. S., Sen., Val. Max.), x.1, 117.Auditorium(Tac. Dial., Plin. S., Suet.), x.1, 79: cp. v. 12, 20licet hanc (eloquentiam) auditoria probent.
Those rugged names to our like mouths grow sleekThat would have made Quintilian stare and gasp.
Those rugged names to our like mouths grow sleek
That would have made Quintilian stare and gasp.
In his ‘Tractate on Education’ too Milton strongly recommends the first two or three books of theInstitutio. The 18th century provided the notable editions of Burmann (1720), Capperonier (1725), Gesner (1738), and witnessed also the commencement of Spalding’s (1798-1816), whose text, as revised by Zumpt and Bonnell, practically held the field till the publication of Halm’s critical edition (1868). Towards the close of last century it would appear that Quintilian was as much studied as he had ever been,—probably by many who believed in, as well as by some who would have rejected the application of the maxim ‘oratornascitur non fit.’ William Pitt, for example, shortly after his arrival at Cambridge (1773), and while ‘still bent on his main object of oratorical excellence,’ attended a course of lectures on Quintilian, which caused him on one occasion to interrupt his correspondence with his father30. His lasting popularity must have been due, not only to his own intrinsic merits, but to the fact that his writings harmonised well with the studies of those days: it was promoted also by the serviceable abridgments of theInstitutio, either in whole or in part, that were from time to time published,—notably that of Ch. Rollin in 1715. In our own day men whose education was moulded on the old lines—such as J. S. Mill—considered Quintilian an indispensable part of a scholar’s equipment. Macaulay read him in India, along with the rest of classical literature. Lord Beaconsfield professed that he was ‘very fond of Quintilian31.’ But by our classical scholars he has been almost entirely neglected, no complete edition having appeared in this country since a revised text was issued in London in 1822. German criticism, on the other hand, has of late paid Quintilian special attention, with conspicuous results for the emendation and illustration of his text: to the great names of Spalding, Zumpt, and Bonnell, must be added those of Halm, Meister, Becher, Wölfflin, and Kiderlin.
Besides the literary criticism for which it has always attracted attention, and which will form the subject of the next section, the Tenth Book of theInstitutiocontains valuable precepts in regard to various practical matters which are still of as great importance as they were in Quintilian’s day. Among these are the practice of writing, the use of an amanuensis,the art of revision, the limits of imitation, the best exercises in style, the advantages of preparation, and the faculty of improvisation.
The following list ofLoci Memoriales(mainly taken from Krüger’s third edition, pp. 108-110) will give some idea of the various points on which, especially in the later chapters of the Tenth Book, Quintilian states his opinion weightily and often with epigrammatic terseness:
1 §112(p. 110) Ille se profecisse sciat cui Cicero valde placebit.2 §4(p. 124) Pigri est ingenii contentum esse iis quae sint ab aliis inventa.2 §7(p. 125) Turpe etiam illud est, contentum esse id consequi quod imiteris.2 §8(p. 126) Nulla mansit ars qualis inventa est, nec intra initium stetit.2 §10(pp. 126-7) Eum vero nemo potest aequare cuius vestigiis sibi utique insistendum putat; necesse est enim semper sit posterior qui sequitur.2 §10(p. 127) Plerumque facilius est plus facere quam idem.2 §12(ibid.) Ea quae in oratore maxima sunt imitabilia non sunt, ingenium, inventio, vis, facilitas, et quidquid arte non traditur.2 §18(p. 131) Noveram quosdam qui se pulchre expressisse genus illud caelestis huius in dicendo viri sibi viderentur, si in clausula posuissent ‘esse videatur.’2 §20(p. 132) (Praeceptor) rector est alienorum ingeniorum atque formator. Difficilius est naturam suam fingere.2 §22(ibid.) Sua cuique proposito lex, suus decor est.2 §24(p. 134) Non qui maxime imitandus, et solus imitandus est.3 §2(p. 136) Scribendum ergo quam diligentissime et quam plurimum. Nam ut terra alte refossa generandis alendisque seminibus fecundior fit, sic profectus non a summo petitus studiorum fructus effundit uberius et fidelius continet.3 §2(p. 137) Verba in labris nascentia.3 §3(ibid.) Vires faciamus ante omnia, quae sufficiant labori certaminum et usu non exhauriantur. Nihil enim rerum ipsa natura voluit magnum effici cito, praeposuitque pulcherrimo cuique operi difficultatem.3 §7(p. 139) Omnia nostra dum nascuntur placent, alioqui nec scriberentur.3 §9(ibid.) Primum hoc constituendum, hoc obtinendum est, ut quam optime scribamus: celeritatem dabit consuetudo.3 §10(ibid.) Summa haec est rei: cito scribendo non fit ut bene scribatur, bene scribendo fit ut cito.3 §15(p. 142) Curandum est ut quam optime dicamus, dicendum tamen pro facultate.3 §22(p. 146) Secretum in dictando perit.3 §26(p. 148) Cui (acerrimo labori) non plus inrogandum est quam quod somno supererit, haud deerit.3 §27(ibid.) Abunde, si vacet, lucis spatia sufficiunt: occupatos in noctem necessitas agit. Est tamen lucubratio, quotiens ad eam integri ac refecti venimus, optimum secreti genus.3 §29(ibid.) Non est indulgendum causis desidiae. Nam si non nisi refecti, non nisi hilares, non nisi omnibus aliis curis vacantes studendum existimarimus, semper erit propter quod nobis ignoscamus.3 §31(p. 149) Nihil in studiis parvum est.4 §1(p. 151) Emendatio, pars studiorum longe utilissima; neque enim sine causa creditum est stilum non minus agere, cum delet. Huius autem operis est adicere, detrahere, mutare.4 §4(p. 152) Sit ergo aliquando quod placeat aut certe quod sufficiat, ut opus poliat lima, non exterat.5 §23(p. 166) Diligenter effecta (sc. materia) plus proderit quam plures inchoatae et quasi degustatae.6 §1(p. 167) Haec (sc. cogitatio) inter medios rerum actus aliquid invenit vacui nec otium patitur.6 §2(p. 168) Memoriae quoque plerumque inhaeret fidelius quod nulla scribendi securitate laxatur.6 §5(ibid.) Sed si forte aliqui inter dicendum effulserit extemporalis color, non superstitiose cogitatis demum est inhaerendum.6 §6(p. 169) Refutare temporis munera longe stultissimum est.6 §6(ibid.) Extemporalem temeritatem malo quam male cohaerentem cogitationem.7 §1(p. 170) Maximus vero studiorum fructus est et velut praemium quoddam amplissimum longi laboris ex tempore dicendi facultas.7 §4(p. 171) Perisse profecto confitendum est praeteritum laborem, cui semper idem laborandum est. Neque ego hoc ago ut ex tempore dicere malit, sed ut possit.7 §12(p. 175) Mihi ne dicere quidem videtur nisi qui disposite, ornate, copiose dicit, sed tumultuari.7 §15(p. 176) Pectus est enim, quod disertos facit, et vis mentis.7 §§16-17(p. 177) Extemporalis actio auditorum frequentia, ut miles congestu signorum, excitatur. Namque et difficiliorem cogitationem exprimit et expellit dicendi necessitas, et secundos impetus auget placendi cupido.7 §18(ibid.) Facilitatem quoque extemporalem a parvis initiis paulatim perducemus ad summam, quae neque perfici neque contineri nisi usu potest.7 §20(p. 178) Neque vero tanta esse umquam fiducia facilitatisdebet ut non breve saltem tempus, quod nusquam fere deerit, ad ea quae dicturi sumus dispicienda sumamus.7 §21(p. 178) Qui stultis videri eruditi volunt, stulti eruditis videntur.7 §24(p. 179) Rarum est ut satis se quisque vereatur.7 §26(p. 180) Studendum vero semper et ubique.7 §27(p. 180-1) Neque enim fere tan est ullus dies occupatus ut nihil lucrativae ... operae ad scribendum aut legendum aut dicendum rapi aliquo momento temporis possit.7 §28(p. 181) Quidquid loquemur ubicumque sit pro sua scilicet portione perfectum.7 §28(ibid.) Scribendum certe numquam est magis, quam cum multa dicemus ex tempore.7 §29(p. 181-2) Ac nescio an si utrumque cum cura et studio fecerimus, invicem prosit, ut scribendo dicamus diligentius, dicendo scribamus facilius. Scribendum ergo quotiens licebit, si id non dabitur, cogitandum; ab utroque exclusi debent tamen sic dicere ut neque deprehensus orator neque litigator destitutus esse videatur.
