Quintilian: INSTITUTIONES

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I. Parata, sicut superiore libro continetur, facultate scribendi cogitandique et ex tempore etiam, cum res poscet, orandi, proxima est cura ut dicamus apte, quam virtutem quartam elocutionis Cicero demonstrat, quaeque est meo quidem iudicio maxime necessaria.
II. Nam cum sit ornatus orationis varius et multiplex conveniatque alius alii, nisi fuerit accommodatus rebus atque personis non modo non inlustrabit eam, sed etiam destruet et vim rerum in contrarium vertet. Quid enim prodest esse verba et Latina et significantia et nitida, figuris etiam numerisque elaborata, nisi cum iis in quae iudicem duci formarique volumus consentiant:
III.

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1. With the faculty of writing and thinking prepared, and also of speaking ex tempore, when the matter shall demand it, as is contained in the previous book, the next care is that we speak aptly—a virtue which Cicero demonstrates as the fourth of elocution, and which, in my judgment at least, is most necessary.
2. For since the ornament of discourse is various and manifold, and one is fitting to one thing, another to another, unless it has been accommodated to the matters and to the persons, it will not only fail to illuminate it, but will even destroy it and turn the force of the matters into the contrary. For what does it profit that the words be both Latin and significant and polished, elaborated even with figures and numbers, unless they agree with those ends toward which we wish the judge to be led and shaped:
3.

si genus sublime dicendi parvis in causis, pressum limatumque grandibus, laetum tristibus, lene asperis, minax supplicibus, summissum concitatis, trux atque violentum iucundis adhibeamus? - ut monilibus et margaritis ac veste longa, quae sunt ornamenta feminarum, deformentur viri, nec habitus triumphalis, quo nihil excogitari potest augustius, feminas deceat.
IV. Hunc locum Cicero breviter in tertio de Oratore libro perstringit, neque tamen videri potest quicquam omisisse dicendo "non omni causae neque auditori neque personae neque tempori congruere orationis unum genus": nec fere pluribus in Oratore eadem.

what if we were to apply a sublime kind of speaking to small cases, a compressed and file-polished one to great, a joyful one to sad, a gentle one to harsh, a menacing one to suppliants, a submissive one to the impassioned, a grim and violent one to pleasant matters? - as by necklaces and pearls and a long robe, which are ornaments of women, men are disfigured, nor does the triumphal attire, than which nothing more august can be devised, befit women.
4. Cicero briefly touches on this passage in the third book of On the Orator, nor, however, can he seem to have omitted anything in saying "one single kind of speech does not suit every case nor hearer nor person nor time": nor, in the Orator, are the same points treated in many more words.

Sed illic L. Crassus, cum apud summos oratores hominesque eruditissimos dicat, satis habet partem hanc velut notare inter agnoscentis, et hic Cicero adloquens Brutum testatur esse haec ei nota ideoque brevius a se dici, quamquam sit fusus locus tracteturque a philosophis latius.
V. Nos institutionem professi non solum scientibus ista sed etiam discentibus tradimus, ideoque paulo pluribus verbis debet haberi venia.
VI. Quare notum sit nobis ante omnia quid conciliando docendo movendo iudici conveniat, quid quaque parte orationis petamus.

But there L. Crassus, when he speaks among the highest orators and most erudite men, deems it enough to, as it were, mark this part among those who recognize it; and here Cicero, addressing Brutus, attests that these things are known to him and therefore are said by himself more briefly, although the topic is diffuse and is handled more broadly by philosophers.
5. We, having professed instruction, hand down these matters not only to those who know but also to those who are learning; and therefore pardon ought to be granted for a few more words.
6. Wherefore let it be known to us before all things what is suitable to the judge in conciliating, teaching, and moving, and what we seek in each part of the speech.

Ita nec vetera aut tralata aut ficta verba in incipiendo, narrando, argumentando tractabimus, neque decurrentis contexto nitore circumitus ubi dividenda erit causa et in partis suas digerenda, neque humile atque cotidianum sermonis genus et compositione ipsa dissolutum epilogis dabimus, nec iocis lacrimas, ubi opus erit miseratione, siccabimus.
VII. Nam ornatus omnis non tam sua quam rei cui adhibetur condicione constat, nec plus refert quid dicas quam quo loco.

Thus neither old, or transferred, or fictitious words shall we handle in beginning, narrating, arguing, nor the circumitus of a running, contextured splendor where the case will have to be divided and digested into its parts, nor shall we give to epilogues a humble and everyday kind of speech, dissolved in its very composition, nor with jokes shall we dry tears where there will be need of commiseration.
7. For every ornament depends not so much on its own as on the condition of the matter to which it is applied, nor does it matter more what you say than in what place.

Sed totum hoc apte dicere non elocutionis tantum genere constat, sed est cum inventione commune. Nam si tantum habent etiam verba momentum, quanto res ipsae magis? Quarum quae esset observatio suis locis subinde subiecimus.

But to say all this aptly does not consist only in the genus of elocution, but is held in common with invention. For if even words have so much momentum, how much more the things themselves? The observation of which we have from time to time subjoined in their proper places.

VIII. Illud est diligentius docendum, eum demum dicere apte qui non solum quid expediat sed etiam quid deceat inspexerit. Nec me fugit plerumque haec esse coniuncta: nam quod decet fere prodest, neque alio magis animi iudicum conciliari aut, si res in contrarium tulit, alienari solent.

8. That must be taught more diligently: that he speaks aptly who has examined not only what is expedient but also what is decent. Nor does it escape me that these are for the most part conjoined: for what is decent generally profits, nor in any other way are the minds of judges more wont to be conciliated, or, if the matter has carried it to the contrary, to be alienated.

IX. Aliquando tamen et haec dissentiunt: quotiens autem pugnabunt, ipsam utilitatem vincet quod decet. Nam quis nescit nihil magis profuturum ad absolutionem Socrati fuisse quam si esset usus illo iudiciali genere defensionis et oratione summissa conciliasset iudicum animos sibi crimenque ipsum sollicite redarguisset?
X. Verum id eum minime decebat, ideoque sic egit ut qui poenam suam honoribus summis esset aestimaturus.

9. Sometimes, however, these also disagree: and whenever they clash, what is decorous will prevail over utility itself. For who does not know that nothing would have been more profitable for the acquittal of Socrates than if he had used that judicial kind of defense and, with a submissive oration, had conciliated the minds of the judges to himself and had carefully confuted the charge itself?
10. But that did not at all befit him, and therefore he acted as one who was going to esteem his punishment as the highest honors.

Maluit enim vir sapientissimus quod superesset ex vita sibi perire quam quod praeterisset. Et quando ab hominibus sui temporis parum intellegebatur, posterorum se iudiciis reservavit, brevi detrimento iam ultimae senectutis aevum saeculorum omnium consecutus.
XI. Itaque quamvis Lysias, qui tum in dicendo praestantissimus habebatur, defensionem illi scriptam optulisset, uti ea noluit, cum bonam quidem sed parum sibi convenientem iudicavisset.

For the most wise man preferred that what remained of life should perish for him rather than what had passed. And since he was little understood by the men of his time, he reserved himself for the judgments of posterity, by a brief detriment at the very end of old age attaining the lifetime of all ages.
XI. And so, although Lysias, who then was held as most preeminent in speaking, had offered him a written defense, he did not wish to use it, since he judged it good indeed but little fitting for himself.

Quo vel solo patet non persuadendi sed bene dicendi finem in oratore servandum, cum interim persuadere deforme sit. Non fuit hoc utile absolutioni, sed, quod est maius, homini fuit.
XII.

By this alone it is evident that the end to be preserved in the orator is not persuading but speaking well, since meanwhile to persuade is unseemly. This was not useful to the absolution, but, what is greater, it was for the man.
12.

Et nos secundum communem potius loquendi consuetudinem quam ipsam veritatis regulam divisione hac utimur, ut ab eo quod deceat utilitatem separemus: nisi forte prior ille Africanus, qui patria cedere quam cum tribuno plebis humillimo contendere de innocentia sua maluit, inutiliter sibi videtur consuluisse, aut P. Rutilius, vel cum illo paene Socratico genere defensionis est usus, vel cum revocante eum +P.+
XIII. sulla manere in exilio maluit, quid sibi maxime conduceret nesciebat. Hi vero parva illa quae abiectissimus quisque animus utilia credit, si cum virtute conferantur, despicienda iudicaverunt, ideoque perpetua saeculorum admiratione celebrantur.

And we too, according rather to the common custom of speaking than to the very rule of truth, use this division, so that we separate utility from what is decorous: unless perhaps that earlier Africanus, who preferred to yield his fatherland rather than to contend with a most lowly tribune of the plebs about his own innocence, seems to have taken counsel for himself to no utility; or P. Rutilius—whether when he employed that almost Socratic kind of defense, or when, +P.+
13. sulla recalling him, he preferred to remain in exile—did not know what would most conduce to himself. These men indeed judged that those petty things which every most abject spirit believes to be useful, if compared with virtue, are to be despised, and therefore they are celebrated by the perpetual admiration of the ages.

Neque nos simus tam humiles ut quae laudamus inutilia credamus.
XIV. Sed hoc qualecumque discrimen raro admodum eveniet: ceterum idem fere, ut dixi, in omni genere causarum et proderit et decebit.

Nor let us be so humble that we believe the things we praise to be inutile.
14. But this distinction, of whatever kind, will very rarely occur: moreover, the same, as I said, in almost every kind of causes will both be profitable and decent.

Est autem quod omnes et semper et ubique deceat, facere ac dicere honeste, contraque neminem umquam ullo in loco turpiter. Minora vero quaeque sunt ex mediis plerumque sunt talia ut aliis sint concedenda, aliis non sint, aut pro persona tempore loco causa magis ac minus vel excusata debeant videri vel reprehendenda.
XV. cum dicamus autem de rebus aut alienis aut nostris, dividenda ratio est eorum, dum sciamus pleraque neutro loco convenire.

There is, moreover, that which befits all and always and everywhere: to do and to speak honorably, and never, against anyone, anywhere, dishonorably. But the lesser things which are from the “middle” are for the most part such that to some they are to be conceded, to others not; or, according to person, time, place, and cause, they ought to seem more or less either excused or reprehended.
15. when, however, we speak about matters either belonging to others or to ourselves, the consideration of them must be divided, while we understand that very many fit in neither category.

In primis igitur omnis sui vitiosa iactatio est, eloquentiae tamen in oratore praecipue, adfertque audientibus non fastidium modo sed plerumque etiam odium.
XVI. Habet enim mens nostra natura sublime quiddam et erectum et inpatiens superioris: ideoque abiectos aut summittentes se libenter adlevamus, quia hoc facere tamquam maiores videmur, et quotiens discessit aemulatio, succedit humanitas.

In the first place, therefore, every self-vaunting is vicious; yet the vaunting of eloquence in an orator especially, brings to the hearers not only fastidiousness but for the most part even hatred.
16. For our mind has by nature something sublime and erect and impatient of a superior: and therefore we gladly raise up the abject or those who submit themselves, because we seem to do this as if we were the greater; and whenever emulation departs, humanity succeeds.

At qui se supra modum extollit, premere ac despicere creditur nec tam se maiorem quam minores ceteros facere.
XVII. Inde invident humiliores (hoc vitium est eorum qui nec cedere volunt nec possunt contendere), rident superiores, improbant bonI.

But he who exalts himself beyond measure is believed to press down and to despise, and not so much to make himself greater as to make the others smaller.
17. Hence the humbler envy (this is the vice of those who neither wish to yield nor are able to contend), the superiors laugh, the good disapprove.

Plerumque vero deprendas adrogantium falsam de se opinionem, sed in veris quoque sufficit conscientia.
Reprehensus est in hac parte non mediocriter Cicero, quamquam is quidem rerum a se gestarum maior quam eloquentiae fuit in orationibus utique iactator.
XVIII.

For the most part, indeed, you may catch in the arrogant a false opinion about themselves; but even in truths, self-awareness suffices.
Cicero was quite sharply criticized in this respect, although he, to be sure, was in his speeches especially a boaster—more of deeds done by himself than of eloquence.
18.

Et plerumque illud quoque non sine aliqua ratione fecit: aut enim tuebatur eos quibus erat adiutoribus usus in opprimenda coniuratione, aut respondebat invidiae, cui tamen non fuit par, servatae patriae poenam passus exilium: ut illorum quae egerat in consulatu frequens commemoratio possit videri non gloriae magis quam defensioni data.
XIX. Eloquentiam quidem, cum plenissimam diversae partis advocatis concederet, sibi numquam in agendo inmodice adrogavit.

And for the most part he did that, too, not without some rationale: for either he was protecting those whose help he had used as auxiliaries in crushing the conspiracy, or he was responding to invidiousness, to which, however, he was not equal, having suffered exile as the penalty of a fatherland saved: so that the frequent commemoration of those things which he had done in his consulship can seem to have been given not so much to glory as to defense.
19. Eloquence indeed, although he conceded the fullest to the advocates of the opposite party, he never immoderately arrogated to himself in pleading.

Illius sunt enim: "si, iudices, ingeni mei, quod sentio quam sit exiguum", et: "quod ingenio minus possum, subsidium mihi diligentia comparavi."
XX. Quin etiam contra Q. Caecilium de accusatore in Verrem constituendo, quamvis multum esset in hoc quoque momenti, uter ad agendum magis idoneus veniret, dicendi tamen facultatem magis illi detraxit quam adrogavit sibi, seque non consecutum sed omnia fecisse ut posset eam consequi dixit.
XXI. In epistulis aliquando familiariter apud amicos, nonnumquam in dialogis, aliena tamen persona verum de eloquentia sua dicit.

For these sayings are his: “if, judges, of my ingenuity—which I realize how scant it is,” and: “what I am less able by ingenuity to accomplish, I have procured for myself a subsidy by diligence.”
20. Nay even in the case against Q. Caecilius about establishing the accuser in the cause against Verres, although there was much weight here too—namely, which of them would come more suitable for conducting the action—yet he rather detracted from that man’s faculty of speaking than arrogated it to himself, and he said that he had not attained it but had done everything so that he might be able to attain it.
21. In letters sometimes familiarly among friends, sometimes in dialogues, yet under an alien persona he speaks the truth about his own eloquence.

Et aperte tamen gloriari nescio an sit magis tolerabile vel ipsa vitii huius simplicitate quam illa iactatione perversa, si abundans opibus pauperem se et nobilis obscurum et potens infirmum et disertus imperitum plane et infantem vocet.
XXII. Ambitiosissimum gloriandi genus est etiam deridere.

And yet to glory openly I do not know whether it is more tolerable by the very simplicity of this vice than by that perverse jactation, if one abounding in resources calls himself poor, and, though noble, obscure, and, though powerful, infirm, and, though eloquent, plainly unskilled and an infant.
22. The most ambitious genus of boasting is even to deride.

Ab aliis ergo laudemur: nam ipsos, ut Demosthenes ait, erubescere etiam cum ab aliis laudabimur decet. Neque hoc dico, non aliquando de rebus a se gestis oratori esse dicendum, sicut eidem Demostheni pro Ctesiphonte: quod tamen ita emendavit ut necessitatem id faciendi ostenderet, invidiamque omnem in eum regereret qui hoc se coegisset.
XXIII.

Let us therefore be lauded by others: for we ourselves, as Demosthenes says, ought to blush even when we shall be praised by others. Nor do I say this to mean that an orator ought not sometimes to speak about deeds performed by himself, as the same Demosthenes did in For Ctesiphon: which, however, he so amended as to show the necessity of doing it, and to redirect all ill-will onto the man who had compelled him to this.
23.

Et M. tullius saepe dicit de oppressa coniuratione Catilinae, sed modo id virtuti senatus, modo providentiae deorum inmortalium adsignat. Plerumque contra inimicos atque obtrectatores plus vindicat sibi: erant enim illa tuenda cum obicerentur.
XXIV.

And M. Tullius often speaks about the suppressed conspiracy of Catiline, but at one time he assigns it to the virtue of the senate, at another to the providence of the immortal gods. For the most part, however, against enemies and detractors he vindicates more to himself; for those matters had to be defended when they were being objected.
24.

In carminibus utinam pepercisset, quae non desierunt carpere maligni:
"cedant arma togae, concedat laurea linguae"
et
"o fortunatam natam me consule Romam!"
et Iovem illum a quo in concilium deorum advocatur, et Minervam quae artes eum edocuit: quae sibi ille secutus quaedam Graecorum exempla permiserat.
XXV. Verum eloquentiae ut indecora iactatio, ita nonnumquam concedenda fiducia est.

Would that he had spared us in his poems, which the malignant have not ceased to carp at:
"let arms yield to the toga, let the laurel yield to the tongue"
and
"O fortunate Rome, born with me as consul!"
and that Jupiter by whom he is summoned into the council of the gods, and Minerva who instructed him in the arts: which he had allowed himself, following certain Greek examples.
25. But just as an indecorous vaunting of eloquence is unbecoming, so sometimes confidence is to be conceded.

