Marcus Fabius Quintilian

Marcus Fabius Quintilian was a notable Roman advocate, teacher and posthumously a famous authority on rhetoric. He was born around 35 CE at Calahorra in Spain. His father seems to have also been an orator. His school brought him unusual wealth for one of his profes­sion. He taught for twenty years, numbering the younger Pliny among his pupils, and retired, perhaps in 88, to write his masterpiece the new translation by Donald Russell is reviewed below. Donald Russell's new five-volume Loeb Classical Library edition of The Orator's Education, which replaces an eighty-year-old translation by H. E. Butler, provides a text and facing translation fully up to date in light of current scholarship and well tuned to today's taste. Russell also provides unusually rich explanatory notes, which enable full appreciation of this central work in the history of rhetoric.

The Orator's Education: Books 1 - 2  by Marcus Fabius Quintilian, edited and translated by D. A. Russell (Loeb Classical Library, No 124: Harvard University Press) The extant Institutio Oratoria, The Orator’s Education, written and probably published before Domitian's death in 96 and dedicated to Victorius Marcellus; its composition took rather more than two years, after which it was put aside for some time. It covers the training of an orator from childhood to the peak of his career. Book 1 discusses the education of the child, a practical, humane, and fascinating section, and goes on to the technicalities of grammar, which Quintilian clearly found of great interest. In Book 2 the boy enters the school of rhetoric; there is a memorable chapter on the good teacher, and Quintilian gives a balanced account of the virtues and vices of declamation, before going on to a discussion of rhetoric, drawing on the prolegomena to Greek rhetorical handbooks.

Contents
A. Prefatory material: 1.1‑3.5 (i) The educational preliminaries 1.1 Early childhood: learning to read and write letters, syllables and complete words. 1.2 Home teaching or school? 1.3 Advice to teachers on diagnosing abilities and handling young children. Against corporal punishment. 1.4‑7 Linguistic teaching from the grammaticus (ratio  loquendi). 1.8‑9 Reading texts under the grammaticus. Writing elementary exercises (fable, gnonne, chria, simple narrative) under the gramnnaticus. 1.10 Other disciplines: logic, music, geometry. 1.11 Other teachers: actors, gymnastic trainers. 1.12 Timetabling problems: several subjects can be learned at once. (ii) The first stages of the rhetor's teaching

2.1 At what age should the boy be sent to the rhetor? 2.2 Relationship of rhetor and pupil. Boys of different ages to be kept apart. 2.3 Beginners need the best teachers. 2.4 More advanced progymnasmata (compare 1.9):  Narrative, Refutation and Confirmation, Enco mium and Invective, Commonplaces, Thesis, Criticism of Laws. 2.5 The rhetor should read oratory and history with his pupils. Archaism and modernism to be avoided in the choice of texts. 2.6‑10 Remarks on setting, teaching, and correcting Declamations for pupils of varying talents and abilities. (iii) Prolegomena to Rhetoric 2.11‑12 Necessity of the art; polemic against those who rely wholly on Nature. 2.13 But textbook learning is not enough. 2.14 Origin of the name "rhetoric": Art, Artist, and Work. 2.15 Definitions of Rhetoric. The best is "the science of speaking well." 2.16 Is Rhetoric useful? 2.17‑18 Is it an Art? If so, what sort of Art? 2.19 Nature and teaching must both contribute. 2.20  Is it a virtue? 2.21 What is its "material" and its "instrument"? (iv) Further prolegomena: history and categorizations of the subject. 3.1.1‑7 Introduction to the main work.