1 §112(p. 110) Ille se profecisse sciat cui Cicero valde placebit.
2 §4(p. 124) Pigri est ingenii contentum esse iis quae sint ab aliis inventa.
2 §7(p. 125) Turpe etiam illud est, contentum esse id consequi quod imiteris.
2 §8(p. 126) Nulla mansit ars qualis inventa est, nec intra initium stetit.
2 §10(pp. 126-7) Eum vero nemo potest aequare cuius vestigiis sibi utique insistendum putat; necesse est enim semper sit posterior qui sequitur.
2 §10(p. 127) Plerumque facilius est plus facere quam idem.
2 §12(ibid.) Ea quae in oratore maxima sunt imitabilia non sunt, ingenium, inventio, vis, facilitas, et quidquid arte non traditur.
2 §18(p. 131) Noveram quosdam qui se pulchre expressisse genus illud caelestis huius in dicendo viri sibi viderentur, si in clausula posuissent ‘esse videatur.’
2 §20(p. 132) (Praeceptor) rector est alienorum ingeniorum atque formator. Difficilius est naturam suam fingere.
2 §22(ibid.) Sua cuique proposito lex, suus decor est.
2 §24(p. 134) Non qui maxime imitandus, et solus imitandus est.
3 §2(p. 136) Scribendum ergo quam diligentissime et quam plurimum. Nam ut terra alte refossa generandis alendisque seminibus fecundior fit, sic profectus non a summo petitus studiorum fructus effundit uberius et fidelius continet.
3 §2(p. 137) Verba in labris nascentia.
3 §3(ibid.) Vires faciamus ante omnia, quae sufficiant labori certaminum et usu non exhauriantur. Nihil enim rerum ipsa natura voluit magnum effici cito, praeposuitque pulcherrimo cuique operi difficultatem.
3 §7(p. 139) Omnia nostra dum nascuntur placent, alioqui nec scriberentur.
3 §9(ibid.) Primum hoc constituendum, hoc obtinendum est, ut quam optime scribamus: celeritatem dabit consuetudo.
3 §10(ibid.) Summa haec est rei: cito scribendo non fit ut bene scribatur, bene scribendo fit ut cito.
3 §15(p. 142) Curandum est ut quam optime dicamus, dicendum tamen pro facultate.
3 §22(p. 146) Secretum in dictando perit.
3 §26(p. 148) Cui (acerrimo labori) non plus inrogandum est quam quod somno supererit, haud deerit.
3 §27(ibid.) Abunde, si vacet, lucis spatia sufficiunt: occupatos in noctem necessitas agit. Est tamen lucubratio, quotiens ad eam integri ac refecti venimus, optimum secreti genus.
3 §29(ibid.) Non est indulgendum causis desidiae. Nam si non nisi refecti, non nisi hilares, non nisi omnibus aliis curis vacantes studendum existimarimus, semper erit propter quod nobis ignoscamus.
3 §31(p. 149) Nihil in studiis parvum est.
4 §1(p. 151) Emendatio, pars studiorum longe utilissima; neque enim sine causa creditum est stilum non minus agere, cum delet. Huius autem operis est adicere, detrahere, mutare.
4 §4(p. 152) Sit ergo aliquando quod placeat aut certe quod sufficiat, ut opus poliat lima, non exterat.
5 §23(p. 166) Diligenter effecta (sc. materia) plus proderit quam plures inchoatae et quasi degustatae.
6 §1(p. 167) Haec (sc. cogitatio) inter medios rerum actus aliquid invenit vacui nec otium patitur.
6 §2(p. 168) Memoriae quoque plerumque inhaeret fidelius quod nulla scribendi securitate laxatur.
6 §5(ibid.) Sed si forte aliqui inter dicendum effulserit extemporalis color, non superstitiose cogitatis demum est inhaerendum.
6 §6(p. 169) Refutare temporis munera longe stultissimum est.
6 §6(ibid.) Extemporalem temeritatem malo quam male cohaerentem cogitationem.
7 §1(p. 170) Maximus vero studiorum fructus est et velut praemium quoddam amplissimum longi laboris ex tempore dicendi facultas.
7 §4(p. 171) Perisse profecto confitendum est praeteritum laborem, cui semper idem laborandum est. Neque ego hoc ago ut ex tempore dicere malit, sed ut possit.
7 §12(p. 175) Mihi ne dicere quidem videtur nisi qui disposite, ornate, copiose dicit, sed tumultuari.
7 §15(p. 176) Pectus est enim, quod disertos facit, et vis mentis.
7 §§16-17(p. 177) Extemporalis actio auditorum frequentia, ut miles congestu signorum, excitatur. Namque et difficiliorem cogitationem exprimit et expellit dicendi necessitas, et secundos impetus auget placendi cupido.
7 §18(ibid.) Facilitatem quoque extemporalem a parvis initiis paulatim perducemus ad summam, quae neque perfici neque contineri nisi usu potest.
7 §20(p. 178) Neque vero tanta esse umquam fiducia facilitatisdebet ut non breve saltem tempus, quod nusquam fere deerit, ad ea quae dicturi sumus dispicienda sumamus.
7 §21(p. 178) Qui stultis videri eruditi volunt, stulti eruditis videntur.