Nam quis reprendat haec: "Quid putem? Contemptumne me? Non video nec in vita nec in gratia nec in rebus gestis nec in hac mea mediocritate ingenii quid despicere possit Antonius":
XXVI. et paulo post apertius: "An decertare mecum voluit contentione dicendi?

For who would reprehend these: "What am I to think? Am I contemned? I do not see, neither in my life nor in favor nor in deeds done nor in this my mediocrity of genius, anything which Antony could despise":
XXVI. and a little later, more openly: "Or did he wish to vie with me in a contest of speaking?"

Hoc quidem est beneficium. Quid enim plenius, quid uberius quam mihi et pro me et contra Antonium dicere?"
XXVII. Adrogantes et illi qui se iudicasse de causa nec aliter adfuturos fuisse proponunt.

This indeed is a benefit. For what is fuller, what more abundant, than to speak both to me and for me, and against Antony?"
27. Arrogant, too, are those who put forward that they have judged the case and that they would not have been present otherwise.

Nam et inviti iudices audiunt praesumentem partes suas, nec hoc oratori contingere inter adversarios quod Pythagorae inter discipulos contigit potest: "ipse dixit." Sed istud magis minusve vitiosum est pro personis dicentium:
XXVIII. defenditur enim aliquatenus aetate dignitate auctoritate: quae tamen vix in ullo tanta fuerint ut non hoc adfirmationis genus temperandum sit aliqua moderatione, sicut omnia in quibus patronus argumentum ex se ipso petet. Quid fuisset tumidius si accipiendum criminis loco negasset Cicero equitis Romani esse filium se defendente?

For even unwilling judges listen to a man presuming upon his own side, nor can that befall an orator among adversaries which befell Pythagoras among his disciples: “he himself said it.” But that is more or less faulty according to the persons of the speakers:
28. for it is defended in some measure by age, dignity, authority; which, however, will scarcely in anyone have been so great that this kind of affirmation ought not to be tempered by some moderation, as in all cases in which the advocate seeks an argument from himself. What would have been more puffed‑up than if, with himself as defender, Cicero had denied—so as to be taken in the place of a charge—that he was the son of a Roman eques?

At ille fecit hoc etiam favorabile coniungendo cum iudicibus dignitatem suam: "equitis Romani autem esse filium criminis loco poni ab accusatoribus neque his iudicantibus oportuit nec defendentibus nobis."
XXIX. Impudens, tumultuosa, iracunda actio omnibus indecora, sed, ut quisque aetate dignitate usu praecedit, magis in ea reprendendus. Videas autem rixatores quosdam neque iudicum reverentia neque agendi more ac modo contineri, quo ipso mentis habitu manifestum sit tam in suscipiendis quam in agendis causis nihil pensi habere.

But he made even this favorable by conjoining his own dignity with that of the judges: "that my being the son of a Roman knight should be set by the accusers in the place of a charge was fitting neither for these men as judges nor for us who are defending."
29. A shameless, tumultuous, irascible delivery is unseemly for all, but the more one excels in age, dignity, and use (experience), the more he is to be reprehended in it. You may see certain brawlers restrained neither by reverence for the judges nor by the custom and mode of pleading, from which very habit of mind it is manifest that both in undertaking and in conducting cases they have no regard for anything of weight.

XXX. Profert enim mores plerumque oratio et animi secreta detegit: nec sine causa Graeci prodiderunt ut vivat quemque etiam dicere. humiliora illa vitia: summissa adulatio, adfectata scurrilitas, in rebus ac verbis parum modestis ac pudicis vilis pudor, in omni negotio neglecta auctoritas.

30. For speech for the most part brings forth character and uncovers the mind’s secrets; nor without cause did the Greeks hand down that each one also speaks as he lives. The more lowly vices are these: submissive adulation, affected scurrility, in matters and words too little modest and chaste a paltry sense of shame, in every business a neglected authority.

Quae fere accidunt eis qui nimium aut blandi esse aut ridiculi volunt.
XXXI. Ipsum etiam eloquentiae genus alios aliud decet; nam neque tam plenum et erectum et audax et praecultum senibus convenerit quam pressum et mite et limatum et quale intellegi vult Cicero cum dicit orationem suam coepisse canescere, sicut vestibus quoque non purpura coccoque fulgentibus illa aetas satis apta sit:
XXXII.

These things for the most part befall those who wish to be too much either blandishing or ridiculous.
31. Even the very kind of eloquence befits different men differently; for it would not suit old men to be so full and erect and audacious and highly cultivated as rather compressed and mild and polished, and such as Cicero wishes to be understood when he says that his oration has begun to grow gray, just as that age is also quite apt for garments not shining with purple and scarlet:
32.

in iuvenibus etiam uberiora paulo et paene periclitantia feruntur, at in isdem siccum et sollicitum et contractum dicendi propositum plerumque adfectatione ipsa severitatis invisum est, quando etiam morum senilis auctoritas inmatura in adulescentibus creditur.
XXXIII. Simpliciora militaris decent.

in young men even somewhat richer and almost venturesome things are tolerated; but in those same persons, a dry, anxious, and constricted plan of speaking, for the most part, is hated through the very affectation of severity, since even the authority of old age in morals is deemed unripe in adolescents.
33. Simpler things befit the soldier.

Philosophiam ex professo, ut quidam faciunt, ostentantibus parum decori sunt plerique orationis ornatus maximeque ex adfectibus, quos illi vitia dicunt. Verba quoque exquisitiora et compositio numerosa tali proposito diversa.
XXXIV.

For those who, professedly, as some do, make a show of philosophy, most ornaments of oration are little becoming, and especially those drawn from the affections, which they call vices. Words too that are more exquisite, and a rhythmic composition, are diverse from such a purpose.
34.

Non enim solum illa laetiora, qualia a Cicerone dicuntur "saxa atque solitudines voci respondent", sed etiam illa, quamquam plena sanguinis, "vos enim iam, Albani tumuli atque luci, vos, inquam, inploro atque testor, vosque Albanorum obrutae arae, sacrorum populi Romani sociae et aequales" non conveniant barbae illi atque tristitiae.
XXXV. At vir civilis vereque sapiens, qui se non otiosis disputationibus sed administrationi rei publicae dederit, a qua longissime isti qui philosophi vocantur recesserunt, omnia quae ad efficiendum oratione quod proposuerit valent libenter adhibebit, cum prius quid honestum sit efficere in animo suo constituerit.

For not only those more cheerful things, such as are said by Cicero, “rocks and solitudes respond to the voice,” but even those, although full of blood—“for now, Alban mounds and groves, you, I say, I implore and call to witness, and you, the buried altars of the Albans, companions and equals of the rites of the Roman people”—do not befit that beard and gloom.
35. But the civic man and truly wise, who has devoted himself not to idle disputations but to the administration of the commonwealth, from which those who are called philosophers have retreated farthest, will gladly employ all things that avail to accomplish by oration what he has proposed, after first having established in his mind what it is honorable to effect.

XXXVI. Est quod principes deceat, aliis non concesseris. Imperatorum ac triumphalium separata est aliqua ex parte ratio eloquentiae, sicut Pompeius abunde disertus rerum suarum narrator, et hic qui bello civili se interfecit Cato eloquens senator fuit.

36. There is that which befits princes, which you would not concede to others. The rationale of eloquence for imperators and triumphal men is in some part distinct, just as Pompey was an abundantly eloquent narrator of his own affairs, and Cato—he who killed himself in the civil war—was an eloquent senator.

XXXVII. Idem dictum saepe in alio liberum, in alio furiosum, in alio superbum est. Verba adversus Agamemnonem a Thersite habita ridentur: da illa Diomedi aliive cui pari, magnum animum ferre prae se videbuntur.

37. The same remark is often in one person free, in another furious, in another superb (proud). Words delivered against Agamemnon by Thersites are laughed at: give them to Diomedes or to some other equal, they will seem to carry great spirit before them.

"Ego te" inquit "consulem putem" L. Crassus Philippo "cum tu me non putes senatorem?": vox honestissimae libertatis, non tamen ferres quemcumque dicentem.
XXXVIII. Negat se magni facere aliquis poetarum utrum Caesar ater an albus homo sit: insania; verte, ut idem Caesar de illo dixerit, adrogantia est.

"Should I think you a consul," said Lucius Crassus to Philippus, "when you do not think me a senator?": a voice of most honorable liberty, yet you would not endure just anyone saying it.
38. Someone of the poets says that he does not reckon it of great account whether Caesar is a black or a white man: insanity; reverse it, so that the same Caesar should say it about him—it is arrogance.

Maior in personis observatio est apud tragicos comicosque: multis enim utuntur et variis. Eadem et eorum qui orationes aliis scribebant fuit ratio et declamantium est: non enim semper ut advocati, sed plerumque ut litigatores dicimus.
XXXIX.

There is greater observance in personae among the tragedians and comedians: for they make use of many and various ones. The same method both was that of those who wrote orations for others and is that of declaimers: for we do not always speak as advocates, but for the most part as litigants.
39.

Verum etiam in iis causis quibus advocamur eadem differentia diligenter est custodienda. Vtimur enim fictione personarum et velut ore alieno loquimur, dandique sunt iis quibus vocem accommodamus sui mores. Aliter enim P. Clodius, aliter Appius Caecus, aliter Caecilianus ille, aliter Terentianus pater fingitur.

But even in those cases to which we are called as advocates the same differentiation must be carefully maintained. For we use the fiction of personae and speak, as it were, with another’s mouth, and to those to whom we accommodate our voice their own mores must be given. For P. Clodius is fashioned one way, Appius the Blind another, that Caecilianus in another, the Terentian father in another.

XL. Quid asperius lictore Verris: "ut adeas, tantum dabis"? quid fortius illo cuius inter ipsa verberum supplicia una vox audiebatur: "civis Romanus sum"? Quam dignae Milonis in peroratione ipsa voces eo viro qui pro re publica seditiosum civem totiens compescuisset quique insidias virtute superasset!
XLI. Denique non modo quot in causa totidem in prosopopoeia sunt varietates, sed hoc etiam plures, quod in his puerorum, feminarum, populorum, mutarum etiam rerum adsimulamus adfectus, quibus omnibus debetur suus decor.

40. What is harsher than the lictor of Verres: "to gain access, you will pay so much"? what braver than that man whose single voice was heard amid the very punishments of the lash: "I am a Roman citizen"? How worthy were Milo’s words in the very peroration of that man who for the commonwealth had so often restrained a seditious citizen and had overcome ambushes by valor!
41. Finally, not only are there just as many varieties in prosopopoeia as in the case itself, but even more, because in these we simulate the affections of boys, of women, of peoples, even of mute things, to all of which their own decorum is owed.

XLII. Eadem in iis pro quibus agemus observanda sunt: aliter enim pro alio saepe dicendum est, ut quisque honestus humilis invidiosus favorabilis erit, adiecta propositorum quoque et ante actae vitae differentia. Iucundissima vero in oratore humanitas facilitas moderatio benivolentia.

42. The same things must be observed in those for whom we shall plead: for one must often speak differently on behalf of one than of another, as each will be honorable, humble, invidious, or favorable, with the difference also added of the matters proposed and of the life previously lived. Most pleasing indeed in an orator are humanity, affability, moderation, benevolence.

Sed illa quoque diversa bonum virum decent: malos odisse, publica vice commoveri, ultum ire scelera et iniurias, et omnia, ut initio dixi, honesta.
XLIII. Nec tantum quis et pro quo sed etiam apud quem dicas interest: facit enim et fortuna discrimen et potestas, nec eadem apud principem, magistratum, senatorem, privatum, tantum liberum ratio est, nec eodem sono publica iudicia et arbitrorum disceptationes aguntur.

But those diverse things also befit a good man: to hate the wicked, to be moved on the public’s behalf, to go to avenge crimes and injuries, and, as I said at the beginning, all things honorable.
43. Nor does it matter only who you are and for whom, but also before whom you speak: for both fortune and power make a distinction, and the method is not the same, nor so free, before the princeps, a magistrate, a senator, a private citizen; nor are public trials and the disputations of arbitrators conducted in the same tone.

XLIV. Nam ut orantem pro capite sollicitudo deceat et cura et omnes ad amplificandam orationem quasi machinae, ita in parvis rebus iudiciisque vana sint eadem, rideaturque merito qui apud disceptatorem de re levissima sedens dicturus utatur illa Ciceronis confessione, non modo se animo commoveri, sed etiam corpore ipso perhorrescere.
XLV.

44. For just as solicitude becomes one pleading for his life, and care, and all the machines, as it were, for amplifying the speech, so in small matters and judgments the same things are vain, and he is rightly laughed at who, about to speak while sitting before an arbitrator about a most trivial matter, uses that confession of Cicero, that not only is he moved in spirit, but even in his very body he shudders.
45.

Quis vero nesciat quanto aliud dicendi genus poscat gravitas senatoria, aliud aura popularis? cum etiam singulis iudicantibus non idem apud gravis viros quod leviores, non idem apud eruditum quod militarem ac rusticum deceat, sitque nonnumquam summittenda et contrahenda oratio, ne iudex eam vel intellegere vel capere non possit.
XLVI.

Who, indeed, does not know how much one kind of speaking senatorial gravitas demands, and another the popular breeze? since even, with individual judges, one thing is fitting before serious men and another before lighter, not the same before an erudite man as before a military man and a rustic; and sometimes the oration must be lowered and compressed, lest the judge be unable either to understand it or to take it in.
46.

Tempus quoque ac locus egent observatione propria: nam et tempus tum triste tum laetum, tum liberum tum angustum est, atque ad haec omnia componendus orator:
XLVII. et loco publico privatone, celebri an secreto, aliena civitate an tua, in castris denique an foro dicas interest plurimum, ac suam quidque formam et proprium quendam modum eloquentiae poscit: cum etiam in ceteris actibus vitae non idem in foro, curia, campo, theatro, domi facere conveniat, et pleraque, quae natura non sunt reprendenda atque adeo interim sunt necessaria, alibi quam mos permiserit turpia habeantur.
XLVIII.

Time also and place require their own proper observation: for time too is now sad now glad, now free now narrow, and to all these the orator must be composed:
47. and whether you speak in a public or a private place, in a frequented or a secret one, in a foreign city or your own, finally in the camp or in the forum, makes very much difference, and each demands its own form and a certain proper mode of eloquence: since even in the other acts of life it is not fitting to do the same in the forum, the curia, the field, the theater, at home, and many things which by nature are not reprehensible and indeed are at times necessary, elsewhere than custom has permitted are held shameful.
48.

Illud iam diximus, quanto plus nitoris et cultus demonstrativae materiae, ut ad delectationem audientium compositae, quam quae sunt in actu et contentione suasoriae iudicialesque permittant.
Hoc adhuc adiciendum, aliquas etiam quae sunt egregiae dicendi virtutes quo minus deceant effici condicione causarum.
XLIX. An quisquam tulerit reum in discrimine capitis, praecipueque si apud victorem et principem pro se ipse dicat, frequenti tralatione, fictis aut repetitis ex vetustate verbis, compositione quae sit maxime a vulgari usu remota, decurrentibus perihodis, quam laetissimis locis sententiisque dicentem?

We have already said how much more of splendor and polish the demonstrative material, as composed for the delight of the hearers, allows than do those which are in action and contention, the suasory and judicial.
This must still be added: that some even of the outstanding virtues of speaking are rendered the less befitting by the condition of cases.
49. Would anyone tolerate a defendant in peril of his life, and especially if he himself pleads on his own behalf before a victor and the emperor, speaking with frequent transference, with words feigned or fetched again from antiquity, with a composition most removed from vulgar use, with periods running on, and with the most exuberant commonplaces and sententiae?

Non perdant haec omnia necessarium periclitanti sollicitudinis colorem petendumque etiam innocentibus misericordiae auxilium?
L. Moveaturne quisquam eius fortuna quem tumidum ac sui iactantem et ambitiosum institorem eloquentiae in ancipiti sorte videat? Non immo oderit reum verba aucupantem et anxium de fama ingenii et cui esse diserto vacet?

Should not all these things preserve the necessary color of solicitude for one in peril, and should the aid of mercy be sought even for the innocent?
50. Will anyone be moved by the fortune of a man whom he sees, in a precarious lot, swollen, self-vaunting, and an ambitious huckster of eloquence? Nay rather, will he not hate a defendant snaring words, anxious about the fame of his wit, and one who has leisure to be eloquent?

LI. Quod mire M. Caelius in defensione causae, qua reus de vi fuit, comprendisse videtur mihi: "ne cui vestrum atque etiam omnium qui ad rem agendam adsunt meus aut vultus molestior aut vox inmoderatior aliqua aut denique, quod minimum est, iactantior gestus fuisse videatur".
LII. Atqui sunt quaedam actiones in satisfactione, deprecatione, confessione positae: sententiolisne flendum erit? epiphonemata aut enthymemata exorabunt?