The Orator's Education: Books 3 - 5 by Marcus Fabius Quintilian, edited and translated by D. A. Russell (Loeb Classical Library, No 125: Harvard University Press) Book 3 names his authorities and goes into much detail on the status‑lore, besides giving most of what Quintilian has to say on deliberative and epideictic oratory. Books 4‑6 take us through the parts of a speech, with appendices on various topics, including the arousal of emotions and of laugh­ter

Contents: 3.1.8‑22 Earlier writers on the subject. 3.2 Origins of rhetoric in human nature. 3.3 The Five Parts of Rhetoric‑Invention, Disposition, Elocution, Memory, Delivery. Various views on these. 3.4 The three `kinds of Causes": Forensic (Judicial), Deliberative, Epideictic. 3.5 Other basic categorizations: Nature, Art, Practice; the Three Functions (to instruct, to affect the emotions, to give pleasure); "Legal" and  "Rational" Questions; "Indefinite" and "Definite" Questions. What is a "Cause?" B. Invention (3.6‑6.5) (i) Issues (status) 3.6 Theory of Issues in general; its relation to Aristotle's Categories (3.6.23); various views on the number of types of Issue; Quintilian's own  views (3.6.66ff)‑there are three Rational  Issues (Conjecture, Definition, Quality), and Legal Issues are separate. 3.6.95‑103 Complex cases; a model example. (u) Epideictic (3.7). (iii) Deliberative (3.8). (iv) Forensic (3.9‑6.5). 3.9 The basic structure: Prooemium, Narrative, Proofs, Refutations, Epilogue. 3.10 How to diagnose Simple, Compound, and Compar ative Causes. 3.11 How to determine the Question, Line of Defence, Point for Decision, and "Core" (Quaestio, Ratio, ludiratio, Continens).

(4 prooemium: announces Quintilian's appointment as rhetor to the sons of Flavius Clemens, and the plan of the next book, viz. the Parts of Forensic Causes.) 4.1 Prooemia. 4.2 Narrative. 4.3 Digressions. 4.4 Propositions. 4.5 Partitions.

(5 prooemium: introduction to the subject of Proof.) 5.1‑14 Proofs and Refutations. (a) 5.1 The distinction between Technical and Non technical Proofs. (b) 5.2‑7 Non-technical Proofs. 5.2 Previous Decisions. 5.3 Rumours. 5.4 Torture. 5.5 Documents. 5.6 Oaths. 5.7 Witnesses; oracles, words spoken in sleep or mad ness (5.7.35‑36). (c) 5.8-14 Technical Proofs. 5.8 General principles.

5.9 Signs. 5.10 Arguments (Enthymeme, Epicheireme). 5.11 Examples (including Proverbs, Fables, "Authority"). 5.12 Uses of arguments (and warnings (12.17‑22) about modern declamation practice). 5.13 Refutations. 5.14 Enthymeme and Epicheireme: uses and limitations.

The Orator's Education: Books 6 - 8 by Marcus Fabius Quintilian, edited and translated by D. A. Russell (Loeb Classical Library, No 126: Harvard University Press) Invention thus dealt with, Quintilian proceeds to arrange­ment in Book 7, with much on the different kinds of status, and to style in books 8 and 9, full of examples from prose and poetry.

(6 prooemium: Quintilian's bereavements, forming an introduction to the treatment of Epilogues and Emotions.) 6.1 The epilogue. 6.2 Emotions in general: ethos and pathos; phantasia ("visualization'). 6.3 Laughter. 6.4 Altercation. 6.5 Judgment and Planning‑these are involved at all  stages of composition, not only in Invention.

C. Disposition (7.1‑7.10) 7.1 "Division," including (1.40‑64) a declamation subject treated in detail. 7.2 Disposition in Conjectural Causes. 7.3 Disposition in Issues of Definition. 7.4.1‑12 Disposition in Issues of Quality in general. 7.4.13‑24 Transference, Extenuation, etc. 7.4.25‑44 Special types of Cause (such as those of Disowning Children) that come under Quality. 7.5 Disposition in Demurrers. 7.6‑9 Disposition in Legal Issues. 7.6 Letter and Spirit. 7.7 Conflict of Laws. 7.8 Causes involving Analogy, ("syllogism").

7.9 Ambiguity. 7.10  General remarks on the affinities between the various Issues; a warning against trying to teach everything.