7 §24(p. 179) Rarum est ut satis se quisque vereatur.
7 §26(p. 180) Studendum vero semper et ubique.
7 §27(p. 180-1) Neque enim fere tan est ullus dies occupatus ut nihil lucrativae ... operae ad scribendum aut legendum aut dicendum rapi aliquo momento temporis possit.
7 §28(p. 181) Quidquid loquemur ubicumque sit pro sua scilicet portione perfectum.
7 §28(ibid.) Scribendum certe numquam est magis, quam cum multa dicemus ex tempore.
7 §29(p. 181-2) Ac nescio an si utrumque cum cura et studio fecerimus, invicem prosit, ut scribendo dicamus diligentius, dicendo scribamus facilius. Scribendum ergo quotiens licebit, si id non dabitur, cogitandum; ab utroque exclusi debent tamen sic dicere ut neque deprehensus orator neque litigator destitutus esse videatur.
It was the conviction that a cultured orator is better than an orator with no culture that induced Quintilian to devote so considerable a part of the Tenth Book to a review of Greek and Roman literature. He was aware that in order to speak with effect it is necessary for a man to know a good deal that lies outside the scope of the particular case which he may undertake to plead; and while the ‘firm facility’ἕξιςat which he taught the orator to aim could only be attained by a variety of exercises and qualifications, a course of wide and careful reading must always, he considered, form one of the factors in the combination.
In judging of the merits of Quintilian’s literary criticism we must not forget the point of view from which he wrote. He is not dealing with literature in and for itself. His was not the cast of mind in which the faculty of literary appreciation finds artistic expression in the form in which criticism becomes a part of literature itself. We cannot think of the author of the Tenth Book of theInstitutioas one whom a divinely implanted instinct for literature impelled, towards the evening of his days, to leave a record of the personal impressions he had derived from contact with those whom we now recognise as the master-minds of classical antiquity. Quintilian writes, not as the literary man for a sympathetic brotherhood, but as the professor of rhetoric for students in his school. If, in thecourse of his just and sober, but often trite and obvious criticisms, he characterises a writer in language which has stood the test of time, it is always when that writer touches his main interest most nearly, as one from whom the student of style may learn much. In short, his work in the department of literary criticism is done much in the same spirit as that which, in these later days, has moved many sober and sensible, but on the whole average persons, conversant with the general current of contemporary thought, and not without the faculty of appreciative discrimination, to draw up a list of the ‘Best Hundred Books.’ Their aim, however, has been to guide and direct the work of that peculiar product of modern times, the ‘general reader’: Quintilian’s victim was the professed student of rhetoric.
But this limitation, arising partly out of the special aim which he had imposed upon himself, partly, also, in all probability, from the constitution of his own mind, ought not to blind us to the value of the comprehensive review of ancient literature which Quintilian has left us in this Tenth Book. “His literary sympathies are extraordinarily wide. When obliged to condemn, as in the case of Seneca, he bestows generous and even extravagant praise on such merit as he can find. He can cordially admire even Sallust, the true fountain-head of the style which he combats, while he will not suffer Lucilius to lie under the aspersions of Horace.... The judgments which he passes may be in many instances traditional, but, looking to all the circumstances of the time, it seems remarkable that there should then have lived at Rome a single man who could make them his own and give them expression. The form in which these judgments are rendered is admirable. The gentle justness of the sentiments is accompanied by a curious felicity of phrase. Who can forget the ‘immortal swiftness of Sallust,’ or the ‘milky richness of Livy,’ or how ‘Horace soars now and then, and is full of sweetness and grace, and in his varied forms and phrases is most fortunately bold’? Ancient literary criticism perhaps touched its highest points in the hands of Quintilian.”32
The course of reading which Quintilian recommends is selected with express reference to the aim which he had in view, and which is put prominently forward in connection with nearly every individual criticism. The young man who aspires to success in speaking must have his taste formed: when he reads Homer, let him note that, great poet as Homer is, and admirable in every respect, he is alsooratoria virtute eminentissimus(1 §46). Alcaeus isplerumque oratori similis(1 §63): Euripides is, on that ground, to be preferred to Sophocles (1 §67): Lucan ismagis oratoribus quam poetis imitandus(1 §70): and the old Greek comedy isspecially recommended as a form of poetry ‘than which probably none is better suited to form the orator’ (1 §65). With the prose writers Quintilian is thoroughly at home, and he nowhere lets in so much light on his own sympathies as in the estimates he gives us of Cicero (1 §§105-112) and Seneca (1 §§125-131). His criticism of Cicero is precisely what might have been expected from the general tone of the references throughout theInstitutio. Cicero is Quintilian’s model, to whom he looks up with reverential admiration: he will not hear of his faults. In his own day the great orator had been attacked by Atticists of the severer type for the richness of his style and the excessive attention which they alleged that he paid to rhythm. The ‘plainness’ of Lysias was their ideal, and they failed to recognise the fact that, with the more limited resources of the Latin language, such simplicity and condensation would be perilously near to baldness (cp. note on1 §105). Cicero they regarded as an Asianist in disguise; in the words of his devoted follower, they “dared to censure him as unduly turgid and Asiatic and redundant; as too much given to repetition, and sometimes insipid in his witticisms; and as spiritless, diffuse, and (save the mark!) even effeminate in his arrangement” (Inst. Or.xii. 10, 12, quoted on1 §105). That this criticism had not been forgotten in Quintilian’s own day is obvious not only from theInstitutiobut also from the discussion in theDialogus de Oratoribus, where Aper is represented as saying “We know that even Cicero was not without his disparagers, who thought him inflated, turgid, not sufficiently concise, but unduly diffuse and luxuriant, and far from Attic” (ch. 18). To such detractors of his great model Quintilian will have nothing to say, and in his criticism of Cicero he gives full expression to his enthusiastic admiration for the genius of one who had brought eloquence to the highest pinnacle of perfection (vi. 31Latinae eloquentiae princeps: cp. x.1 §§105-112: xii. 1, 20stetisse ipsum in fastigio eloquentiae fateor: 10, 12 sqq.in omnibus quae in quoque laudantur eminentissimum).
With such an absorbing enthusiasm for Cicero, it was hardly to be expected that Quintilian would show an adequate appreciation of Seneca. Seneca’s influence was the great obstacle in the way of a general return to the classical tradition of the Golden Age, and this was the literary reform which Quintilian had at heart—corruptum et omnibus vitiis fractum dicendi genus revocare ad severiora iudicia contendox.1, 125. It is probable that, in spite of the appearance of candour which he assumes in dealing with him, Quintilian approached Seneca with a certain degree of prejudice33. Quintilian represents the literature of erudition, and hisstandard is the best of what had been done in the past: Seneca was, like Lucan, the child of a new era, to whom it seemed perfectly natural that new thoughts should find utterance in new forms of expression. Seneca’s motto was ‘nullius nomen fero,’—he gave free rein to the play of his fancy, and rejected all method34: Quintilian looked with horror (in the interest of his pupils) on a liberty that was so near to licence, and set himself to check it by recalling men’s minds to the ‘good old ways,’ and extolling Cicero as the synonym for eloquence itself. In such a conflict of tastes as regards things literary, and apart from the ambiguous character of Seneca’s personal career, it is not surprising that Quintilian should have been unfavourably disposed towards him. He had a grudge, moreover, against philosophers in general, especially the Stoics. They had encroached on what his comprehensive scheme of education impelled him to believe was the province of the teacher of rhetoric,—the moral training of the future orator35.