51. Which M. Caelius seems to me to have admirably comprehended in the defense of the case in which he was defendant on a charge of violence: "lest to any of you, and indeed of all who are present for the business at hand, either my countenance appear more troublesome, or my voice somewhat immoderate, or finally—what is least—my gesture more boastful seem to have been".
52. And yet there are certain pleadings set in satisfaction, deprecation, confession: must we be made to weep by little maxims? will epiphonemata or enthymemes win mercy?

non quidquid meris adicietur adfectibus omnis eorum diluet viris, et miserationem securitate laxabit?
LIII. Age, si de morte filii sui vel iniuria, quae morte sit gravior, dicendum patri fuerit, aut in narrando gratiam illam expositionis quae continget ex sermone puro atque dilucido quaeret, breviter ac significanter ordinem rei protulisse contentus, aut argumenta diducet in digitos et propositionum ac partitionum captabit leporem et, ut plerumque in hoc genere moris est, intentione omni remissa loquetur?

will not whatever is added to pure affections dilute all their force, and loosen compassion by a feeling of security?
53. Come now, if a father must speak about the death of his son or an injury which is graver than death, will he either in narrating seek that grace of exposition which arises from speech pure and lucid, content with having set forth the order of the matter briefly and pointedly, or will he draw out the arguments on his fingers and snatch at the charm of propositions and partitions, and, as is for the most part the custom in this kind, speak with all intensity relaxed?

LIV. Quo fugerit interim dolor ille? Vbi lacrimae substiterint?

54. Whither will that pain have fled in the interim? Where will the tears have ceased?

Vnde se in medium tam secura observatio artium miserit? Non ab exordio usque ad ultimam vocem continuus quidam gemitus et idem tristitiae vultus servabitur, si quidem volet dolorem suum etiam in audientis transfundere? Quem si usquam remiserit, in animum iudicantium non reducet.

Whence has so assured an observation of the arts thrust itself into the midst? Will not from the exordium to the last voice a certain continuous groan and the same visage of sadness be preserved, if indeed he will wish to transfuse his grief even into the hearer? Which, if he slackens it anywhere, he will not bring it back into the mind of those judging.

LV. Quod praecipue declamantibus (neque enim me paenitet ad hoc quoque opus meum et curam susceptorum semel adulescentium respicere) custodiendum est, quo plures in schola finguntur adfectus, quos non ut advocati sed ut passi subimus:
LVI. cum etiam hoc genus simulari litium soleat, cum ius mortis a senatu quidam vel ob aliquam magnam infelicitatem vel etiam paenitentiam petunt: in quibus non solum cantare, quod vitium pervasit, aut lascivire, sed ne argumentari quidem nisi mixtis, et quidem ita ut in ipsa probatione magis emineant, adfectibus decet. Nam qui intermittere in agendo dolorem potest, videtur posse etiam deponere.

55. What must especially be observed by declaimers (for I am not ashamed to look also to this task of mine and to the care of the adolescents once undertaken), is this: in the school more passions are feigned, which we undergo not as advocates but as those who have suffered them:
56. since even this kind of lawsuit is wont to be simulated, when certain persons request from the senate the right of death, either on account of some great ill-fortune or even out of repentance; in which cases it is fitting not only not to “sing” (a vice that has spread) or to play wantonly, but not even to argue except with emotions mixed in—and indeed so that in the very proving the emotions stand out more. For he who can interrupt grief in pleading seems able also to lay it aside.

LVII. Nescio tamen an huius de quo loquimur decoris custodia maxime circa eos contra quos dicimus examinanda sit. Nam sine dubio in omnibus statim accusationibus hoc agendum est, ne ad eas libenter descendisse videamur.

57. I do not know, however, whether the guarding of this decorum of which we speak should be most scrutinized with respect to those against whom we speak. For without a doubt, in all accusations from the very outset, this must be aimed at: that we not seem to have resorted to them with pleasure.

Ideoque mihi illud Cassi Severi non mediocriter displicet: "di boni, vivo, et, quo me vivere iuvet, Asprenatem reum video". Non enim iusta ex causa vel necessaria videri potest postulasse eum, sed quadam accusandi voluptate.
LVIII. Praeter hoc tamen, quod est commune, propriam moderationem quaedam causae desiderant.

And so that remark of Cassius Severus is not moderately displeasing to me: "Good gods, I live, and—what makes it a joy for me to live—I see Asprenas as the defendant." For he cannot seem to have lodged the charge from a just or necessary cause, but from a certain pleasure in accusing.
58. Besides this, however, which is common, certain cases demand a proper moderation of their own.

Quapropter et qui curationem bonorum patris postulabit doleat eius valetudine, et quamlibet gravia filio pater obiecturus miserrimam sibi ostendat esse hanc ipsam necessitatem, nec hoc paucis modo verbis sed toto colore actionis, ut id eum non dicere modo sed etiam vere dicere appareat.
LIX. Nec causanti pupillo sic tutor irascatur umquam ut non remaneant amoris vestigia et sacra quaedam patris eius memoria.

Wherefore, even he who will request the curatorship of his father’s goods should grieve over his health; and a father, about to object against his son however grave things, should show that this very necessity is most miserable to himself—nor in a few words only, but with the whole coloring of the action—so that it may appear that he not only says that, but says it truly.
59. Nor should a tutor ever be so angry with a ward who is litigating that no traces of affection and a certain sacred memory of his father remain.

Iam quo modo contra abdicantem patrem, querentem uxorem agi causam oporteret in libro, ut arbitror, septimo dixi. Quando etiam ipsos loqui, quando etiam advocati voce uti deceat quartus liber, in quo prohoemii praecepta sunt, continet.
LX. Esse et in verbis quod deceat aut turpe sit nemini dubium est.

Now in what way the case ought to be conducted against a father disowning, and a wife complaining, I said, as I think, in the seventh book. When even they themselves should speak, and when it is seemly to use the voice of an advocate, the fourth book, in which are the precepts of the prooemium, contains.
60. That even in words there is what is fitting or what is shameful is doubtful to no one.

Vnum iam igitur huic loco, quod est sane summae difficultatis, adiciendum videtur, quibus modis ea quae sunt natura parum speciosa, quaeque non dicere si utrumlibet esset liberum maluissemus, non tamen sint indecora dicentibus.
LXI. Quid asperiorem habere frontem potest aut quid aures hominum magis respuunt quam cum est filio filiive advocatis in matrem perorandum?

One thing now, therefore, seems to be added to this place, which is indeed of the utmost difficulty: by what methods those things which are by nature somewhat unseemly, and which, if it were free to do either, we would have preferred not to say, may nonetheless not be indecorous for the speakers.
61. What can wear a harsher brow, or what do the ears of men more reject, than when a peroration must be delivered by a son, or by the son’s advocates, against his mother?

Aliquando tamen necesse est, ut in causa Cluenti Habiti, sed non semper illa via qua contra Sasiam Cicero usus est, non quia non ille optime, sed quia plurimum refert qua in re et quo modo laedat.
LXII. Itaque illa, cum filii caput palam inpugnaret, fortiter fuit repellenda: duo tamen, quae sola supererant, divine Cicero servavit, primum ne oblivisceretur reverentiae quae parentibus debetur, deinde ut repetitis altius causis diligentissime ostenderet quam id quod erat in matrem dicturus non oporteret modo fieri sed etiam necesse esset.

Sometimes, however, it is necessary, as in the case of Cluentius Habitus; but not always by that route which Cicero used against Sassia—not because he did not do that most excellently, but because it makes a very great difference both in what matter and in what manner it injures.
62. Therefore that woman, since she was openly assailing her son’s life, had to be repelled stoutly: yet the two things which alone remained Cicero preserved divinely—first, that he not forget the reverence which is owed to parents; then, with the causes traced back more deeply, to show most diligently how what he was going to say against his mother not only ought to be done but even was necessary.

LXIII. Primaque haec expositio fuit, quamquam ad praesentem quaestionem nihil pertinebat: adeo in causa difficili atque perplexa nihil prius intuendum credidit quam quid deceret. Fecit itaque nomen parentis non filio invidiosum sed ipsi in quam dicebatur.

63. And this was the first exposition, although it pertained nothing to the present question: so much, in a difficult and perplexed case, did he believe that nothing should be looked to before what was decorous. He therefore made the name of “parent” not invidious to the son but to the very person against whom it was being spoken.

LXIV. Potest tamen aliquando mater et in re leviore aut minus infeste contra filium stare: tum lenior atque summissior decebit oratio. Nam et satisfaciendo aut nostram minuemus invidiam aut etiam in diversum eam transferemus, et, si graviter dolere filium palam fuerit, credetur abesse ab eo culpam fietque ultro miserabilis.

64. Nevertheless, at times a mother can also, in a lighter matter or with less hostility, stand against her son: then a gentler and more submissive oration will be fitting. For by making satisfaction we shall either diminish our own invidiousness or even transfer it to the other side; and, if it is openly evident that the son grieves gravely, it will be believed that culpability is absent from him, and he will, moreover, become pitiable unbidden.

LXV. Avertere quoque in alios crimen decet, ut fraude aliquorum concita credatur, et omnia nos passuros, nihil aspere dicturos testandum, ut, etiam si non possumus conviciari, nolle videamur. Etiam, si quid obiciendum erit, officium est patroni ut id filio invito sed fide cogente facere credatur: ita poterit uterque laudari.

65. It also befits to avert the charge onto others, so that it may be believed to have been incited by the fraud of certain persons; and we must testify that we will endure everything and say nothing with asperity, so that, even if we cannot trade in revilings, we may seem unwilling to do so. Also, if anything must be objected, it is the duty of the patron that he be believed to do this with the son unwilling but good faith compelling; thus each can be praised.

LXVI. Quod de matre dixi, de utroque parente accipiendum est: nam inter patres etiam filiosque, cum intervenisset emancupatio, litigatum scio. In aliis quoque propinquitatibus custodiendum est ut inviti et necessario et parce iudicemur dixisse, magis autem aut minus ut cuique personae debetur reverentia.

66. What I said about the mother is to be taken of both parents: for between fathers and even sons, when emancipation had intervened, I know that there has been litigation. In other kinships as well, it must be observed that we be judged to have spoken unwillingly, of necessity, and sparingly, and, moreover, more or less according as reverence is owed to each person.

Eadem pro libertis adversus patronos observantia. Et ut semel plura complectar, numquam decebit sic adversus tales agere personas quo modo contra nos agi ab hominibus condicionis eiusdem iniquo animo tulissemus.
LXVII.

The same observance on behalf of freedmen against patrons. And, to embrace several things at once, it will never be fitting to act against such persons in the way in which we would have borne it with a resentful spirit if men of the same condition had acted against us.
67.

Praestatur hoc aliquando etiam dignationibus, ut libertatis nostrae ratio reddatur, ne quis nos aut petulantes in laedendis eis aut etiam ambitiosos putet. Itaque Cicero, quamquam erat in Cottam gravissime dicturus neque aliter agi P. Oppi causa poterat, longa tamen praefatione excusavit officii sui necessitatem.
LXVIII.

This is sometimes also rendered to men of dignity, that an account of our liberty be given, lest anyone think us either petulant in harming them or even ambitious. And so Cicero, although he was about to speak most gravely against Cotta and the cause of P. Oppius could not be conducted otherwise, nevertheless with a long preface excused the necessity of his office.
68.

Aliquando etiam inferioribus praecipueque adulescentulis parcere aut videri decet. Vtitur hac moderatione Cicero pro Caelio contra Atratinum, ut eum non inimice corripere sed paene patrie monere videatur: nam et nobilis et iuvenis et non iniusto dolore venerat ad accusandum. Sed in his quidem, in quibus vel iudici vel etiam adsistentibus ratio nostrae moderationis probari debet, minor est labor: illic plus difficultatis ubi ipsos contra quos dicimus veremur offendere.

Sometimes it is fitting to spare even inferiors, and especially young lads—or at least to seem to do so. Cicero employs this moderation in For Caelius against Atratinus, so that he appears not to censure him unfriendly but to admonish him almost paternally: for he had come to prosecute both noble and young, and with not-unjust resentment. But in these cases, in which the rationale of our moderation ought to be approved either by the judge or even by the bystanders, the labor is less; there is more difficulty where we fear to offend the very persons against whom we speak.

LXIX. duae simul huius modi personae Ciceroni pro Murena dicenti obstiterunt, M. Catonis Servique sulpici. Quam decenter tamen sulpicio, cum omnes concessisset virtutes, scientiam petendi consulatus ademit!

69. Two persons of this sort at once stood in Cicero’s way as he was speaking on behalf of Murena, M. Cato and Servius Sulpicius. How decorously, however, did he, though he had conceded all the virtues, take from Sulpicius the knowledge of canvassing for the consulship!

Quid enim aliud esset quo se victum homo nobilis et iuris antistes magis ferret? Vt vero rationem defensionis suae reddidit, cum se studuisse petitioni sulpici contra honorem Murenae, non idem debere accusationi contra caput diceret!
LXX.

For what else would there be by which a noble man and a high-priest of law would more feel himself vanquished? But when indeed he rendered the rationale of his defense—since he said he had devoted himself to Sulpicius’s petition against Murena’s honor—he declared that he ought not do the same for an accusation against the head, that is, a capital accusation!
70.

Quam molli autem articulo tractavit Catonem! cuius naturam summe admiratus non ipsius vitio sed Stoicae sectae quibusdam in rebus factam duriorem videri volebat, ut inter eos non forensem contentionem sed studiosam disputationem crederes incidisse.
LXXI.

How gently, moreover, did he handle Cato! Highly admiring his nature, he wanted it to seem that it had been rendered harder in certain matters not by his own fault but by the Stoic sect, so that you would think that between them there had arisen not a forensic contention but a studious disputation.
71.

Haec est profecto ratio et certissimum praeceptorum genus illius viri observatio, ut, cum aliquid detrahere salva gratia velis, concedas alia omnia: in hoc solo vel minus peritum quam in ceteris (adiecta, si potuerit fieri, etiam causa cur id ita sit) vel paulo pertinaciorem vel credulum vel iratum vel inpulsum ab aliis.
LXXII. Hoc enim commune remedium est, si tota actione aequaliter appareat non honor modo eius sed etiam caritas.

This is indeed the method and the most certain kind of precepts—the observance of that man’s rule: that, when you wish to detract something with grace kept safe, you concede all other things; in this point alone you present him as either less experienced than in the rest (with a cause added, if it can be done, as to why it is so), or a little more pertinacious, or credulous, or irate, or impelled by others.
LXXII. For this is a common remedy, if in the whole action there appears uniformly not only his honor but also charity.

Praeterea causa sit nobis iusta [sit] dicendi, neque id moderate tantum faciamus sed etiam necessario.
LXXIII. Diversum ab hoc, sed facilius, cum hominum aut alioqui turpium aut nobis invisorum quaedam facta laudanda sunt: decet enim rem ipsam probare in qualicumque persona.

Moreover, let there [be] for us a just cause of speaking, and let us do this not only moderately but even out of necessity.
73. Different from this, but easier, is when certain deeds of men otherwise base or hateful to us must be praised: for it is fitting to approve the thing itself in whatever person.

Dixit Cicero pro Gabinio et P. Vatinio, inimicissimis antea sibi hominibus et in quos orationes etiam scripserat, verum et iusta sic faciendi * non se de ingenii fama sed de fide esse sollicitum.
LXXIV. Difficilior ei ratio in iudicio Cluentiano fuit, cum Scamandrum necesse haberet dicere nocentem, cuius egerat causam.

Cicero spoke on behalf of Gabinius and P. Vatinius, men previously most hostile to himself and against whom he had even written speeches, asserting that in doing thus truly and justly * he was concerned not for the fame of his talent but for his good faith.
74. A more difficult course for him was in the Cluentian trial, when he had to declare Scamander—whose case he had pleaded—guilty.

Verum id elegantissime cum eorum a quibus ad se perductus esset precibus, tum etiam adulescentia sua excusat, detracturus alioqui plurimum auctoritatis sibi, in causa praesertim suspecta, si eum se esse qui temere nocentis reos susciperet fateretur.
LXXV. Apud iudicem vero qui aut erit inimicus alioqui aut propter aliquod commodum a causa quam nos susceperimus aversus, ut persuadendi ardua est ratio, ita dicendi expeditissima: fiducia enim iustitiae eius et nostrae causae nihil nos timere simulabimus.

But he excuses this most elegantly, both by the prayers of those by whom he had been brought to him, and also by his adolescence, since otherwise he would be about to detract very much authority from himself—especially in a suspect case—if he were to confess himself to be the sort of man who rashly undertook guilty defendants.
75. Before a judge who either will be otherwise hostile, or turned away from the case which we have undertaken on account of some advantage, just as the method of persuading is arduous, so the method of speaking is most unimpeded: for, in confidence in his justice and in our cause, we will make a show of fearing nothing.