D. Elocution (8.1‑11.1) (8 prooemium: a summary of Books 2‑7) 8.1 The first "virtue" of Elocution: Latinity. 8.2 The second: Lucidity. 8.3‑10.7 The third: "Ornament." 8.3.15‑39 Ornament in individual words. 8.3.40‑89 In words in combination (including discussion of faults (44‑60), vividness (61‑71),  similes (72‑82), emphasis (83‑89)).  8.3.89‑ Amplification and Attenuation.  8.4  8.5 Sententiae.  8.6‑9.3 Figures and Tropes. 8.6 Tropes

The Orator's Education: Books 9 - 10 by Marcus Fabius Quintilian, edited and translated by D. A. Russell (Loeb Classical Library, No 127: Harvard University Press) Book 10, the most accessible of all, shows how the student is to acquire a 'firm facility' by reading, writing, and imitating good exemplars. The first chapter ends with a famous critique of Greek and Latin writers; Quintilian's concern is to direct his readers towards predecessors who will be useful in the acquisition of oratorical techniques; hence what might otherwise seem strange judgments, brevities ('some prefer Propertius'), and omissions: despite this limitation, many of his dicta have become classics of ancient criticism. The Greek section is derivative; the Latin, in which Quintilian is often at pains to show how Roman writers can stand up to Greek counterparts, is more original.

Contents: 9.1 The difference between Tropes and Fig­ures; general considerations about Figures; the basic texts from Cicero's De oratore and Orator. 9.2 Figures of Thought.  9.3 Figures of Speech.  9.4 "Composition" and rhythm.

10.1‑7 How to acquire verbal facility.  10.1 By reading: which are the best authors to use as models?  10.2 By Imitation. 10.3 By writing practice. 10.4 By correcting your work. 10.5 By written exercises (translation, paraphrase, thesis). 10.6 By preparing the speech mentally. 10.7 By learning to improvise.

The Orator's Education: Books 11 - 12 by Marcus Fabius Quintilian, edited and translated by D. A. Russell (Loeb Classical Library, No 494: Harvard University Press) In Book 11 the traditional five parts of rhetoric are rounded off with discus­sion of memory and delivery; fascinating details of dress and gesture are here preserved. There is also an important chapter on propriety. The final book shows the Complete Orator, vir bonus dicendi petitus (12. 1. 1: 'the good man skilled in speaking') in action, a man of the highest character and ideals, the consum­mation of all that is best in morals, training, and stylistic dis­cernment; Quintilian's insistence on eloquence as a moral force is here at its most impressive.

Contents: 11.1 The fourth "virtue": decorum or appropriateness. E. Memory (11.2) F. Delivery (11.3)

G. The finished orator: moral issues (12) 12.1 "The Good Man skilled in speaking: moral dilemmas. 12.2 Rhetoric and philosophy. 12.3 Rhetoric and legal knowledge. 12.4 The uses of history. 12.5 The importance of personality. 12.6 When should a career begin? 12.7 How to choose cases. 12.8 How to prepare cases. 12.9 How to deliver the speech. 12.10 The "work" itself: types of style; needs of the modern age. 12.11.1‑7 Retirement (resumes from the discussion of the orator's career, 12.6-9). 12.11.8-31 Conclusion to the whole work, echoing the ideas of the Preface.

Quintilian's style, never less than competent, is not without some range and authority. But it was content rather presentation that most concerned him. Deeply permeated in Ciceronian ideas, and reacting penetratingly against the inclinations of his own century, his great book is a warehouse of good sense, humane erudition and prudence. Russell's trnalation is likely to help refocus attention to this important author'

The Orator's Education influence in the Middle Ages was limited by gaps in the manuscripts most widely available then, but after Poggio's discovery of a complete text at St. Gall in 1416, it matured to fame and influence, and is now one of the most fulsome examples we have of ancient rhetorical practice and educational theory. It remained essential to classical education until the end of the 18th century when rhetorical styles became more imbued with logical argumentations.

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