He was morbidly anxious to show that rhetoric stood in need of no extraneous assistance: even the ‘grammatici’ he teaches to know their proper place (see esp. i. 9, 6). But it was mainly, no doubt, as representing certain literary tendencies of which he disapproved that Seneca must have incurred Quintilian’s censure. It is probable that in many passages of theInstitutio, where he is not specially named, it is Seneca that is in the writer’s mind: the tone of the references corresponds in several points with the famous passage of the Tenth Book36. In this passageQuintilian is evidently putting forward the whole force of his authority in order to counteract Seneca’s influence. He has kept him waiting in a marked manner, to the very end of his literary review: and when he comes to deal with him he does not confine his criticism to a few words or phrases, but devotes nearly as much space to him as he did to Cicero himself. In his estimate of Seneca nothing is more remarkable than the careful manner in which Quintilian mingles praise and blame. But the praise is reluctant and half-hearted: it is Seneca’s faults that his critic wishes to make prominent. He admits his ability (ingenium facile et copiosum§128), and even goes the length of saying that it would be well if his imitators could rise to his level (foret enim optandum pares ac saltem proximos illi viro fieri§127). But praise is no sooner given than it is immediately recalled. It was his faults that secured imitators for Seneca (placebat propter sola vitiaib.); if he was distinguished for wide knowledge (plurimum studii, multa rerum cognitio§128), he was often misled by those who assisted him in his researches; if there is much that is good in him, ‘much even to admire’ (multa ... probanda in eo, multa etiam admiranda sunt§131), still it requires picking out. In short, so dangerous a model is he, that he should be read only by those who have come to maturity, and then not so much, evidently, for improvement, as for the reason that it is good to ‘see both sides,’—quod exercere potest utrimque iudicium, ib.
It has already been suggested that the secret of a great part of Quintilian’s antipathy to Seneca may have been his dislike of the philosophers, whom his imperial patrons found it necessary from time to time to suppress. He was anxious to exalt rhetoric at the expense of philosophy. But he was no doubt also honestly of opinion—and his position as an instructor of youth would make him feel bound to express his view distinctly—that Seneca was a dangerous model for the budding orator to imitate. His merits were many and great: but his peculiarities lent themselves readily to degradation. Quintilian wished to put forward a counterblast to the fashionable tendency of the day, and to recall—in their own interests—to severer models Seneca’s youthful imitators,—those of whom he writesad ea(i.e.eius vitia)se quisque dirigebat effingenda, quae poterat; deinde quum se iactaret eodem modo dicere, Senecam infamabat§127. Seneca was of course not responsible for the exaggerations of his imitators, and Quintilian would never have encouraged in his pupils exclusive devotion to any particular model, especially if that model were characterised by such peculiar features of style as distinguished Sallust or Tacitus. But he could not forgiveSeneca for his share in the reaction against Cicero37. Admirers of Seneca think that he failed to make allowance for the influences at work on the philosopher’s style, and that he judged him too much from the standpoint of a rhetorician. They admit Seneca’s faults—his tendency to declamation, the want of balance in his style, his excessive subtlety, his affectation, his want of method: but they contend that these faults are compensated by still greater virtues38. M. Rocheblave, who possesses the appreciation of Seneca traditional among Frenchmen, follows Diderot in inclining to believe that the philosopher was the victim of envy and dislike39. For himself he protests in the following terms against what he considers the inadequacy of Quintilian’s estimate: ‘Da mihi quemvis Annaei librorum ignarum, et dicito num ex istis Quintiliani laudibus non modo perspicere, sed suspicari etiam possit quanto sapientiae doctrinaeque gradu steterit scriptor qui in tota latina facundia optima senserit, humanissima docuerit, maxima et multo plurima excogitaverit, ita ut, multis ex antiqua morali philosophia seu graeca seu latina depromptis, adiectis pluribus, potuerit in unum propriumque saporem omnia illa quasi sapientiae humanae libamenta confundere? Credisne a tali lectore scriptorem vivo gurgite exundantem, sensibus scatentem, legentes in perpetuas rapientem cogitationes, eum denique quem ob vim animi ingeniique acumen iure anteponat Tullio Montanius noster40, protinus agnitum iri? ...facile credo pusillas Fabii laudes multum infra viri meritum stetisse (quod detrectationis sit tutissimum genus) omnes mecum confessuros’ (pp. 44-5).
Whether they were altogether deserved or not, there can be no doubtthat the strictures made by so great a literary leader as Quintilian was in his own day must have greatly contributed to the overthrow of Seneca’s influence. There is more than one indication, in the literature of the next generation, that he is no longer regarded as a safe model for imitation. Tacitus, in reporting the panegyric which Nero delivered on Claudius after his death, and which was the work of Seneca, says that it displayed much grace of style (multum cultus), as was to be expected from one who possessedingenium amoenum et temporiseiusauribus accommodatum(Ann. xiii. 3). Suetonius tell us how Caligula disparaged thelenius comtiusque scribendi genuswhich Seneca represented; and here (Calig. 53) occurs a similar reference to a fame that had passed away,—Senecamtummaxime placentem, just as the elder Pliny, writing about the time of Seneca’s death, speaks of him asprincepstumeruditorum(Nat. Hist. xiv. 51). Later writers, such as Fronto and Aulus Gellius41were much more unreserved and even immoderate in their censure. And it is a remarkable fact (noted by M. Rocheblave) that the name of the great Stoic nowhere occurs in the writings of his successors, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. He who had been the greatest literary ornament of Nero’s reign disappears almost from notice in the second century.
In regard to the general body of Quintilian’s literary criticism, the question of greatest interest for modern readers is the degree of its originality. How far is Quintilian giving us his own independent judgments on the writings of authors whom he had read at first hand? How far is he merely registering current criticism, which must already have found more or less definite expression in the writings and teaching of previous rhetoricians and grammarians? The circumstances of the case make it impossible for us to approach the special questions which it involves with any great prejudice in favour of Quintilian’s originality in general. The extent of his indebtedness to previous writers, as regards the main body of his work, may be inferred from a glance at the ‘Index scriptorum et artificum’ in Halm’s edition. In many places he is merely simplifying the rules of the Greek rhetoricians whom he followed. Probably he was not equally well up in all the departments of the subject of which he treats, and he naturally relied, to some extent, on the works of those who had preceded him. But did he take his literary criticism from others? Was Quintilian one of those reprehensible persons who do not scruple to borrow, and to give forth as their own, the estimate formed and expressedby some one else of authors whose works they may never themselves have read?