Ipse erit gloria inflandus, ut tanto clarior eius futura sit fides ac religio in pronuntiando quanto minus vel offensae vel utilitati suae indulserit.
LXXVI. Hoc et apud eos a quibus appellatum erit, si forte ad eosdem remittemur: adicienda ratio vel necessitatis alicuius, si id causa concedit, vel erroris vel suspicionis.

He himself should be exalted with glory, so that his faith and scrupulousness in pronouncing may be all the clearer, the less he has indulged either resentment or his own advantage.
76. This likewise before those to whom appeal shall have been made, if by chance we are sent back to those same: a rationale should be added either of some necessity, if the case permits it, or of error or of suspicion.

Tutissimum ergo paenitentiae confessio et satisfactio culpae, perducendusque omni modo iudex ad irae pudorem.
LXXVII. Accidit etiam nonnumquam ut ea de causa de qua pronuntiavit cognoscat iterum.

Therefore, the safest [course] is confession of penitence and satisfaction for the fault, and the judge must by every method be led to a shame for his anger.
77. It also happens sometimes that he takes cognizance again of that very cause on which he pronounced.

tum illud quidem commune: apud alium nos iudicem disputaturos de illius sententia non fuisse, neque enim emendari ab alio quam ipso fas esse: ceterum ex causa, ut quaeque permittet, aut ignorata quaedam aut defuisse testes aut, quod timidissime et si nihil aliud plane fuerit dicendum est, patronos non suffecisse succurret.
LXXVIII. Etiam si apud alios iudices agetur, ut in secunda adsertione aut in centumviralibus iudiciis duplicibus, parte victa decentius erit, quotiens contigerit, servare iudicum pudorem: de qua re latius probationum loco dictum est.
Potest evenire ut in aliis reprehendenda sint quae ipsi fecerimus, ut obicit tubero Ligario quod in Africa fuerit et ambitus quidam damnati recuperandae dignitatis gratia reos eiusdem criminis detulerunt, ut in scholis luxuriantem patrem luxuriosus ipse iuvenis accusat.

then this, indeed, the common line: that it was not that we were going to dispute before another judge about that man’s sentence, for it is not right for it to be amended by any other than himself; moreover, from the case, as each point permits, it will occur to us to allege either that certain things were unknown or that witnesses were lacking or—what is most timid, and if plainly nothing else will have to be said—that the advocates did not suffice.
78. Even if it shall be conducted before other judges, as in a second assertion or in the centumviral courts with double suits, with a party defeated it will be more becoming, whenever it happens, to preserve the judges’ modesty: about which matter it has been spoken more broadly by way of proofs.
It can happen that in other matters things must be reprehended which we ourselves have done, as Tubero objects to Ligarius that he had been in Africa, and certain men condemned for ambitus, for the sake of recovering their dignity, informed against defendants of the same charge, just as in the schools a luxurious father is accused by a luxurious young man himself.

LXXIX. Id quo modo decenter fieri possit equidem non invenio nisi aliquid reperitur quod intersit, persona aetas tempus causa locus animus.
LXXX.

79. In what way this can be done becomingly I, for my part, do not find, unless something is discovered that makes a difference: person, age, time, cause, place, intention.
80.

tubero iuvenem se patri haesisse, illum a senatu missum non ad bellum sed ad frumentum coemendum ait, ut primum licuerit a partibus recessisse: Ligarium et perseverasse et non pro Cn. Pompeio, inter quem et Caesarem dignitatis fuerit contentio, cum salvam uterque rem publicam vellet, sed pro Iuba atque Afris inimicissimis populo Romano stetisse.
LXXXI. Ceterum vel facillimum est ibi alienam culpam incusare ubi fateris tuam: verum id iam indicis est, non actoris.

Tubero says that, as a young man, he clung to his father; that that man was sent by the Senate not to war but to buy up grain; that, as soon as it was permitted, he withdrew from the party: but that Ligarius both persevered and stood not for Gnaeus Pompeius—between whom and Caesar there was a contention of dignitas, when each wished the commonwealth safe—but for Juba and the Africans, most inimical to the Roman people.
81. Moreover, it is the very easiest to accuse another’s fault in the very place where you confess your own; but that now is the judge’s part, not the advocate’s.

Quod si nulla contingit excusatio, sola colorem habet paenitentia. Potest enim videri satis emendatus qui in odium eorum in quibus erraverat ipse conversus est.
LXXXII.

But if no excuse presents itself, only penitence has any color. For he can seem sufficiently amended who has himself turned to hatred of those with whom he had erred.
82.

sunt enim casus quidam qui hoc natura ipsa rei non indecens faciant, ut cum pater ex meretrice natum, quod duxerit meretricem in matrimonium, abdicat: scholastica materia, sed non quae in foro non possit accidere. Hic igitur multa non deformiter dicet: vel quod omnium sit votum parentum ut honestiores quam sint ipsi liberos habeant (nam et, si filia nata, meretrix eam mater pudicam esse voluisset), vel quod humilior ipse fuerit (licet enim huic ducere), vel quod non habuerit patrem qui moneret:
LXXXIII. quin eo minus id faciendum filio fuisse, ne renovaret domus pudorem et exprobraret patri nuptias, matri prioris vitae necessitatem, ne denique legem quandam suis quoque [sum] liberis daret.

for there are certain cases which by the very nature of the matter make this not indecorous, as when a father disowns a son born from a courtesan, because he has led a courtesan into marriage: scholastic material, but not such as cannot happen in the forum. Here, therefore, he will say many things not inelegantly: either that it is the vote of all parents to have children more honorable than they themselves are (for even, if a daughter had been born, the mother, a courtesan, would have wished her to be chaste), or that he himself was more humble (for to such a one it is permitted to marry), or that he did not have a father to advise him:
83. nay rather, all the less ought the son to have done this, lest he renew the shame of the household and cast in his father’s teeth the marriage, in his mother’s the necessity of her prior life, and lest, finally, he give a kind of law to his own children as well.

Credibilis erit etiam propria quaedam in illa meretrice turpitudo, quam nunc hic pater ferre non possit. Alia praetereo: neque enim nunc declamamus, sed ostendimus nonnumquam posse dicentem ipsis incommodis bene uti.
LXXXIV.

Credible too will be a certain particular turpitude in that prostitute, which this father now cannot endure. I pass over other things: for we are not declaiming now, but we show that one speaking can sometimes make good use of the very incommodities.
84.

Illic maior aestus ubi quis pudenda queritur, ut stuprum, praecipue in maribus, aut os profanatum. Non dico si loquatur ipse: nam quid aliud ei quam gemitus aut fletus et exsecratio vitae conveniat, ut iudex intellegat potius dolorem illum quam audiat? Sed patrono quoque per similes adfectus eundum erit, quia hoc iniuriae genus verecundius est fateri passis quam ausis.

There the agitation is greater where one complains of things to be ashamed of, such as stupration—especially in males—or a profaned mouth. I do not speak of when he himself should speak: for what else befits him than groans or weeping and an execration of life, so that the judge may rather understand that pain than hear it? But the patron too will have to proceed through similar affects, because this kind of injury is more bashful to be confessed by those who have suffered than by those who have dared.

LXXXV. Mollienda est in plerisque aliquo colore asperitas orationis, ut Cicero de proscriptorum liberis fecit. Quid enim crudelius quam homines honestis parentibus ac maioribus natos a re publica summoveri?

85. The asperity of oration is to be mollified in most cases by some color, as Cicero did about the children of the proscribed. For what is more cruel than that men, born of honorable parents and forefathers, be removed from the republic?

Itaque durum id esse summus ille tractandorum animorum artifex confitetur, sed ita legibus sullae cohaerere statum civitatis adfirmat ut iis solutis stare ipsa non possit. Consecutus itaque est ut aliquid eorum quoque causa videretur facere contra quos diceret.
LXXXVI.

Therefore that supreme artificer in the handling of minds confesses this to be harsh, but he affirms that the state of the commonwealth so coheres with Sulla’s laws that, those loosed, it itself cannot stand. And thus he achieved that he seemed to be doing something also for the cause of those against whom he was speaking.
86.

Illud etiam in iocis monui, quam turpis esset fortunae insectatio, et ne in totos ordines aut gentes aut populos petulantia incurreret. Sed interim fides patrocinii cogit quaedam de universo genere aliquorum hominum dicere, libertinorum vel militum vel publicanorum vel similiter aliorum.
LXXXVII.

I have also, even in jests, warned how disgraceful a persecution of fortune is, and that petulance should not run against entire orders or nations or peoples. But meanwhile the fidelity of advocacy compels me to say certain things about the universal class of certain sorts of men—of freedmen, or soldiers, or publicans, or similarly of others.
87.

In quibus omnibus commune remedium est ut ea quae laedunt non libenter tractare videaris, nec in omnia impetum facias sed in id quod expugnandum est, et reprehensa [alia] laude compenses:
LXXXVIII. sic cupidos milites dicas: sed non mirum, quod periculorum ac sanguinis maiora sibi deberi praemia putent; eosdem petulantes: sed hoc fieri quod bellis magis quam paci consuerint. Libertinis detrahenda est auctoritas: licet iis testimonium reddere industriae per quam exierint de servitute.

In all these cases the common remedy is that you appear not to handle willingly the things that offend, nor make an assault upon everything but upon that which is to be stormed, and, having censured [other things], you compensate with praise:
88. thus you may call soldiers greedy: but it is no marvel, since they think greater rewards are owed to them for dangers and bloodshed; the same men petulant: but that this happens because they have been accustomed more to wars than to peace. From freedmen authority is to be withdrawn: yet it is permitted to render to them a testimony to the industry by which they have gone out from servitude.

LXXXIX. Quod ad nationes exteras pertinet, Cicero varie: detracturus Graecis testibus fidem doctrinam his concedit ac litteras, seque eius gentis amatorem esse profitetur, Sardos contemnit, Allobrogas ut hostis insectatur: quorum nihil tunc cum diceretur parum aptum aut remotum a cura decoris fuit.
XC. Verborum etiam moderatione detrahi solet si qua est rei invidia: si asperum dicas nimium severum, iniustum persuasione labi, pertinacem ultra modum tenacem esse propositi: plerumque velut ipsos coneris ratione vincere, quod est mollissimum.

89. As regards foreign nations, Cicero is various: when he is about to detract credence from Greek witnesses he concedes to them learning and letters, and professes himself a lover of that nation; he contemns the Sardinians, he assails the Allobroges as an enemy: of which none, at the time when it was said, was ill-suited or removed from the care for decorum.
90. Also by moderation of words it is wont to be lessened, if there is any odium attached to the matter: if you call the harsh man overly severe, the unjust as lapsing through persuasion, the stubborn as beyond measure tenacious of his purpose: for the most part you try, as it were, to overcome them themselves by reason, which is the softest course.

XCI. Indecorum est super haec omne nimium, ideoque etiam quod natura rei satis aptum est, nisi modo quoque temperatur, gratiam perdit. cuius rei observatio iudicio magis quodam [serviri] sentiri quam praeceptis tradi potest: quantum satis sit et quantum recipiant aures non habet certam mensuram et quasi pondus, quia ut in cibis [his] alia aliis magis complent.

91. Beyond these, every excessive thing is unseemly, and therefore even what by the nature of the matter is sufficiently apt, unless it is tempered also by measure, loses its grace. The observance of this can be felt by a certain judgment rather than be handed down by precepts: how much is enough and how much the ears can receive has no fixed measure and, as it were, weight, because, as with foods, some things satisfy some people more than others.

XCII. Adiciendum etiam breviter videtur quo fiat ut dicendi virtutes diversissimae non solum suos amatores habeant sed ab eisdem saepe laudentur. Nam Cicero quodam loco scribit id esse optimum quod [non] facile credideris consequi imitatione, non possis, alio vero non id egisse, ut ita diceret quo modo se quilibet posse confideret, sed quo modo nemo.

92. It also seems briefly to be added by what means it comes about that the most diverse virtues of speaking not only have their own admirers but are often praised by these same people. For Cicero writes in a certain passage that that is best which you would not easily believe you could attain by imitation—you could not; elsewhere, however, that he did not aim to speak in such a way as anyone at all would be confident he could, but in such a way as no one could.

XCIII. Quod potest pugnare inter se videri, verum utrumque, ac merito, laudatur: causarum enim modo distat, quia simplicitas illa et velut securitas inadfectatae orationis mire tenuis causas decet, maioribus illud admirabile dicendi genus magis convenit. In utroque eminet Cicero: ex quibus alterum imperiti se posse consequi credent, neutrum qui intellegunt.

93. What can seem to be at odds with itself—yet both, and deservedly, are praised: for they differ by the mode of causes; for that simplicity and, as it were, the security of unaffected oration wondrously befits tenuous causes, while for greater ones that admirable genus of speaking is more fitting. In both Cicero stands out: of which the unskilled will believe that they can attain the one, those who understand, neither.

2
I. Memoriam quidam naturae modo esse munus existimaverunt, estque in ea non dubie plurimum, sed ipsa excolendo sicut alia omnia augetur: et totus de quo diximus adhuc inanis est labor nisi ceterae partes hoc velut spiritu continentur. Nam et omnis disciplina memoria constat, frustraque docemur si quidquid audimus praeterfluat, et exemplorum, legum, responsorum, dictorum denique factorumque velut quasdam copias, quibus abundare quasque in promptu semper habere debet orator, eadem illa vis praesentat:
II. neque inmerito thesaurus hic eloquentiae dicitur. Sed non firme tantum continere verum etiam cito percipere multa acturos oportet, nec quae scripseris modo iterata lectione complecti, sed in cogitatis quoque rerum ac verborum contextum sequi, et quae sint ab adversa parte dicta meminisse, nec utique eo quo dicta sunt ordine refutare sed oportunis locis ponere.

2
1. Certain people have judged memory to be merely a gift of nature, and there is in it, no doubt, a very great share; but it itself, by being cultivated, is increased like all other things: and the whole labor of which we have spoken is thus far empty unless the other parts are held together by this as by a sort of spirit. For every discipline consists in memory, and we are taught in vain if whatever we hear flows past, and that same force makes present, as certain stores, examples, laws, responses (legal opinions), sayings, and finally deeds—resources with which the orator ought to abound and which he ought always to have at hand:
2. nor is it without merit that this is called the treasury of eloquence. But those who are going to accomplish much ought not only to hold things firmly but also to perceive quickly, and not merely to embrace by repeated reading what you have written, but in your very thoughts also to follow the texture of matters and words, and to remember what has been said by the opposing side, and not necessarily to refute them in the order in which they were said, but to place them in opportune positions.

III. Quin extemporalis oratio non alio mihi videtur mentis vigore constare. Nam dum alia dicimus, quae dicturi sumus intuenda sunt: ita cum semper cogitatio ultra eat, id quod est longius quaerit, quidquid autem repperit quodam modo apud memoriam deponit, quod illa quasi media quaedam manus acceptum ab inventione tradit elocutionI.

3. Indeed, extemporaneous oration seems to me to consist by no other vigor of mind. For while we say some things, the things we are going to say must be kept in view: thus, since cogitation always goes beyond, it seeks what is farther; and whatever it finds it deposits, as it were, with memory, which, like a certain middle hand, passes on what it has received from invention to elocution.

IV. Non arbitror autem mihi in hoc inmorandum, quid sit quod memoriam faciat, quamquam plerique inprimi quaedam vestigia animo, velut in ceris anulorum signa serventur, existimant. Neque ero tam credulus ut +quam abitu tardiorem firmioremque memoriam fieri et actem quoque ad animum pertire.+
V. Magis admirari naturam subit, tot res vetustas tanto ex intervallo repetitas reddere se et offerre, nec tantum requirentibus sed [in] sponte interim, nec vigilantibus sed etiam quiete compositis:
VI. eo magis quod illa quoque animalia quae carere intellectu videntur meminerunt et agnoscunt et quamlibet longo itinere deducta ad adsuetas sibi sedes revertuntur. Quid?

4. I do not think, however, that I must linger on what it is that makes memory, although many suppose that certain vestiges are imprinted upon the mind, as the signs of rings are kept upon wax. Nor will I be so credulous as to +that by departure memory becomes slower and more firm, and that the imprint also reaches to the mind.+
5. Rather, amazement at nature arises, that so many things, recalled from such oldness after so great an interval, return and offer themselves, not only to those seeking but [in] of their own accord meanwhile, not only to those awake but even to those composed in rest:
6. all the more because even those animals which seem to lack intellect remember and recognize, and, led forth on however long a journey, return to the seats to which they are accustomed. What?

non haec varietas mira est, excidere proxima, vetera inhaerere? hesternorum inmemores acta pueritiae recordari?
VII.

Is not this variety marvelous, that the proximate things fall out, while the old inhere? that, unmindful of yesterday’s things, we recall the acts of boyhood?
7.

Quid quod quaedam requisita se occultant et eadem forte succurrunt? nec manet semper memoria, sed aliquando etiam redit? Nesciretur tamen quanta vis esset eius, quanta divinitas illa, nisi in hoc lumen orandi extulisset.