In endeavouring to find an answer to this question, it will be convenient to consider Quintilian’s criticism of the Greek writers apart from that which he applies to his own countrymen, with whose works he mighta prioribe expected to be more familiar. The notes to that part of the Tenth Book in which he deals with Greek literature (1 §§46-84) will show too many instances of parallelism for us to believe that, in addressing himself to this portion of his subject, Quintilian scrupulously avoided incurring any obligations to others42. No doubt in his long career as a teacher he had come into contact with traditional opinion as to the merits and characteristics not only of the Greek but also of the Latin writers; and in the two years which he tells us he devoted to the composition of theInstitutio43he may still further have increased his debt to extraneous sources. It was in fact impossible that Quintilian should have been unaware of the nature of the criticism current in his own day, and of what had previously been said and written by others. But he is not to be thought of as one who, before indicating his opinion of a particular writer, carefully refers, not to that writer’s works, but to the opinion of others concerning them. The cases in which he reproduces, in very similar language, the verdict of others are not always to be explained on the hypothesis of conscious borrowing44. The coincidences which can be traced certainly do detract from the originality of his work.But we do not need to believe that, in writing his individual criticisms, Quintilian always had recourse to the works of others: he no doubt had them at hand, and his career as a teacher had probably impressed on his memory manydictawhich he could hardly fail to reproduce, in one form or another, when he came to gather together the results of his teaching.
Literary criticism at Rome before Quintilian’s time is associated mainly with the names of Varro, Cicero, and Horace45. Varro was the author of numerous works bearing on the history and criticism of literature: such were hisde Poetis,de Poematis,περὶ χαρακτήρων,de Actionibus Scaenicis,Quaestiones Plautinae. Our knowledge of their scope and character is however derived only by inference from a few scattered fragments, and in regard to these it is impossible to say definitely to which of his treatises they severally belong. Quintilian’s references to his literary activity as well as his great learning (vir Romanorum eruditissimusx.1, 95), and the quotation of his estimate of Plautus (ib. §99), are sufficient evidence that he was not unacquainted with Varro’s writings. Cicero he knew probably better than he knew any other author: the extent of his indebtedness to such works as theBrutusmay be inferred from the parallelisms which occur in his treatment of the Attic orators (x.1, 76-80). He dissents expressly from Horace’s estimate of Lucilius (ib. §94): and the frequency of his references to other literary judgments of Horace (cp. §§24, 56, 61, 63) shows that he must have been in the habit of illustrating his teaching by quotations from the works of that cultured critic of literature and life.
But the author with whom Quintilian’s literary criticism has most in common is undoubtedly Dionysius of Halicarnassus. It is true that in the Tenth Book he nowhere expressly mentions him; but references to him by name as an authority on rhetorical matters are common enough in other parts of theInstitutio46. Quintilian no doubt knew his works well, especially that which originally consisted of three booksπερὶ μιμήσεως47. The second book of this treatise has long been known to scholarsin the shape of a fragmentary epitome, which presents so many striking resemblances to the literary judgments contained in the first chapter of Quintilian’s Tenth Book, that early commentators, such as, for instance, H. Stephanus, concluded that Quintilian had borrowed freely from the earlier writer:multa hinc etiam mutuatum constat; quibus modo nomine suppresso pro suis utitur, modo addito verboputantsua non esse declarat. The parallelisms in question were fully drawn out by Claussen in the work mentioned above, though Usener justly remarks that he wrongly includes a good deal that was the common property not only of Dionysius and Quintilian, but of the whole learned world of the day: they will all be found duly recorded in the notes to this edition,1 §§46-84.
The general resemblances between Quintilian and Dionysius are apparent in their order of treatment. In his introduction to theIudicium de Thucydide, the latter sets forth the plan of his second book in terms which present many points of analogy with the scheme of the Tenth Book of theInstitutio:ἐν τοῖς προεκδοθεῖσι Περὶ τῆς μιμήσεως ὑπομνηατισμοῖς ἐπεληλυθὼς οὓς ὑπελάμβανον ἐπιφανεστάτους εἶναι ποιητάς τε καὶ συγγραφεῖς ... καὶ δεδηληκὼς ἐν ὀλίγοις τίνας ἕκαστος αὐτῶν εἰσφέρεται πραγματικάς τε καὶ λεκτικὰς ἀρετὰς καὶ πῇ μάλιστα χείρων ἑαυτοῦ γίνεται ... ἵνα τοῖς προαιρουμένοις γράφειν τε καὶ λέγειν εὖ καλοὶ καὶ δεδοκιμασμένοι κανόνες ὦσιν ἐφ᾽ ὧν ποιήσονται τὰς κατὰ μέρος γυμνασίας, μὴ πάντα μιμούμενοι τὰ παρ᾽ ἐκείνοις κείμενα τοῖς ἀνδράσιν, ἀλλὰ τὰς μὲν ἀρετὰς αὐτῶν λαμβάνοντες, τὰς δ᾽ ἀποτυχίας φυλαττόμενοι‧ ἁψάμενός τε τῶν συγγραφέων ἐδήλωσα καὶ περὶ Θουκουδίδου τὰ δοκοῦντά μοι συντόμῳ τε καὶ κεφαλαιώδει γραφῇ περιλαβών, ... ὡς καὶ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἐποίησα‧ οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἀκριβῆ καὶ διεξοδικὴν δήλωσιν ὑπὲρ ἑκάστου τῶν ἀνδρῶν ποιεῖσθαι προελόμενον εἰς ἐλάχιστον ὄγκον συναγαγεῖν τὴν πραγματείαν.In like manner Quintilian, addressing himself throughout to young men aspiring to success as public speakers, enumerates the various authors who seem to be fit subjects for reading and imitation. While admitting that some benefit may be derived from almost every writer (1 §57), he confines himself to the most distinguished in the various departments of literature (§44paucos enim, qui sunt eminentissimi, excerpere in animo est); and even with regard to these he warns his readers, as Dionysius does, that they are not to imitate all their characteristics, but only what is good (1 §24:2 §§14-15).
The order of treatment is almost identical in the two writers. First come the poets, with the writers of epic poetry at their head: these are not only named in the same order (Homer, Hesiod, Antimachus, Panyasis), but they are commended in very similar terms. But if Quintilian had been translating directly from Dionysius, it is very probable that he would have mentioned him by name, instead of concealing his obligationsby the use of such a phrase asputant(in speaking of Panyasis—see note on§54). If he goes on to add some criticisms which are not in Dionysius, viz. on Apollonius Rhodius, Aratus, Theocritus, and to mention also Pisander, Nicander, and Euphorion, it is with the express intimation that they do not rank in the canon fixed by thegrammatici,—the very reason for which these writers had been omitted by Dionysius. The Greek rhetorician says nothing of the elegiac and iambic poets mentioned by Quintilian,—the former in general terms (princepshabeturCallimachus,secundasconfessione plurimorumPhiletas occupavit§58), the latter with express reference to the judgment of Aristarchus on the great Archilochus (§59)48. In treating of the lyric poets, Quintilian mentions the number nine (§61), which Dionysius does not; but as regards the substance of his criticisms, he is again almost in exact agreement with his predecessor. Both refer to Pindar, Stesichorus, Alcman, and Simonides, with the trifling difference that in Dionysius Simonides comes second instead of fourth on the list. In§65Quintilian proceeds to deal with the Old Comedy, which finds no place in the treatise of Dionysius, as we now have it. And there is very little that corresponds with Dionysius in the sections on Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. But it is noticeable that in both Euripides is made to form the transition to Menander and the New Comedy.
In regard to the poets, then, it seems probable that, while Quintilian was no doubt familiar with the work of Dionysius, he is rather incorporating in his criticism the traditions of the literary schools than borrowing directly from a single predecessor. Claussen was of opinion that the latter is the true state of the case, and he even goes so far (p. 348) as to suppose that the original work of Dionysius (of which the treatise long known as theἈρχαίων κρίσιςor theDe Veterum Censurais only a fragmentary epitome) must have contained notices of the elegiac and iambic poets corresponding with those in Quintilian, as well as of the old comic dramatists and of additional representatives of the New Comedy. But a comparison of the various passages on which a judgment may be based seems to make it certain that, while taking advantage of his knowledge of previous literary criticism (scraps of which he may have accumulated for teaching purposes during his long career), he is not slavishly following any single authority49: cp.§52datur palma(Hesiodo,)§53grammaticorum consensus,§54ordinem a grammaticis datum,§58princeps habeturandconfessione plurimorum,§59ex tribus receptis Aristarchi iudicio scriptoribus iamborum,§64quidam(probably including Dionysius),§67inter plurimos quaeritur,§72consensu ... omnium. And the tone and substance of his estimate of Homer, of Euripides, and of Menander50, seem to show that he was prepared to rely, when necessary, on his own independent judgment (cp.meo quidem iudicio§69), especially in dealing with the poets who would be of greatest service for his professed purpose.
In both Dionysius and Quintilian the poets are followed by the historians. The order in Dionysius is Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Philistus, and Theopompus; in Quintilian, Thucydides, Herodotus, Theopompus, Philistus,—with short notices of Ephorus, Clitarchus and Timagenes. The insertion of the three additional names, and the precedence given to Theopompus, are not the only points in which Quintilian differs here from Dionysius, who is known in this case to have limited himself to the five names in question (Epist. ad Pomp. 767 R: Usener, p. 50, 10): Xenophon is by Quintilian expressly postponed for treatment among the philosophers. In this he probably followed an older tradition, which survived also elsewhere. Cicero speaks of Xenophon as a philosopher (de Orat. ii. §58): in Diogenes Laertius (ii. 48) it is said of himἀλλὰ καὶ ἱστορίαν φιλοσόφων πρῶτος ἔγραψε—a remark which Usener (p. 113) thinks was probably derived from some library list in which Xenophon was ranked among the writers of philosophy; and Dio Chrysostom (Or. xviii.) omits him from his list of the historians, and includes him in that of the Socratics.
These discrepancies may be relied on to disprove Claussen’s allegation that Dionysius’s treatise is Quintilian’sprimus et praecipuus fons. It is quite as probable that, in dealing with the historians, he had before him the passage in the second book of Cicero’sOrator, to which reference has already been made (§55sq.). There Cicero mentions Herodotus, Thucydides, Philistus, Theopompus, and Ephorus, with the addition of Xenophon, Callisthenes and Timaeus. He may also have had at hand the great orator’s lost treatiseHortensius, two fragments of which contain short characterisations of Herodotus, Thucydides, Philistus, Theopompus, and Ephorus51: in writing it Cicero probably followed some list similarto those which were accessible both to Dionysius and Quintilian52. Again there is sufficient resemblance here between Quintilian and Dio Chrysostom (as also in regard to Euripides and Menander: Dio Chr. 6, p. 477 sq.) to justify the supposition that they followed the same tradition. Dio expressly elevates Theopompus to the second rank (10, p. 479),τῶν δὲ ἄκρων Θουκυδίδης ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ καὶ τῶν δευτέρων Θεόπομπος‧ καὶ γὰρ ῥητορικόν τι περὶ τὴν ἀπαγγελίαν τῶν λόγων ἔχει.. With this compare Quintilian’s words:Theopompus his proximus ut in historia praedictis minor, ita oratori magis similis(§74). Ephorus, on the other hand, is expressly eliminated by Dio.
It is perhaps in dealing with the orators that Quintilian gives the surest proofs that he is not following any individual guide. The parallel passages cited in the notes to§§76-80are by no means confined to the writings of Dionysius, though here again words and phrases occur (see esp. the note onhonesti studiosus, in compositione adeo diligens, &c.,§79) which seem to suggest that Quintilian must have kept a common-place book into which he ‘conveyed’ points which struck him as just or appropriate in the literary criticism of others53. Unlike Dionysius, however, he refers to the canon of the ten orators (§76) which the recent work of Brzoska, following A. Reifferscheid, has shown to have originated not with the critics of Alexandria, but with those of Pergamum54. It is noticeable that the five orators whom Quintilian selects for notice out of this canon are identical with those enumerated, in reverse order, by Cicero, de Orat. iii. 28.
In their treatment of the philosophers, the chief point in common between Dionysius and Quintilian is that both put Plato and Xenophon before Aristotle. And, though they agree generally in the terms in which they speak of Aristotle, there is no other noteworthy coincidence. The section on Theophrastus and the Stoics has nothing corresponding to it in Dionysius: here, as elsewhere in the account of philosophy, Cicero was laid under contribution.
We may infer, then, on the whole, that in regard to his judgments of the Greek writers Quintilian followed the established order of the literary schools, and incorporated with the expression of his own opinion much that was traditional in their thought and phraseology. He cannot be supposed to have followed any single authority: he must rather be considered to have gleaned in the whole field of the literature of criticism fromTheophrastus (x.1, 27) down to his own day. He accepted from others, with probably few modifications, the approved lists of poets, historians, orators, and philosophers, and adopted the conventional practice of writing careful and well-considered criticisms upon them—“somewhat cut and dried criticisms,” as Prof. Nettleship says of Dionysius, “which seldom lack sanity, care, and insight, but which are rather dangerously suited for learning by heart and handing on to future generations of pupils.” These lists of ‘classical’ writers may probably be traced back, in the main, to the literary activity of the critics of Alexandria. They would no doubt be well known to the Greek rhetoricians who were at work on the education of the Roman youth as early as the beginning of the first centuryB.C., and may have served as the basis of their prelections to their pupils. Criticism (κρίσις ποιημάτων, κριτικὴ) was an essential part of the office of the ‘grammaticus55.’