What of the fact that certain things, when sought, hide themselves, and the same things by chance come to one’s aid? and that memory does not always remain, but sometimes even returns? Yet it would not be known how great its power was, how great that divinity, unless it had brought it into this light of praying.

VIII. Non enim rerum modo sed etiam verborum ordinem praestat, nec ea pauca contexit sed durat prope in infinitum, et in longissimis actionibus prius audiendi patientia quam memoriae fides deficit.
IX. Quod et ipsum argumentum est subesse artem aliquam iuvarique ratione naturam, cum idem [indocti] facere illud indocti inexercitati non possimus.

8. For it provides not only the order of things but also of words, and it does not piece together a few items but endures almost to infinity, and in the very longest pleadings the patience for listening fails sooner than the trustworthiness of memory.
9. Which is itself an argument that some art underlies and that nature is helped by reason, since we [unlearned], unlearned and unpracticed, cannot accomplish that same thing.

Quamquam invenio apud Platonem obstare memoriae usum litterarum? videlicet quoniam illa quae scriptis reposuimus velut custodire desinimus et ipsa securitate dimittimus.
X. Nec dubium est quin plurimum in hac parte valeat mentis intentio et velut acies luminum a prospectu rerum quas intuetur non aversa; unde accidit ut quae per plures dies scribimus ediscenda sint, cogitatio se ipsa contineat.

Although I find in Plato that the use of letters stands in the way of memory? namely, since those things which we have reposed in writings we, as it were, cease to keep under guard and, by that very security, dismiss.
X. Nor is it doubtful that in this matter the intention of the mind prevails most, and, like the keenness of the eyes not averted from the prospect of the things it beholds; whence it happens that the things which we write over several days, to be learned by heart, thought holds itself together.

XI. Artem autem memoriae primus ostendisse dicitur Simonides, cuius vulgata fabula est: cum pugili coronato carmen, quale componi victoribus solet, mercede pacta scripsisset, abnegatam ei pecuniae partem quod more poetis frequentissimo degressus in laudes Castoris ac Pollucis exierat: quapropter partem ab iis petere quorum facta celebrasset iubebatur.
XII. Et persolverunt, ut traditum est: nam cum esset grande convivium in honorem eiusdem victoriae atque adhibitus ei cenae Simonides, nuntio est excitus, quod eum duo iuvenes equis advecti desiderare maiorem in modum dicebantur.

11. But the art of memory is said first to have been demonstrated by Simonides, about whom there is a commonly-told fable: when, for a crowned pugilist, he had written a carmen, such as is wont to be composed for victors, for a fee agreed upon, a part of the money was denied him because, by a very frequent custom among poets, he had digressed into praises of Castor and Pollux; wherefore he was ordered to seek that portion from those whose deeds he had celebrated.
12. And they paid it in full, as it is handed down: for when there was a great convivium in honor of that same victory and Simonides had been invited to that cena, he was called out by a messenger, on the ground that two youths, carried on horses, were said to desire him in the highest degree.

Et illos quidem non invenit, fuisse tamen gratos erga se deos exitu comperit.
XIII. Nam vix eo ultra limen egresso triclinium illud supra convivas corruit, atque ita confudit ut non ora modo oppressorum sed membra etiam omnia requirentes ad sepulturam propinqui nulla nota possent discernere.

And indeed he did not find them, yet he discovered by the issue that the gods had been gracious toward him.
XIII. For scarcely had he gone beyond the threshold when that triclinium collapsed upon the guests, and so confounded them that the kinsmen, seeking for sepulture, could discern by no mark not the faces only of the crushed, but even all the limbs.

tum Simonides dicitur memor ordinis quo quisque discubuerat corpora suis reddidisse.
XIV. Est autem magna inter auctores dissensio Glaucone Carystio an Leocrati an Agatharcho an Scopae scriptum sit id carmen, et Pharsali fuerit haec domus, ut ipse quodam loco significare Simonides videtur utque Apollodorus et Eratosthenes et Euphorion et Larissaeus Eurypylus tradiderunt, an Crannone, ut Apollas +Calimachus+, quem secutus Cicero hanc famam latius fudit.

then Simonides is said, mindful of the order in which each had reclined, to have restored the bodies to their own.
14. Moreover, there is great dissension among the authors whether that poem was written for Glaucon of Carystus, or for Leocrates, or for Agatharchus, or for Scopas, and whether the house was at Pharsalus, as Simonides himself seems in a certain place to signify and as Apollodorus and Eratosthenes and Euphorion and Eurypylus of Larissa have handed down, or at Crannon, as Apollas +Calimachus+, whom Cicero, following, has spread this report more broadly.

XV. Scopam nobilem Thessalum perisse in eo convivio constat, adicitur sororis eius filius, putant et ortos plerosque ab alio Scopa qui maior aetate fuerit.
XVI. Quamquam mihi totum de Tyndaridis fabulosum videtur, neque omnino huius rei meminit umquam poeta ipse, profecto non taciturus de tanta sua gloria.

15. It is established that Scopas, a noble Thessalian, perished in that banquet; it is added that his sister’s son did as well; and they also think that several were sprung from another Scopas who was older in years.
16. Although to me the whole story about the Tyndarids seems fabulous, nor does the poet himself ever at all make mention of this matter, surely he would not have been silent about so great a glory of his.

XVII. Ex hoc Simonidis facto notatum videtur iuvari memoriam signatis animo sedibus, idque credet suo quisque experimento. Nam cum in loca aliqua post tempus reversi sumus, non ipsa agnoscimus tantum sed etiam quae in iis fecerimus reminiscimur, personaeque subeunt, nonnumquam tacitae quoque cogitationes in mentem revertuntur.

17. From this deed of Simonides it seems to have been noted that memory is aided by places marked in the mind, and each will credit this by his own experiment. For when we have returned after a time to certain places, we not only recognize the places themselves but also recollect what we did in them, and persons come up; sometimes even silent cogitations return into the mind.

Nata est igitur, ut in plerisque, ars ab experimento.
XVIII. Loca discunt quam maxime spatiosa, multa varietate signata, domum forte magnam et in multos diductam recessus.

Nata est igitur, ut in plerisque, ars ab experimento.
18. They learn places as spacious as possible, marked by much variety—say, a large house divided into many recesses.

In ea quidquid notabile est animo diligenter adfigunt, ut sine cunctatione ac mora partis eius omnis cogitatio possit percurrere. Et primus hic labor est, non haerere in occursu: plus enim quam firma debet esse memoria quae aliam memoriam adiuvet.
XIX.

In them they diligently affix to the mind whatever is notable, so that without hesitation and delay the thought of every part of it can run through. And this is the first labor: not to stick at the encounter; for the memory which is to aid another memory ought to be more than firm.
19.

tum quae scripserunt vel cogitatione complectuntur [et] aliquo signo quo moneantur notant, quod esse vel ex re tota potest, ut de navigatione, militia, vel ex verbo aliquo: nam etiam excidentes unius admonitione verbi in memoriam reponuntur. Sit autem signum navigationis ut ancora, militiae ut aliquid ex armis.
XX. Haec ita digerunt: primum sensum [bello cum] vestibulo quasi adsignant, secundum (puta) atrio, tum inpluvia circumeunt, nec cubiculis modo aut exhedris, sed statuis etiam similibusque per ordinem committunt.

then the things which they have written or embrace by thought [and] they mark with some sign by which they may be reminded, which can be either from the whole matter—such as about navigation, soldiery—or from some word: for even things that slip out are restored to memory by the admonition of a single word. Let the sign of navigation be, for instance, an anchor; of soldiery, something from arms.
20. They arrange these things thus: they assign, as it were, the first notion [with war] to the vestibule, the second (suppose) to the atrium, then they go around the impluvia, and they commit them in order not only to the bedchambers or the exedrae, but also to the statues and similar things.

Hoc facto, cum est repetenda memoria, incipiunt ab initio loca haec recensere, et quod cuique crediderunt reposcunt, ut eorum imagine admonentur. Ita, quamlibet multa sint quorum meminisse oporteat, fiunt singula conexa quodam choro, nec onerant coniungentes prioribus consequentia solo ediscendi labore.
XXI.

This having been done, when the memory is to be repeated, they begin from the beginning to review these places, and they demand back what they had entrusted to each, so that by their image they are admonished. Thus, however many things there may be which it is proper to remember, the individual items are made connected in a certain chorus, nor do they burden themselves, by conjoining the consequents to the priors, with the mere labor of learning-by-heart.
21.

Quod de domo dixi, et in operibus publicis et in itinere longo et urbium ambitu et picturis fieri [spieri] potest. Etiam fingere sibi has +imagines+ licet. Opus est ergo locis quae vel finguntur vel sumuntur, et imaginibus vel simulacris, quae utique fingenda sunt.

What I said about the house can be done also in public works and on a long journey and in the ambit of cities and in pictures [spieri]. It is also permitted to fashion for oneself these +images+. There is need, therefore, of places which either are fashioned or are taken, and of images or simulacra, which assuredly are to be fashioned.

Imagines voco quibus ea quae ediscenda sunt notamus, ut, quo modo Cicero dicit, locis pro cera, simulacris pro litteris utamur.
XXII. Illud quoque ad verbum ponere optimum fuerit: "locis est utendum multis, inlustribus, explicatis, modicis intervallis: imaginibus autem agentibus, acribus, insignitis, quae occurrere celeriterque percutere animum possint." Quo magis miror quo modo Metrodorus in XII signis per quae sol meat trecenos et sexagenos invenerit locos.

I call images those with which we mark the things that must be learned by heart, so that, in the way Cicero says, we may use places in place of wax, simulacra in place of letters.
22. It will also be best to set this down verbatim: "places must be used that are many, illustrious, explicit, with moderate intervals; but the images should be active, acute, and insigned, such as can occur and swiftly strike the mind." For which reason I all the more marvel how Metrodorus, in the 12 signs through which the sun passes, found 360 places.

Vanitas nimirum fuit atque iactatio circa memoriam suam potius arte quam natura gloriantis.
XXIII. Equidem haec ad quaedam prodesse non negaverim, ut si rerum nomina multa per ordinem audita reddenda sint.

Vanity, to be sure, it was, and ostentation, of one glorying in his memory, rather by art than by nature.
23. For my part, I would not deny that these things are of use for certain matters, as, for instance, if many names of things, heard in order, must be recited.

Namque in iis quae didicerunt locis ponunt res illas: mensam, ut hoc utar, in vestibulo et pulpitum in atrio et sic cetera, deinde relegentes inveniunt ubi posuerunt.
XXIV. Et forsitan hoc sunt adiuti qui auctione dimissa quid cuique vendidissent testibus argentariorum tabulis reddiderunt, quod praestitisse Q. Hortensium dicunt.

For indeed in those places which they have learned they set those things: a table, to use this, in the vestibule, and a pulpit in the atrium, and so the rest; then, re-reading, they find where they put them.
24. And perhaps by this those were aided who, the auction dismissed, rendered an account of what they had sold to each person, with the bankers’ tablets as witnesses—something which they say Q. Hortensius performed.

Minus idem proderit in ediscendis quae orationis perpetuae erunt: nam et sensus non eandem imaginem quam res habent, cum alterum fingendum sit; et horum tamen utcumque commonet locus, sicut sermonis alicuius habiti: verborum contextus eadem arte quo modo comprehendetur?
XXV. Mitto quod quaedam nullis simulacris significari possunt, ut certe coniunctiones.

The same will be less useful in learning by heart those things that belong to continuous discourse: for the sense does not have the same image that things have, since one of the two must be feigned; and yet the place somehow reminds one of these, as of some speech delivered: but how will the contexture of the words be grasped by the same art?
25. I pass over the fact that certain things can be signified by no simulacra, as certainly conjunctions.

Habeamus enim sane, ut qui notis scribunt, certas imagines omnium et loca scilicet infinita, per quae verba quot sunt in quinque contra Verrem secundae actionis libris explicentur, [ne] meminerimus etiam omnium quasi depositorum: nonne impediri quoque dicendi cursum necesse est duplici memoriae cura?
XXVI. Nam quo modo poterunt copulata fluere si propter singula verba ad singulas formas respiciendum erit?

Let us, then, by all means suppose, like those who write in shorthand, fixed images of everything and, of course, infinite places, through which as many words as there are in the five books of the second action Against Verres may be unfolded, [not] that we should also remember all things as if of deposits: is it not necessary that the course of speaking too be hindered by a double care of memory?
26. For how will things coupled be able to flow if, on account of individual words, one must look back to individual forms?

Qua re et Charmadas et Scepsius de quo modo dixi Metrodorus, quos Cicero dicit usos hac exercitatione, sibi habeant sua: nos simpliciora tradamus.
XXVII. Si longior complectenda memoria fuerit oratio, proderit per partes ediscere (laborat enim maxime onere); sed hae partes non sint perexiguae, alioqui rursus multae erunt et eam distringent atque concident.

Wherefore let Charmadas and Metrodorus of Scepsis, as I said, whom Cicero says made use of this exercise, keep their own to themselves: let us transmit simpler things.
27. If the oration to be embraced by memory is longer, it will be useful to learn it by parts (for it strains most under the burden); but let these parts not be too very small, otherwise they will in turn be many and will distract and cut it to pieces.

Nec utique certum imperaverim modum, sed maxime ut quisque finietur locus, ni forte tam numerosus ut ipse quoque dividi debeat.
XXVIII. Dandi sunt certi quidam termini, ut contextum verborum, qui est difficillimus, continua et crebra meditatio, partis deinceps ipsas repetitus ordo coniungat.

Nor, to be sure, would I have commanded a fixed measure, but rather that each section be finished as it is bounded, unless perhaps so copious that it too ought to be divided.
XXVIII. Certain definite boundaries are to be set, so that continuous and frequent meditation may unite the contexture of words, which is most difficult, and a repeated order may connect the parts themselves in succession.

Non est inutile iis quae difficilius haereant aliquas adponere notas, quarum recordatio commoneat et quasi excitet memoriam:
XXIX. nemo enim fere tam infelix ut quod cuique loco signum destinaverit nesciat. At si erit tardus ad hoc, eo quoque adhuc remedio utatur, ut ipsae notae (hoc enim est ex illa arte non inutile) aptentur ad eos qui excidunt sensus, ancora, ut supra proposui, si de nave dicendum est, spiculum si de proelio.

It is not unuseful to add certain notes to those things which cling with more difficulty, the recollection of which may remind and, as it were, excite the memory:
29. for scarcely anyone is so unfortunate as not to know what sign he has assigned to each place. But if he will be slow for this, let him use this further remedy too, that the notes themselves (for this from that art is not unuseful) be fitted to the thoughts that slip from sense: an anchor, as I proposed above, if one must speak about a ship; a dart if about a battle.

XXX. Multum enim signa faciunt, et ex alia memoria venit alia, ut cum tralatus anulus vel alligatus commoneat nos cur id fecerimus. Haec magis adhuc adstringunt qui memoriam ab aliquo simili transferunt ad id quod continendum est: ut in nominibus, si Fabius forte sit tenendus, referamus ad illum cunctatorem, qui excidere non potest, aut ad aliquem amicum qui idem vocetur.

30. For signs accomplish much, and from one memory another comes, as when a ring shifted or tied on reminds us why we did that. These bind more closely still those who transfer memory from something similar to that which is to be kept: as in names, if a Fabius should perchance be to be retained, let us refer to that Delayer (the Cunctator), who cannot be forgotten, or to some friend who is called by the same name.

XXXI. Quod est facilius in Apris et in Vrsis et Nasone aut Crispo, ut id memoriae adfigatur unde sunt nomina. Origo quoque aliquando declinatorum tenendi magis causa est, ut in Cicerone, Verrio, Aurelio.

31. Which is easier with Apris and with Vrsis and with Naso or Crispus, namely that it be affixed to memory whence the names are. The origin, too, is sometimes more of a reason for retaining the declined forms, as in Cicerone, Verrio, Aurelio.

Sed hoc miseri.
XXXII. Illud neminem non iuvabit, isdem quibus scripserit ceris ediscere.

But in this we are miserable.
32. That will help everyone: to learn by heart on the same wax tablets on which he has written.

Sequitur enim vestigiis quibusdam memoriam, et velut oculis intuetur non paginas modo sed versus prope ipsos, estque cum dicit similis legenti. Iam vero si litura aut adiectio aliqua atque mutatio interveniat, signa sunt quaedam quae intuentes deerrare non possumus.
XXXIII.

For it follows the memory by certain vestiges, and, as if with eyes, it looks upon not only the pages but almost the verses themselves, and when he speaks he is like one reading. Now indeed, if an erasure or some adjection and mutation should intervene, there are certain signs which, as we look at them, we cannot go astray.
33.