In speaking of his duties, which fall under the two main heads ofrecte loquendi scientiaandpoetarum enarratio, Quintilian adds (i. 4, 3):et mixtum his omnibusiudiciumest; quo quidem ita severe sunt usi veteres grammatici ut non versus modo censoria quadam virgula notare et libros, qui falso viderentur inscripti, tamquam subditos submovere familia permiserint sibi, sed auctores alios in ordinem redegerint, alios omnino exemerint numero. Beginning with a critical examination of individual texts, the ‘grammatici’ gathered up the results of their work, on the literary side, in short characterisations of the various writers whom they made the subject of their study, and finally drew up lists of the best authors in each department of literature, with a careful indication of their good points as well as of the features in which they were not to be used as models. This process received a more or less final form at the hands of Aristophanes of Byzantium and his follower Aristarchus (see on x.1, 54), the latter of whom probably introduced such modifications in the list of his predecessor as approved themselves to his own judgment (cp. x.1, 59tres receptosAristarchi iudicioscriptores iamborum). The influence of this method in Roman literature may be seen, early in the first century, in the so-called ‘canon’ of Volcatius Sedigitus, preserved by Gellius (15, 24)56: he makes a list of ten Latin comedians, on the analogy of the canon of the ten Attic orators. The list of the Alexandrine critics was probably in the hands of Cicero, as Usener has shown (pp. 114-126), when he wrote his ‘Hortensius,’—a treatise which seems to have originally contained an introductory sketch of the great contributors to the various departmentsof literature, by way of preparation for the main purpose of the dialogue,—the praise of philosophy57. Then there is Dio Chrysostom, a writer who flourished not long after Quintilian himself, and whose reproduction of similar judgments has already been noted. Such divergences as occur may probably be accounted for, at least in part, by the different points of view from which the various critics wrote. In the preliminary sketch in theHortensiusthe object seems to have been not the education of youth but the recreation of maturity: Dio draws a careful distinction between the branches which serve for the student of rhetoric, and those which may be expected to benefit and delight men who have finished their studies: Quintilian’s aim, again and again reiterated, is to lay down a course of reading suited to form the taste of a young man aspiring to success as a speaker.
The probability that there existed such traditional lists as those referred to (which would also be of service in the arrangement of the great public libraries), is strikingly illustrated in Usener’sEpilogus(p. 128 sq.) by the publication of one which may here be transcribed as of great interest to readers of Quintilian. It will be noticed that though the philosophers are omitted, it contains many points of analogy with that followed by Quintilian, particularly the addition of the later elegiac poets, Philetas and Callimachus. Names only are given, without any criticism attached58.
Greek numerals were printed with overlines ¯. They are shown here in ´ form to reduce text-display problems.
Ποιηταὶ πέντε‧ Ὅμηρος Ἡσίοδος Πείσανδρος Πανύασις Ἀντίμαχος.
ἰαμβοποιοὶ τρεῖς‧ Σημονίδης Ἀρχίλοχος Ἱππῶναξ.
τραγῳδοποιοὶ ε´‧ Ἀισχύλος Σοφοκλῆς Εὐριπίδης Ἴων Ἀχαιός.
κωμῳδοποιοὶ ἀρχαίας ζ´‧ Ἐπίχαρμος Κρατῖνος Εὔπολις Ἀριστοφάνης Φερεκράτης Κράτης Πλάτων.
μέσης κωμῳδίας β´‧ Ἀντιφάνες Ἄλεξις Θούριος.
νέας κωμῳδίας ε´‧ Μένανδρος Φιλιππίδης Δίφιλος Φιλήμων Ἀπολλόδωρος.
ἐλεγείων ποιηταὶ δ´‧ Καλλῖνος Μιμνέρμος Φιλητᾶς Καλλίμαχος.
λυρικοι θ´‧ Ἀλκμάν Ἀλκαῖος Σαπφώ Στησίχορος Πίνδαρος Βακχυλίδης Ἴβυκος Ἀνακρέων Σιμωνίδης....
ῥητορες θ´‧ Δημοσθένης Λυσίας Ὑπερείδης Ἰσοκράτης Ἀισχίνης Λυκοῦργος Ἰσαῖος Ἀντιφῶν Ἀνδοκίδης.
ἱστορικοὶ ι´‧ Θουκυδίδης Ἡρόδοτος Ξενοφῶν Φίλιστος Θεόπομπος Ἔφορος Ἀναξιμένης Καλλισθένης Ἑλλάνικος Πολύβιος.
In regard to the historians, Usener notes that this list seems to indicate the principle on which they were selected and arranged. They are enumerated in pairs, Herodotus and Thucydides coming first, with their imitators Xenophon and Philistus immediately following them. Then come Theopompus and Ephorus, as representing the second rank; and next the historians of Alexander’s victories, Anaximenes and Callisthenes (cp. Cic. de Orat. ii. §58), in place of whom Clitarchus is mentioned by Quintilian. Peculiar features about the list given above are that Thucydides comes first of all (just as Demosthenes does among the orators), and that, perhaps to make up the number ten, a fifth pair of historians is added,—Hellanicus from those of older date, and Polybius to represent more recent writers.
Usener states the conclusion at which he arrives in the following words, which may be accepted with the proviso that they are not to be taken as meaning that Quintilian was altogether ignorant of what Dionysius wrote:Iudicia de poetis scriptoribusque Graecis non a Dionysio Quintilianus mutuatus est. Igitur ne Dionysius quidem sua profert, sed diversum uterque exemplum iudiciorum ut plerumque consonantium expressit. Fontis utrique communis antiquitatem Hortensius Tullianus cum Dione comparatus demonstravit. Posteriore tempore cum eruditionis copia in angustae memoriae paupertatem sensim contraheretur, iudiciis neglectis sola electorum auctorum nomina relicta sunt et laterculi formam induerunt.Quintilian did not transcribe his criticisms of Greek literature from Dionysius. He had no need to do so: the materials from which Dionysius had drawn were available also to him. This is sufficient to account for the resemblances in their critical judgments. But on the other hand it is improbable that Quintilian, in the course of his reading and teaching, had not studied the writings of Dionysius; and some at least of the coincidences to which prominence is given in the notes in this edition must have been the result of his acquaintance with the work of his predecessor.