Ista ratio, ut est illi de qua primum locutus sum arti non dissimilis, ita, si quid me experimenta docuerunt, et expeditior et potentior.
Ediscere tacite (nam id quoque est quaesitum) erat optimum si non subirent velut otiosum animum plerumque aliae cogitationes, propter quas excitandus est voce, ut duplici motu iuvetur memoria dicendi et audiendi. Sed haec vox sit modica et magis murmur.

This method, as it is not dissimilar to that art about which I first spoke, is also, if experiments have taught me anything, both more expeditious and more potent.
To learn by heart tacitly (for that too has been inquired) would be best, if other cogitations did not for the most part steal upon the mind as if at leisure, on account of which one must be roused by the voice, so that by a double motion the memory may be helped—of speaking and of hearing. But let this voice be moderate and rather a murmur.

XXXIV. Qui autem legente alio ediscit in parte tardatur, quod acrior est oculorum quam aurium sensus, in parte iuvari potest, quod, cum semel aut bis audierit, continuo illi memoriam suam experiri licet et cum legente contendere. Nam et alioqui id maxime faciendum est, ut nos subinde temptemus, quia continua lectio et quae magis et quae minus haerent aequaliter transit.

34. But he who learns by heart while another reads is in part slowed, because the sense of the eyes is acuter than that of the ears; in part he can be aided, because, when he has heard it once or twice, he may immediately test his memory and contend with the reader. For indeed this above all must be done, that we try ourselves from time to time, because continuous reading passes over equally both what adheres more and what adheres less.

XXXV. In experiendo teneasne et maior intentio est et nihil supervacui temporis perit quo etiam quae tenemus repeti solent: ita sola quae exciderunt retractantur, ut crebra iteratione firmentur, quamquam solent hoc ipso maxime haerere, quod exciderunt. Illud ediscendo scribendoque commune est, utrique plurimum conferre bonam valetudinem, digestum cibum, animum cogitationibus aliis liberum.

35. In experimenting whether you retain it, both the attention is greater and no superfluous time is lost, in which even the things we hold are wont to be repeated: thus only the things that have fallen out are taken up again, so that by frequent iteration they may be made firm, although by this very thing they are wont to stick most, because they had fallen out. This is common to learning by heart and by writing: that to each very much contributes good health, digested food, and a mind free from other cogitations.

XXXVI. Verum et in iis quae scripsimus complectendis multum valent et in iis quae cogitamus continendis prope solae, excepta quae potentissima est [et] exercitatione, divisio et compositio. Nam qui recte diviserit, numquam poterit in rerum ordine errare:
XXXVII.

36. But both for comprehending the things we have written and for retaining the things we are thinking, division and composition are very effective—almost alone—except for exercise, which is the most powerful [and]. For whoever shall have divided rightly will never be able to err in the order of things:
37.

certa sunt enim non solum in digerendis quaestionibus sed etiam in exsequendis, si modo recte dicimus, prima ac secunda et deinceps, cohaeretque omnis rerum copulatio, ut ei nihil neque subtrahi sine manifesto intellectu neque inseri possit.
XXXVIII. An vero Scaevola in lusu duodecim scriptorum, cum prior calculum promovisset essetque victus, dum rus tendit repetito totius certaminis ordine, quo dato errasset recordatus, rediit ad eum quocum luserat, isque ita factum esse confessus est: minus idem ordo valebit in oratione, praesertim totus nostro arbitrio constitutus, cum tantum ille valeat alternus?

For there are fixed [steps] not only in digesting questions but also in executing them, if only we speak correctly—the first and the second and thereafter—and the whole coupling of things coheres, so that nothing can either be subtracted without manifest understanding or inserted.
38. Or indeed did Scaevola, in the game of twelve scripta, when he had first advanced a counter and had been defeated, while he was making for the countryside, by reviewing the whole order of the contest remember at what move given he had gone astray, return to the one with whom he had played, and he confessed it had so happened; will the same order be of less force in an oration, especially one wholly constituted at our discretion, when that alternate one has such power?

XXXIX. Etiam quae bene composita erunt memoriam serie sua ducent: nam sicut facilius versus ediscimus quam prorsam orationem, ita prorsae vincta quam dissoluta. Sic contigit ut etiam quae ex tempore videbantur effusa ad verbum repetita reddantur.

39. Even those things which will have been well composed will lead the memory by their own series: for just as we learn verses by heart more easily than straight prose, so [we learn] prose bound rather than dissolved. Thus it has come to pass that even what seemed effused ex tempore is rendered verbatim when repeated.

Quod meae quoque memoriae mediocritatem sequebatur, si quando interventus aliquorum qui hunc honorem mererentur iterare declamationis partem coegisset. Nec est mendacio locus, salvis qui interfuerunt.
XL. Si quis tamen unam maximamque a me artem memoriae quaerat, exercitatio est et labor: multa ediscere, multa cogitare, et si fieri potest cotidie, potentissimum est: nihil aeque vel augetur cura vel neglegentia intercidit.

Which also used to attend the mediocrity of my memory, whenever the intervention of certain persons who would merit this honor had compelled me to repeat a part of the declamation. Nor is there place for mendacity, those who were present being safe and sound.
40. If anyone, however, should ask from me the single greatest art of memory, it is exercise and labor: to learn many things by heart, to think many things, and, if it can be done, daily, is most powerful: nothing else is so much either increased by care or lost by negligence.

XLI. Quare et pueri statim, ut praecepi, quam plurima ediscant, et quaecumque aetas operam iuvandae studio memoriae dabit devoret initio taedium illud et scripta et lecta saepius revolvendi et quasi eundem cibum remandendi. Quod ipsum hoc fieri potest levius si pauca primum et quae odium non adferant coeperimus ediscere, tum cotidie adicere singulos versus, quorum accessio labori sensum incrementi non adferat, in summam ad infinitum usque perveniat, et poetica prius, tum oratorum, novissime etiam solutiora numeris et magis ab usu dicendi remota, qualia sunt iuris consultorum.

41. Wherefore let boys at once, as I have prescribed, learn by heart as many things as possible; and let people of whatever age will devote effort to the study of aiding memory swallow at the beginning that tedium of more frequently turning over both what is written and what is read, and, as it were, re-chewing the same food. This very thing can be made lighter if we first begin to learn by heart a few items, and such as do not bring aversion, then each day add single verses, the accession of which does not bring to the labor a sense of increment, while the sum comes at last even to the infinite; and poetry first, then that of orators, and, latest, even things looser in numbers and more removed from the use of speaking, such as those of jurisconsults.

XLII. Difficiliora enim debent esse quae exercent quo sit levius ipsum illud in quod exercent, ut athletae ponderibus plumbeis adsuefaciunt manus, quibus vacuis et nudis in certamine utendum est. Non omittam etiam, quod cotidianis experimentis deprenditur, minime fidelem esse paulo tardioribus ingeniis recentem memoriam.

42. For the things that exercise us ought to be more difficult, so that that very thing toward which one is training may be lighter, just as athletes accustom their hands with leaden weights, whereas in the contest those hands must be used empty and bare. I will not omit, too, what is detected by daily experiments: for minds a little slower, recent memory is least trustworthy.

XLIII. Mirum dictu est, nec in promptu ratio, quantum nox interposita adferat firmitatis, sive requiescit labor ille, cuius sibi ipsa fatigatio obstabat, sive maturatur atque concoquitur, quae firmissima eius pars est, recordatio; quae statim referri non poterant, contexuntur postera die, confirmatque memoriam idem illud tempus quod esse in causa solet oblivionis.
XLIV.

43. Wonderful to say, nor is the rationale at hand, how much firmness an interposed night brings—whether that labor rests, the very fatigue of which was an obstacle to itself, or whether it is matured and concocted, recollection, which is its firmest part; things which could not be brought back at once are woven together on the following day, and that same time, which is wont to be the cause of oblivion, confirms the memory.
44.

Etiam illa praevelox fere cito effluit, et, velut praesenti officio functa nihil in posterum debeat, tamquam dimissa discedit. Nec est mirum magis haerere animo quae diutius adfixa sint.
Ex hac ingeniorum diversitate nata dubitatio est, ad verbum sit ediscendum dicturis, an vim modo rerum atque ordinem complecti satis sit: de quo sine dubio non potest in universum pronuntiari.
XLV.

Even that very fleet thing almost quickly flows away, and, as if, its present office having been discharged, it owed nothing for the future, it departs as though dismissed. Nor is it a wonder that those things adhere more in the mind which have been affixed for a longer time.
From this diversity of talents a doubt has arisen, whether for those about to speak the speech ought to be learned by heart word-for-word, or whether it is enough to embrace only the force of the matters and the order: about which, without doubt, one cannot pronounce universally.
45.

Nam si memoria suffragatur, tempus non defuit, nulla me velim syllaba effugiat (alioqui etiam scribere sit supervacuum): idque praecipue a pueris optinendum atque in hanc consuetudinem memoria exercitatione redigenda, ne nobis discamus ignoscere. Ideoque et admoneri et ad libellum respicere vitiosum, quod libertatem neglegentiae facit; nec quisquam se parum tenere iudicat quod ne sibi excidat non timet.
XLVI.

For if memory supports us, time has not been lacking; I would wish that no syllable escape me (otherwise even to write would be superfluous): and this is chiefly to be obtained by boys, and memory must be brought by exercise into this custom, lest we learn to pardon ourselves. And therefore both to be admonished and to look back to the little book is faulty, because it makes a license of negligence; nor does anyone judge that he holds too little of that which he does not fear may fall out from him.
46.

Inde interruptus actionis impetus et resistens ac salebrosa oratio: et qui dicit ediscenti similis etiam omnem bene scriptorum gratiam perdit, vel hoc ipso quod scripsisse se confitetur. Memoria autem facit etiam prompti ingeni famam, ut illa quae dicimus non domo attulisse sed ibi protinus sumpsisse videamur, quod et oratori et ipsi causae plurimum confert:
XLVII. nam et magis miratur et minus timet iudex quae non putat adversus se praeparata.

Thence the impulse of action is interrupted and the speech is resisting and rough-and-rutted; and he who speaks like one learning by rote even loses all the grace of things well written, by this very fact that he confesses that he has written. Memory, moreover, also creates the reputation of a prompt ingenium, so that the things we say may seem not to have been brought from home but to have been taken up there on the spot, which contributes very much both to the orator and to the cause itself:
47. for the judge both more admires and less fears the things which he does not suppose to have been prepared against him.

Idque in actionibus inter praecipua servandum est, ut quaedam etiam quae optime vinximus velut soluta enuntiemus, et cogitantibus nonnumquam et dubitantibus similes quaerere videamur quae attulimus.
XLVIII. Ergo quid sit optimum neminem fugit.

And this is to be preserved among the principal points in pleadings, that we should enunciate certain things, even those we have most excellently bound, as if loosened, and that we sometimes seem, like those who are cogitating and even doubting, to be searching for what we have brought forward.
48. Therefore what is best escapes no one.

Si vero aut memoria natura durior erit aut non suffragabitur tempus, etiam inutile erit ad omnia se verba alligare, cum oblivio unius eorum cuiuslibet aut deformem haesitationem aut etiam silentium indicat, tutiusque multo comprehensis animo rebus ipsis libertatem sibi eloquendi relinquere.
XLIX. Nam et invitus perdit quisque id quod elegerat verbum, nec facile reponit aliud dum id quod scripserat quaerit.

But if either memory shall by nature be rather hard, or time shall not lend its suffrage, it will even be useless to bind oneself to every single word, since oblivion of any one of them indicates either a misshapen hesitation or even silence; and it is much safer, with the very matters themselves comprehended in the mind, to leave to oneself the liberty of speaking.
49. For each person, even unwilling, loses the word which he had chosen, nor does he easily replace another while he is seeking that which he had written.

Sed ne hoc quidem infirmae memoriae remedium est nisi in iis qui sibi facultatem aliquam dicendi ex tempore paraverunt. Quod si cui utrumque defuerit, huic omittere omnino totum actionum laborem, ac si quid in litteris valet ad scribendum potius suadebo convertere: sed haec rara infelicitas erit.
L. Ceterum quantum natura studioque valeat memoria vel Themistocles testis, quem unum intra annum optime locutum esse Persice constat, vel Mithridates, cui duas et viginti linguas, quot nationibus imperabat, traditur notas fuisse, vel Crassus ille dives, qui cum Asiae praeesset quinque Graeci sermonis differentias sic tenuit ut qua quisque apud eum lingua postulasset eadem ius sibi redditum ferret, vel Cyrus, quem omnium militum tenuisse creditum est nomina:
LI. quin semel auditos quamlibet multos versus protinus dicitur reddidisse Theodectes.

But not even this is a remedy for a weak memory, except in those who have prepared for themselves some faculty of speaking extemporaneously. But if someone lacks both, I will advise this one to omit entirely the whole toil of pleadings, and, if he has any strength in letters, to convert it rather to writing: but this will be a rare ill-fortune.
50. Moreover, how much memory may prevail by nature and by zeal either Themistocles is witness, whom alone within a year it is agreed spoke Persian most excellently, or Mithridates, to whom two and twenty languages, as many as the nations over which he ruled, are handed down to have been familiar, or that rich Crassus, who, when he presided over Asia, so mastered five differences of the Greek speech that in whatever tongue each man had petitioned before him, he carried off that judgment had been rendered to him in the same, or Cyrus, who is believed to have kept the names of all his soldiers:
51. indeed Theodectes is said to have immediately reproduced however many verses once heard.

Dicebantur etiam nunc esse qui facerent, sed mihi numquam ut ipse interessem contigit: habenda tamen fides est vel in hoc, ut qui crediderit et speret.

It was said that even now there were those who did this, but it never befell me to be present myself; nevertheless, faith is to be had even in this, namely that whoever has believed should also hope.

3
I. Pronuntiatio a plerisque actio dicitur, sed prius nomen a voce, sequens a gestu videtur accipere. Namque actionem Cicero alias "quasi sermonem", alias "eloquentiam quandam corporis" dicit. Idem tamen duas eius partis facit, quae sunt eaedem pronuntiationis, vocem atque motum: quapropter utraque appellatione indifferenter uti licet.

3
1. Pronunciation is by most called action, but the former name seems to be taken from the voice, the latter from gesture. For Cicero calls action sometimes “as it were speech,” sometimes “a certain eloquence of the body.” The same man, however, makes two parts of it, which are the same as of pronunciation: the voice and the movement; wherefore it is permitted to use either appellation indifferently.

II. Habet autem res ipsa miram quandam in orationibus vim ac potestatem: neque enim tam refert qualia sint quae intra nosmet ipsos composuimus quam quo modo efferantur: nam ita quisque ut audit movetur. Quare neque probatio ulla, quae modo venit ab oratore, tam firma est ut non perdat vires suas nisi adiuvatur adseveratione dicentis: adfectus omnes languescant necesse est, nisi voce, vultu, totius prope habitu corporis inardescunt.
III.

2. Moreover, the matter itself has a certain wondrous force and power in orations: for it is not so much of concern what sort the things are that we have composed within our very selves as in what manner they are carried forth; for each person is moved just as he hears. Wherefore no proof at all, which comes from the orator alone, is so firm that it does not lose its strength unless it is aided by the speaker’s asseveration; all affects must needs grow languid, unless they blaze up by the voice, the countenance, by almost the entire habit of the body.
3.

Nam cum haec omnia fecerimus, felices tamen si nostrum illum ignem iudex conceperit, nedum eum supini securique moveamus ac non et ipse nostra oscitatione solvatur.
IV. Documento sunt vel scaenici actores, qui et optimis poetarum tantum adiciunt gratiae ut nos infinite magis eadem illa audita quam lecta delectent, et vilissimis etiam quibusdam impetrant aures, ut quibus nullus est in bibliothecis locus sit etiam frequens in theatris.
V. Quod si in rebus quas fictas esse scimus et inanes tantum pronuntiatio potest ut iram lacrimas sollicitudinem adferat, quanto plus valeat necesse est ubi et credimus?

For when we have done all these things, we are fortunate if the judge catches that fire of ours; let alone that we should move him while we ourselves are supine and carefree, and that he himself not be slackened by our own yawning.
4. As evidence are even scenic actors, who both add so much grace to the best of the poets that those same pieces delight us infinitely more when heard than when read, and they even win ears for certain most worthless ones, so that those for whom there is no place in libraries are even frequent in the theatres.
5. And if in things which we know to be fictitious and empty delivery alone can do so much as to bring anger, tears, solicitude, how much more must it prevail where we also believe?

Equidem vel mediocrem orationem commendatam viribus actionis adfirmarim plus habituram esse momenti quam optimam eadem illa destitutam:
VI. si quidem et Demosthenes, quid esset in toto dicendi opere primum interrogatus, pronuntiationi palmam dedit, eidemque secundum ac tertium locum, donec ab eo quaeri desineret, ut eam videri posset non praecipuam sed solam iudicasse (ideoque ipse tam diligenter apud Andronicum hypocriten studuit ut admirantibus eius orationem Rhodiis non inmerito Aeschines dixisse videatur:
VII. "quid si ipsum audissetis?") et M. Cicero unam in dicendo actionem dominari putat.
VIII.

Indeed I would affirm that even a mediocre oration, commended by the forces of delivery, would have more moment than the best destitute of those same things:
6. since indeed even Demosthenes, when asked what was first in the whole work of speaking, gave the palm to pronuntiation (delivery), and to the same the second and third place, until he was no longer asked, so that he might seem to have judged it not as the chief thing but the only one (and for that reason he himself studied so diligently with Andronicus the actor that, when the Rhodians were admiring his oration, Aeschines seems not without desert to have said:
7. "what if you had heard the man himself?") and M. Cicero thinks that in speaking action (delivery) alone dominates.
8.

Hac Cn. Lentulum plus opinionis consecutum quam eloquentia tradit, eadem C. Gracchum in deflenda fratris nece totius populi Romani lacrimas concitasse, Antonium et Crassum multum valuisse, plurimum vero Q. Hortensium. cuius rei fides est, quod eius scripta tantum infra famam sunt, qua diu princeps orator, aliquando aemulus Ciceronis existimatus est, novissime, quoad vixit, secundus, ut appareat placuisse aliquid eo dicente quod legentes non invenimus.
IX. Et hercule cum valeant multum verba per se et vox propriam vim adiciat rebus et gestus motusque significet aliquid, profecto perfectum quiddam fieri cum omnia coierunt necesse est.

By this, it is handed down that Cn. Lentulus achieved more reputation than eloquence, that the same (art) roused C. Gracchus, in bewailing his brother’s murder, to stir the tears of the whole Roman people, that Antonius and Crassus had much potency, but most of all Q. Hortensius. The proof of this is that his writings are so far beneath his fame—by which he was long esteemed the chief orator, at times a rival of Cicero, and most recently, so long as he lived, second—that it is apparent there pleased something in his speaking which we who read do not find.
9. And by Hercules, since words by themselves have much power, and the voice adds its own force to the matter, and gesture and movement signify something, assuredly something perfected must come to be when all have come together.

X. sunt tamen qui rudem illam et qualem impetus cuiusque animi tulit actionem iudicent fortiorem et solam viris dignam, sed non alii fere quam qui etiam in dicendo curam et artem et nitorem et quidquid studio paratur ut adfectata et parum naturalia solent improbare, vel qui verborum atque ipsius etiam soni rusticitate, ut L. Cottam dicit Cicero fecisse, imitationem antiquitatis adfectant.
XI. Verum illi persuasione sua fruantur, qui hominibus ut sint oratores satis putant nasci: nostro labori dent veniam, qui nihil credimus esse perfectum nisi ubi natura cura iuvetur. In hoc igitur non contumaciter consentio, primas partis esse naturae.

10. there are, however, those who judge that rough action—that which the impulse of each person’s spirit has borne—stronger and alone worthy of men; but they are almost none other than those who also in speaking are accustomed to disapprove care and art and polish and whatever is prepared by study as affected and too little natural, or who, by the rusticity of words and even of the very sound, as Cicero says that L. Cotta did, aim at an imitation of antiquity.
11. but let them enjoy their persuasion, who think that men are born so as to be orators: let them grant pardon to our labor, we who believe that nothing is perfect unless nature is helped by care. In this, therefore, I do not consent contumaciously, that the first parts belong to nature.

XII. Nam certe bene pronuntiare non poterit cui aut in scriptis memoria aut in iis quae subito dicenda erunt facilitas prompta defuerit, nec si inemendabilia oris incommoda obstabunt. Corporis etiam potest esse aliqua tanta deformitas ut nulla arte vincatur.

XII. For certainly he will not be able to pronounce well, for whom either in writings memory has been lacking, or in those things which must be said suddenly a ready facility; nor if irremediable inconveniences of the mouth stand in the way. There can also be some deformity of the body so great that by no art is it overcome.

XIII. Sed ne vox quidem nisi libera vitiis actionem habere optimam potest. Bona enim firmaque ut volumus uti licet: mala vel inbecilla et inhibet multa, ut insurgere exclamare, et aliqua cogit, ut intermittere et deflectere et rasas fauces ac latus fatigatum deformi cantico reficere.

13. But not even the voice, unless free of faults, can have the best delivery. For with a good and firm one we may use it as we wish; but a bad or feeble one both inhibits many things, such as to rise up and to exclaim, and also compels some things, such as to intermit and to deflect, and to refresh a scraped throat and a wearied side with a misshapen sing-song.

Sed nos de eo nunc loquamur cui non frustra praecipitur.
XIV. cum sit autem omnis actio, ut dixi, in duas divisa partis, vocem gestumque, quorum alter oculos, altera aures movet, per quos duos sensus omnis ad animum penetrat adfectus, prius est de voce dicere, cui etiam gestus accommodatur.

But let us now speak of him for whom the precept is not given in vain.
14. Now since all action, as I said, is divided into two parts, voice and gesture, of which the one moves the eyes, the other the ears—through which two senses every affect penetrates to the mind—it is first to speak about the voice, to which gesture also is accommodated.

In ea prima observatio est qualem habeas, secunda quo modo utaris. Natura vocis spectatur quantitate et qualitate. Quantitas simplicior:
XV. in summam enim grandis aut exigua est, sed inter has extremitates mediae sunt species et ab ima ad summam ac retro sunt multi gradus.

In this matter, the first observation is what sort you have, the second in what manner you use it. The nature of the voice is considered in quantity and quality. Quantity is simpler:
15. for, in sum, it is grand or exiguous; but between these extremities there are middle species, and from the lowest to the highest and back there are many degrees.

Qualitas magis varia. Nam est et candida et fusca, et plena et exilis, et levis et aspera, et contracta et fusa, et dura et flexibilis, et clara et optusa.
XVI.

Quality is more varied. For it is both bright and dusky, both full and thin, both smooth and rough, both contracted and diffuse, both hard and flexible, and both clear and obtuse.
16.

Spiritus etiam longior breviorque. Nec causas cur quidque eorum accidat persequi proposito operi necessarium est - eorumne sit differentia in quibus aura illa concipitur, an eorum per quae velut organa meat: [an] ipsi propria natura, an prout movetur: lateris pectorisve firmitas an capitis etiam plus adiuvet. Nam opus est omnibus, sicut non oris modo suavitate sed narium quoque, per quas quod superest vocis egeritur, dulcis esse tamen non exprobrans sonus.

Breath too is longer and shorter. Nor is it necessary for the proposed work to pursue the causes why each of these happens—whether the difference is in those things in which that aura is conceived, or in those through which, as though organs, it passes; [whether] in its own proper nature, or according as it is moved; whether the firmness of the side or of the chest, or even of the head, helps more. For there is need of all of them, just as there is not only a sweetness of the mouth but also of the nostrils, through which what remains of the voice is driven out—yet the sound must be sweet and not reproaching.

XVII. Vtendi voce multiplex ratio. Nam praeter illam differentiam quae est tripertita, acutae gravis flexae, tum intentis tum remissis, tum elatis tum inferioribus modis opus est, spatiis quoque lentioribus aut citatioribus.

17. A manifold method of using the voice. For besides that difference which is tripartite—acute, grave, and inflected—there is need both of tense and of remiss, both of elevated and of lower modes, and also of slower or more rapid paces.

XVIII. Sed his ipsis media interiacent multa, et ut facies, quamquam ex paucissimis constat, infinitam habet differentiam, ita vox, etsi paucas quae nominari possint continet species, propria cuique est, et non haec minus auribus quam oculis illa dinoscitur.
XIX.

18. But among these very things many intermediates lie, and just as the face, although it consists of very few parts, has infinite difference, so the voice, even if it contains few species that can be named, is proper to each person, and this is recognized no less by the ears than that by the eyes.
19.

Augentur autem sicut omnium, ita vocis quoque bona cura, [et] neglegentia vel inscitia minuuntur. Sed cura non eadem oratoribus quae phonascis convenit, tamen multa sunt utrisque communia, firmitas corporis, ne ad spadonum et mulierum et aegrorum exilitatem vox nostra tenuetur, quod ambulatio, unctio, veneris abstinentia, facilis ciborum digestio, id est frugalitas, praestat:
XX. praeterea ut sint fauces integrae, id est molles ac leves, quarum vitio et frangitur et obscuratur et exasperatur et scinditur vox. Nam ut tibiae eodem spiritu accepto alium clusis alium apertis foraminibus, alium non satis purgatae alium quassae sonum reddunt, item fauces tumentes strangulant vocem, optusae obscurant, rasae exasperant, convulsae fractis sunt organis similes.

Moreover, as with all things, so too the goods of the voice are increased by care, and are diminished by negligence or ignorance. Yet the care that suits orators is not the same as that which suits the phonasci; nevertheless many things are common to both: firmness of body, lest our voice be attenuated to the tenuity of eunuchs and women and the sick—a result which walking, unction, abstinence from Venus, and easy digestion of foods, that is, frugality, procure;
20. further, that the throat be sound, that is, soft and smooth; by its defect the voice is broken, obscured, made harsh, and torn. For as pipes, though receiving the same breath, render one sound with the holes closed and another with them open, one when not sufficiently cleansed and another when shaken and damaged, so swollen throats strangle the voice, stopped-up ones obscure it, rasped ones make it harsh, wrenched ones are like instruments with broken pipes.

XXI. Finditur etiam spiritus obiectu aliquo, sicut lapillo tenues aquae, quarum impetus etiam si ultra paulum coit, aliquid tamen cavi relinquit post id ipsum quod offenderat. Vmor quoque vocem ut nimius impedit, ita consumptus destituit.

21. The breath too is split by some interposed object, as a pebble splits slender waters, whose rush, even if it comes together again a little further on, nevertheless leaves some hollow behind the very thing it had struck. Moisture also, just as when excessive it hinders the voice, so when consumed it deserts it.

Nam fatigatio, ut corpora, non ad praesens modo tempus sed etiam in futurum adficit.
XXII. Sed ut communiter et phonascis et oratoribus necessaria est exercitatio, qua omnia convalescunt, ita curae non idem genus est.

For fatigue, as with bodies, affects not only the present time but also the future.
22. But although exercise, by which all things convalesce, is commonly necessary both for the phonasci and for orators, yet the kind of care is not the same.

Nam neque certa tempora ad spatiandum dari possunt tot civilibus officiis occupato, nec praeparare ab imis sonis vocem ad summos nec semper a contentione condere licet, cum pluribus iudiciis saepe dicendum sit.
XXIII. Ne ciborum quidem est eadem observatio: non enim tam molli teneraque voce quam forti ac durabili opus est, cum illi omnes etiam altissimos sonos leniant cantu oris, nobis pleraque aspere sint concitateque dicenda et vigilandae noctes et fuligo lucubrationum bibenda et in sudata veste durandum.

For neither can fixed times be given for walking to one occupied with so many civil duties, nor is it permitted to prepare the voice from the lowest sounds to the highest, nor always to lay it up from strain, since one must often speak in several judgments.
23. Not even the same observance of foods applies: for we need not so soft and tender a voice as a strong and durable one, since they smooth even the highest tones by the chant of the mouth, whereas for us most things must be spoken roughly and with excitement, and nights must be kept in vigil, and the soot of lucubrations must be drunk, and one must endure in a sweat-soaked garment.

XXIV. Quare vocem deliciis non molliamus, nec inbuatur ea consuetudine quam desideratura sit, sed exercitatio eius talis sit qualis usus, nec silentio subsidat, sed firmetur consuetudine, qua difficultas omnis levatur.
XXV.

24. Therefore let us not soften the voice with luxuries, nor let it be imbued with a habit that it will come to desire; rather let its exercise be of the same kind as its use; nor let it subside through silence, but be strengthened by habituation, by which every difficulty is lightened.
25.

Ediscere autem quo exercearis erit optimum (nam ex tempore dicentis avocat a cura vocis ille qui ex rebus ipsis concipitur adfectus), et ediscere quam maxime varia, quae et clamorem et disputationem et sermonem et flexus habeant, ut simul in omnia paremur.
XXVI. Hoc satis est.

But to learn by heart that by which you may be exercised will be optimum (for the affect which is conceived from the things themselves draws one speaking ex tempore away from care of the voice), and to learn by heart things as various as possible, which have both clamor and disputation and sermon and flexions, so that at once we are prepared for everything.
XXVI. This is enough.

Alioqui nitida illa et curata vox insolitum laborem recusabit, ut adsueta gymnasiis et oleo corpora, quamlibet sint in suis certaminibus speciosa atque robusta, si militare iter fascemque et vigilias imperes, deficiant et quaerant unctores suos nudumque sudorem.
XXVII. Illa quidem in hoc opere praecipi quis ferat, vitandos soles atque ventos et nubila etiam ac siccitates?

Otherwise that sleek and carefully tended voice will refuse unusual labor, just as bodies accustomed to gymnasia and oil, however specious and robust they may be in their own contests, if you command a military march and the pack and the watches, they fail and look for their anointers and for naked sweat.
27. Indeed, who would endure that in this work it be prescribed to avoid the sun and the winds and even the clouds and the droughts?

Ita, si dicendum in sole aut ventoso umido calido die fuerit, reos deseremus? Nam crudum quidem aut saturum aut ebrium aut eiecto modo vomitu, quae cavenda quidam monent, declamare neminem qui sit mentis compos puto.
XXVIII.

Thus, if there must be speaking in the sun or on a windy, humid, hot day, shall we abandon the defendants? For as to being undigested, or stuffed, or drunk, or having just now expelled vomit—things which some advise should be avoided—I think no one who is of sound mind would declaim.
28.

Illud non sine causa est ab omnibus praeceptum, ut parcatur maxime voci in illo a pueritia in adulescentiam transitu, quia naturaliter impeditur, non, ut arbitror, propter calorem, quod quidam putaverunt (nam est maior alias), sed propter umorem potius: nam hoc aetas illa turgescit.
XXIX. Itaque nares etiam ac pectus eo tempore tument, atque omnia velut germinant eoque sunt tenera et iniuriae obnoxia.

That is not without cause prescribed by all: that the voice be especially spared in that passage from boyhood into adolescence, because it is naturally impeded, not, as I think, on account of heat, which some have supposed (for it is greater at other times), but rather on account of moisture: for with this that age becomes turgid.
29. And so the nostrils also and the chest at that time swell, and all things, as it were, germinate, and for that reason are tender and obnoxious to injury.

Sed, ut ad propositum redeam, iam confirmatae constitutaeque voci genus exercitationis optimum duco quod est operi simillimum, dicere cotidie sicut agimus. Namque hoc modo non vox tantum confirmatur et latus, sed etiam corporis decens et accommodatus orationi motus componitur.
XXX.

But, so that I may return to the proposition, for the voice already confirmed and established I consider the best kind of exercise to be that which is most similar to the work: to speak daily just as we plead. For in this way not only the voice and the lungs are strengthened, but also a becoming movement of the body, accommodated to oration, is composed.
30.

Non alia est autem ratio pronuntiationis quam ipsius orationis. Nam ut illa emendata dilucida ornata apta esse debet, ita haec quoque. Emendata erit, id est vitio carebit, si fuerit os facile explanatum iucundum urbanum, id est in quo nulla neque rusticitas neque peregrinitas resonet.

There is no other method of delivery than that of the oration itself. For as the latter ought to be emended, lucid, ornate, apt, so too this. It will be emended—that is, will be free of fault—if the mouth be plainly opened, pleasant, urbane, that is, one in which neither rusticity nor foreignness resounds.

XXXI. Non enim sine causa dicitur "barbarum Graecumve": nam sonis homines ut aera tinnitu dinoscimus. Ita fiet illud quod Ennius probat cum dicit "suaviloquenti ore" Cethegum fuisse, non quod Cicero in iis reprehendit quos ait latrare, non agere.

31. For not without cause is it said “barbarian or Greek”: for by sounds we distinguish human beings as we discern bronzes by their ringing. Thus there will result that which Ennius approves when he says that Cethegus was “with a sweet-speaking mouth,” not what Cicero blames in those whom he says “to bark, not to plead.”

sunt enim multa vitia, de quibus dixi cum in quadam primi libri parte puerorum ora formarem, oportunius ratus in ea aetate facere illorum mentionem in qua emendari possunt.
XXXII. Itemque si ipsa vox primum fuerit, ut sic dicam, sana, id est nullum eorum de quibus modo retuli patietur incommodum, deinde non subsurda rudis inmanis dura rigida rava praepinguis, aut tenuis inanis acerba pusilla mollis effeminata, spiritus nec brevis nec parum durabilis nec in receptu difficilis.

for there are many vices, of which I spoke when, in a certain part of the first book, I was shaping the mouths of boys, thinking it more opportune to make mention of those at that age in which they can be amended.
32. Likewise, if the voice itself shall first be, so to speak, sound, that is, it will suffer none of those inconveniences of which I just related, then let it not be somewhat-deaf, raw, immense, hard, rigid, hoarse, over-thick; nor thin, empty, sharp/harsh, puny, soft, effeminate; and let the breath be neither short nor insufficiently durable nor difficult in the intake.