In his review of Latin literature, Quintilian is no doubt giving us the fruit of his own study and independent judgment, though here again the notes will indicate that he was familiar with what other writers, such as Cicero and Horace, had said before in the way of literary criticism. The examination of his estimate of Seneca has already proved that he did not hesitate to formulate his own opinions, and to press them, whennecessary, upon his pupils. A reference to theAnalysis(pp. 3-5) will show that in this part of his work Quintilian follows the method which had been traditionally applied to the criticism of the Greek writers. The same order is preserved (§85); the various departments of literature are each compared with the corresponding departments in Greek (§§93,99,101,105,123); and individual writers are pitted against each other, and are sometimes characterised in similar terms. In all this Quintilian is consistent with the scheme according to which he had evidently determined to arrange his work: he is consistent also with the general tradition of literary criticism among his countrymen. “As Latin literature since Naevius had adopted Greek models and Greek metres, every Latin writer of any pretensions took some Greek author as his ideal of excellence in the particular style which he was adopting. Criticism accordingly drifted into the vicious course of comparison; of pitting every Latin writer against a Greek writer, as though borrowing from a man would constitute you his rival. Thus Ennius was a Homer, Afranius a Menander, Plautus an Epicharmus, before the days of Horace: in Horace’s time there were three Homers, Varius, Valgius, and Vergil. Cicero and Demosthenes were compared by the Greek critics in the Augustan age, and by the time of Quintilian Sallust has become the Latin Thucydides, Livy the Latin Herodotus59.” It is this idea of making ‘canons’ of Latin writers, to correspond as nearly as possible with those which he had accepted from former critics for the classical writers of Greece, that gives an air of artificiality to Quintilian’s criticism of Latin literature, and interferes somewhat with the general effect which his sane and sober appreciations would otherwise produce. The individual estimates are in the main all that could be wished for, notably the enthusiastic eulogy of Cicero (§§105-112), which it is interesting to compare with a similar passage in the treatise ‘On the Sublime.’ “The same difference,” says the writer, “may be discerned in the grandeur of Cicero as compared with that of his Grecian rival. The sublimity of Demosthenes is generally sudden and abrupt: that of Cicero is equally diffused. Demosthenes is vehement, rapid, vigorous, terrible; he burns and sweeps away all before him; and hence we may liken him to a whirlwind or a thunderbolt: Cicero is like a widespread conflagration, which rolls over and feeds on all around it, whose fire is extensive and burns long, breaking out successively in different places, and finding its fuel now here, now there60.” Excellent also are the shorter characterisations of such writers as Sallust (immortalem Sallusti velocitatem1 §102), of Livy (Livi lactea ubertas1 §32:mirae iucunditatis clarissimiquecandoris§101), of Ovid (nimium amator ingenii sui§88), and of Horace (et insurgit aliquando et plenus est iucunditatis et gratiae et varius figuris et verbis felicissime audax§96). But the general impression we derive is that Quintilian is producing many of his criticisms to order, as it were: so much is he tied down to the plan he has adopted. It is to this same method of mechanical comparison—born of the artificial traditions of the literary schools—that we owe Plutarch’s ‘Parallel Lives’; and it has not been without imitators in more recent times61.
Quintilian’s own style is pretty much what might be expected from the tone of his judgments on others. Cicero was his model, Seneca represented to him everything that was to be avoided: but the interval of a hundred years which separated him from the former was a sufficient barrier to anything more than an approximation to his style, while on the other hand he does not succeed in emancipating himself entirely from the literary tendencies of his own time, which found so complete expression in the writings of Seneca. All the writers of what is known as the Silver Age possess certain marked characteristics, which differentiate them from the best models of the republican period; and of these Quintilian has his share. But he did not fall in with the fashionable depreciation of those models. He knew that it was impossible to bring back the Latinity of the Golden Age in all its characteristic features; but he could at least lift up his voice against the affectation and artificiality of his contemporaries, who looked upon that Latinity as tame, insipid, and commonplace. The point of view from which, as we have already seen, he regarded Seneca may be stated with a wider application:corruptum et omnibus vitiis fractum dicendi genus revocare ad severiora iudicia contendo, x.1, 125.
The depravation of taste which had gone hand in hand with the moral and social degeneration of the Roman people, in the era of transition from republic to empire, has already been touched upon in the discussionof Quintilian’s criticism of Seneca. The literary public had lost all appetite for the natural straightforwardness of the Ciceronian style: it craved for something akin to the highly seasoned dishes by which the epicures of the day sought to stimulate a jaded palate62. It was not enough now to clothe the thought in pure, clear, and elegant language, even when adorned by a wealth of expression that bordered on exuberance, and made musical by the exquisite modulation of the period. No one could win a hearing who did not countenance the fashionable craze for affectation, abruptness, and extravagance. Directness, ease, and intelligibility were no recommendations63. In order to strike and stimulate, everything must be full of point. Feebleness of thought was considered to be redeemed by epigram and formal antithesis. The amplitude and artistic symmetry of the Ciceronian period gave place to a broken and abrupt style, the main object of which was to arrest attention and to challenge admiration. Showy passages were looked for, expressed in new and striking phraseology, such as could be reproduced and even handed on to others64. The charm of style and the test of its excellence consisted in its being artificial, inflated, meretricious, involved, obscure—in a word, depraved65.
Quintilian’s distaste for the prevailing fashion inclined him to return to the models of the best republican period. Exclusive devotion to one particular type was forbidden him, if by nothing else, by his own declared principles,—non qui maxime imitandus et solus imitandus est(2 §24); and accordingly, in spite of his great admiration for Cicero, we find several well-marked features of difference between him and his master, not only in the use of words, but also in the structure and composition of sentences66. Indeed, it could not have been otherwise. Quintilian’s mission was to restore to Latin composition the direct and natural character of the earlier style; but he could not extirpate that tendency to poetical expression which had taken root at Rome as far back as thedays of Sallust, and was fostered and encouraged in his own time by the wider study of Greek. He was conscious also of the need of making some concessions to the popular demand for ornament. The power of the ‘sententious’ style proved itself even on its critic and antagonist. That he was aware of the compromise he was making is clear from such a passage as the following, in which he indicates how Cicero may be adapted to contemporary requirements:ad cuius (Ciceronis) voluptates nihil equidem quod addi possit invenio,nisi ut sensus nos quidem dicamus plures: nempe enim fieri potest salva tractatione causae et dicendi auctoritate, si non crebra haec lumina et continua fuerint et invicem offecerint. Sed mehactenus cedentemnemo insequatur ultra, &c. (xii. 10, 46-7). There was a point beyond which he refused to go: clearness and simplicity must never be sacrificed to effect. These qualities may be claimed for Quintilian’s style; it is also sufficiently varied for his subject. When it is obscure, we must remember the defective state in which his text has come down to us67.
It is quite possible to exemplify from the Tenth Book alone the main features in which Quintilian’s language and style differ from those of Cicero. And first, in regard to his vocabulary, a list may be appended of words which, though not peculiar to Quintilian, are yet not to be found in the republican period68.
Amaritudo, figuratively (Plin. S., Sen., Val. Max.), x.1, 117.
Auditorium(Tac. Dial., Plin. S., Suet.), x.1, 79: cp. v. 12, 20licet hanc (eloquentiam) auditoria probent.