XXXIII. Dilucida vero erit pronuntiatio primum si verba tota exierint, quorum pars devorari, pars destitui solet, plerisque extremas syllabas non perferentibus dum priorum sono indulgent. Vt est autem necessaria verborum explanatio, ita omnis inputare et velut adnumerare litteras molestum et odiosum:
XXXIV.

33. The delivery will in truth be clear, first, if the words go out whole, of which one part is wont to be devoured, another to be left in the lurch, since very many do not carry through the final syllables while they indulge the sound of those before. And as the explanation of words is necessary, so to reckon up and, as it were, enumerate the letters is troublesome and odious:
34.

nam et vocales frequentissime coeunt et consonantium quaedam insequente vocali dissimulantur. Vtriusque exemplum posuimus: "multum ille et terris".
XXXV. Vitatur etiam duriorum inter se congressus, unde "pellexit" et "collegit" et quae alio loco dicta sunt.

for vowels very frequently coalesce, and certain consonants are dissimulated when a vowel follows. We have set an example of each: "multum ille et terris".
35. The congress of harsher sounds with one another is also avoided, whence "pellexit" and "collegit" and the things which have been said in another place.

Ideoque laudatur in Catulo suavis appellatio litterarum. Secundum est ut sit oratio distincta, id est, qui dicit et incipiat ubi oportet et desinat. Observandum etiam quo loco sustinendus et quasi suspendendus sermo sit, quod Graeci hypodiastolen vel hypostigmen vocant, quo deponendus.

And therefore in Catullus the suave appellation (i.e., pleasant pronunciation) of letters is praised. Secondly, that the discourse be distinct—that is, that the speaker both begin where he ought and end. It must also be observed in what place the speech is to be sustained and, as it were, suspended (which the Greeks call hypodiastole or hypostigma), and where it is to be set down.

XXXVI. Suspenditur "arma virumque cano", quia illud "virum" ad sequentia pertinet, ut sit "virum Troiae qui primus ab oris", et hic iterum. Nam etiam si aliud est unde venit quam quo venit, non distinguendum tamen, quia utrumque eodem verbo continetur "venit".
XXXVII.

36. "Arma virumque cano" is suspended, because that "virum" pertains to the following, so that it is "virum Troiae qui primus ab oris," and here again. For even if that from where he came is other than that to which he came, nevertheless it is not to be distinguished, because both are contained by the same verb "venit."
37.

Tertio "Italiam", quia interiectio est "fato profugus" et continuum sermonem, qui faciebat "Italiam Lavinaque", dividit. Ob eandemque causam quarto "profugus", deinde "Lavinaque venit litora", ubi iam erit distinctio, quia inde alius incipit sensus. Sed in ipsis etiam distinctionibus tempus alias brevius, alias longius dabimus: interest enim sermonem finiant an sensum.

Third, "Italiam," because "fato profugus" is an interjection and breaks the continuous discourse which would have made "Italiam Lavinaque." And for the same reason, fourth, "profugus"; then "Lavinaque venit litora," where now there will be a distinction, because from that point another sense begins. But even within the distinctions themselves we will at times give a shorter, at times a longer pause: for it makes a difference whether they finish the discourse or the sense.

XXXVIII. Itaque illam distinctionem "litora" protinus altero spiritus initio insequar; cum illuc venero: "atque altae moenia Romae", deponam et morabor et novum rursus exordium faciam.
XXXIX.

38. Therefore that distinction at “shores” I will immediately follow with another inception of breath; when I have come to that point: “and the lofty walls of Rome,” I will set it down and linger, and I will again make a new exordium.
39.

sunt aliquando et sine respiratione quaedam morae etiam in perihodis. Vt enim illa "in coetu vero populi Romani negotium publicum gerens magister equitum" et cetera multa membra habent (sensus enim sunt alii atque alii) sed unam circumductionem: ita paulum morandum in his intervallis, non interrumpendus est contextus. Et e contrario spiritum interim recipere sine intellectu morae necesse est, quo loco quasi surripiendus est: alioqui si inscite recipiatur, non minus adferat obscuritatis quam vitiosa distinctio.

There are sometimes certain delays even in periods without any respiration. For just as that phrase, "in the assembly indeed of the Roman people, conducting a public business, the master of horse," and so on, has many members (for the senses are one and then another), but a single circumduction; so one must pause a little in these intervals, yet the context must not be interrupted. And conversely, it is necessary in the meantime to recover breath without any perception of a pause, at which place it must, as it were, be stolen; otherwise, if it be unskillfully taken, it brings no less obscurity than a faulty distinction.

Virtus autem distinguendi fortasse sit parva, sine qua tamen esse nulla alia in agendo potest.
XL. Ornata est pronuntiatio cui suffragatur vox facilis magna beata flexibilis firma dulcis durabilis clara pura, secans a‰ra et auribus sedens (est enim quaedam ad auditum accommodata non magnitudine sed proprietate), ad hoc velut tractabilis, utique habens omnes in se qui desiderantur sinus intentionesque et toto, ut aiunt, organo instructa, cui aderit lateris firmitas, spiritus cum spatio pertinax, tum labori non facile cessurus.
XLI.

But the virtue of distinguishing may perhaps be small, without which, however, no other virtue in performance can exist.
40. Delivery is adorned when it is supported by a voice easy, great, well-endowed, flexible, firm, sweet, durable, clear, pure, cutting the air and settling upon the ears (for there is a certain kind accommodated to hearing, not by magnitude but by propriety), in addition, as it were, tractable—assuredly having in itself all the modulations and intensifications that are desired—and equipped, as they say, with the whole organ; to which there will be present the firmness of the flank, a breath persistent with amplitude, and then one not easily about to yield to toil.
41.

Neque gravissimus autem in musica sonus nec acutissimus orationibus convenit: nam et hic parum clarus nimiumque plenus nullum adferre animis motum potest, et ille praetenuis et inmodicae claritatis cum est ultra verum, tum neque pronuntiatione flecti neque diutius ferre intentionem potest.
XLII. Nam vox, ut nervi, quo remissior hoc gravior et plenior, quo tensior hoc tenuis et acuta magis est.

Neither the gravest tone in music nor the acutest suits orations: for the former, being too little clear and too full, can bring no movement to the spirits, and the latter, over‑thin and of immoderate clarity—when it is beyond what is true—can neither be bent by pronuntiation nor bear a sustained tension for long.
42. For the voice, like strings, the more slack it is, the graver and fuller; the more tense, the thinner and more acute it is.

Sic ima vim non habet, summa rumpi periclitatur. Mediis ergo utendum sonis, hique tum augenda intentione excitandi, tum summittenda sunt temperandi.
XLIII.

Thus the lowest has no force; the highest runs the risk of being broken. Therefore the middle tones must be used, and these must now be heightened in tension to excite, now lowered to temper.
43.

Nam prima est observatio recte pronuntiandi aequalitas, ne sermo subsultet inparibus spatiis ac sonis, miscens longa brevibus, gravia acutis, elata summissis, et inaequalitate horum omnium sicut pedum claudicet. Secunda varietas: quod solum est pronuntiatio.
XLIV.

For the first observation of right pronunciation is equality, lest speech skip in unequal intervals and sounds, mixing long with short, grave with acute, elevated with lowered, and by the inequality of all these limp like metrical feet. The second is variety: which alone is delivery.
44.

Ac ne quis pugnare inter se putet aequalitatem et varietatem, cum illi virtuti contrarium vitium sit inaequalitas, huic quae dicitur monoeideia, quasi quidam unus aspectus. Ars porro variandi cum gratiam praebet ac renovat aures, tum dicentem ipsa laboris mutatione reficit, ut standi ambulandi sedendi iacendi vices sunt nihilque eorum pati unum diu possumus.
XLV.

And lest anyone think that equality and variety fight one another, since for the former the vice contrary to that virtue is inequality, for the latter it is what is called monoeideia, as it were a certain single aspect. Moreover, the art of varying both affords grace and renews the ears, and it refreshes the speaker himself by the change of exertion, just as there are turns of standing, walking, sitting, lying down, and we are able to endure none of these alone for long.
45.

Illud vero maximum (sed id paulo post tractabimus), quod secundum rationem rerum de quibus dicimus animorumque habitus conformanda vox est, ne ab oratione discordet. Vitemus igitur illam quae Graece monotonia vocatur, una quaedam spiritus ac soni intentio, non solum ne dicamus omnia clamose, quod insanum est, aut intra loquendi modum, quod motu caret, aut summisso murmure, quo etiam debilitatur omnis intentio, sed ut in isdem partibus isdemque adfectibus sint tamen quaedam non ita magnae vocis declinationes, prout aut verborum dignitas aut sententiarum natura aut depositio aut inceptio aut transitus postulabit:
XLVI. ut qui singulis pinxerunt coloribus, alia tamen eminentiora alia reductiora fecerunt, sine quo ne membris quidem suas lineas dedissent.

This indeed is of the greatest importance (but we shall handle it a little later): that the voice be conformed according to the reason of the matters about which we speak and the habit of minds, lest it be discordant from the oration. Let us avoid therefore that which in Greek is called monotony, a certain single strain of breath and sound—not only lest we say everything loudly, which is insane, or within the mere mode of speaking, which lacks motion, or with a lowered murmur, by which all emphasis is even enfeebled—but that in the same parts and the same affections there nevertheless be certain not-so-great declinations of the voice, as either the dignity of the words or the nature of the sentences, or the laying-down, or the inception, or the transition will require:
46. as those who have painted with single colors nevertheless made some things more prominent, others more set back, without which they would not even have given to the limbs their own lines.

XLVII. Proponamus enim nobis illud Ciceronis in oratione nobilissima pro Milone principium: nonne ad singulas paene distinctiones quamvis in eadem facie tamen quasi vultus mutandus est? "Etsi vereor, iudices, ne turpe sit pro fortissimo viro dicere incipientem timere":
XLVIII.

47. For let us set before ourselves that beginning of Cicero in the most renowned oration For Milo: surely at almost each distinction, though the face remains the same, yet, as it were, the expression must be changed? "Although I fear, judges, lest it be disgraceful, when speaking on behalf of a most brave man, to confess at the outset that I am afraid":
48.

etiam si est toto proposito contractum atque summissum, quia et exordium est et solliciti exordium, tamen fuerit necesse est aliquid plenius et erectius dum dicit "pro fortissimo viro" quam cum "etsi vereor" et "turpe sit" et "timere".
XLIX. Iam secunda respiratio increscat oportet et naturali quodam conatu, quo minus pavide dicimus quae secuntur, et quod magnitudo animi Milonis ostenditur: "minimeque deceat, cum Titus Annius ipse magis de rei publicae salute quam de sua perturbetur." Deinde quasi obiurgatio sui est: "me ad eius causam parem animi magnitudinem adferre non posse."
L. tum invidiosiora: "tamen haec novi iudicii nova forma terret oculos." Illa vero iam paene apertis, ut aiunt, tibiis: "qui, quocumque inciderunt, consuetudinem fori et pristinum morem iudiciorum requirunt." Nam sequens latum etiam atque fusum est: "non enim corona consessus vester cinctus est, ut solebat."
LI. Quod notavi ut appareret non solum in membris causae sed etiam in articulis esse aliquam pronuntiandi varietatem, sine qua nihil neque maius neque minus est.
Vox autem ultra vires urgenda non est: nam et suffocata saepe et maiore nisu minus clara est et interim elisa in illum sonum erumpit cui Graeci nomen a gallorum inmaturo cantu dederunt.
LII.

even if the whole delivery is contracted and subdued, because it is an exordium and the exordium of an anxious man, nevertheless there must be something fuller and more erect while he says “on behalf of a most valiant man” than with “although I fear” and “that it be shameful” and “to be afraid.”
49. Now the second breathing should swell, by a certain natural effort, whereby we say what follows less fearfully, and because the greatness of Milo’s spirit is displayed: “and it is least fitting, since Titus Annius himself is more perturbed for the safety of the commonwealth than for his own.” Then there is, as it were, a self-reproach: “that I cannot bring to his case an equal greatness of spirit.”
50. then the more invidious points: “yet this new form of a new trial frightens the eyes.” Those indeed now with, as they say, the pipes almost open: “who, wherever they have fallen, seek the custom of the forum and the former manner of trials.” For the following is broad and even diffuse: “for your assembly is not encircled by a crown, as it used to be.”
51. I have noted this so that it may appear that there is some variety of pronuntiation not only in the limbs of a case but also in its joints, without which nothing is either greater or lesser. Moreover, the voice is not to be pressed beyond its powers: for, being choked, it is often less clear with greater effort, and sometimes, shattered, it bursts forth into that sound to which the Greeks gave a name from the immature crowing of cocks.
52.

Nec volubilitate nimia confundenda quae dicimus, qua et distinctio perit et adfectus, et nonnumquam etiam verba aliqua sui parte fraudantur. cui contrarium est vitium nimiae tarditatis: nam et difficultatem inveniendi fatetur et segnitia solvit animos, et, in quo est aliquid, temporibus praefinitis aquam perdit. Promptum sit os, non praeceps, moderatum, non lentum.

Nor should what we say be confused by excessive volubility, whereby both distinction and feeling perish, and sometimes even certain words are defrauded of part of themselves. The contrary vice is excessive tardity: for it both confesses a difficulty of invention and sloth unstrings the spirits, and, even where there is something, under preappointed times it leaks away. Let the mouth be prompt, not headlong; moderate, not slow.

LIII. Spiritus quoque nec crebro receptus concidat sententiam nec eo usque trahatur donec deficiat. Nam et deformis est consumpti illius sonus et respiratio sub aqua diu pressi similis et receptus longior et non oportunus, ut qui fiat non ubi volumus sed ubi necesse est.

53. Breath, too, should neither, when too frequently taken, break off the sentence, nor be drawn out until it fails. For both the sound of the exhausted one is ill-formed, and the respiration is like that of one long pressed under water, and the intake becomes longer and inopportune, so that it happens not where we wish but where it is necessary.

Quare longiorem dicturis perihodon colligendus est spiritus, ita tamen ut id neque diu neque cum sono faciamus, neque omnino ut manifestum sit: reliquis partibus optime inter iuncturas sermonis revocabitur.
LIV. Exercendus autem est ut sit quam longissimus: quod Demosthenes ut efficeret scandens in adversum continuabat quam posset plurimos versus.

Wherefore, for those who are about to speak at greater length, the breath must be gathered for a longer period, yet in such a way that we do this neither for long nor with sound, nor at all so that it be manifest: in the remaining parts it will be best recalled between the junctures of the discourse.
54. Moreover, it must be exercised so that it may be as long as possible: which Demosthenes, in order to bring about, climbing uphill against the grade, would go on reciting as many verses as he could.

Idem quo facilius verba ore libero exprimeret, calculos lingua volvens dicere domi solebat.
LV. Est interim et longus et plenus et clarus satis spiritus, non tamen firmae intentionis ideoque tremulus, ut corpora quae aspectu integra nervis parum sustinentur. Id brasmon Graeci vocant.

The same man, in order the more easily to express words with a free mouth, used to practice speaking at home, rolling pebbles with his tongue.
55. Meanwhile there is a breath both long and full and sufficiently clear, yet not of firm tension and therefore tremulous, like bodies which, though entire to the sight, are but little sustained by the sinews. The Greeks call this brasmon.

sunt qui spiritum cum stridore per raritatem dentium non recipiunt sed resorbent. sunt qui crebro anhelitu et introrsum etiam clare sonante imitentur iumenta onere et iugo laborantia:
LVI. quod adfectant quoque, tamquam inventionis copia urgeantur maiorque vis eloquentiae ingruat quam quae emitti faucibus possit.

There are those who do not take in breath with a stridor through the gaps of the teeth, but rather suck it back. There are those who, with frequent panting and even with a clear inward sound, imitate beasts of burden toiling under load and yoke:
56. which they also aim at, as though they were being pressed by an abundance of invention and a greater force of eloquence were bearing down than could be sent forth by the throat.

Est aliis concursus oris et cum verbis suis conluctatio. Iam tussire et exspuere crebro et ab imo pulmone pituitam trochleis adducere et oris umore proximos spargere et maiorem partem spiritus in loquendo per nares effundere, etiam si non utique vocis sunt vitia, quia tamen propter vocem accidunt potissimum huic loco subiciantur.
LVII.

There is in others a concourse of the mouth and a wrestling with their own words. Moreover, to cough and spit frequently, and from the deepest lung to draw up phlegm as if by pulleys, and to sprinkle those nearby with the moisture of the mouth, and in speaking to pour out the greater part of the breath through the nostrils—although these are not in every case vices of the voice, yet because they happen on account of the voice, let them be assigned chiefly to this place.
57.

Sed quodcumque ex his vitium magis tulerim quam, quo nunc maxime laboratur in causis omnibus scholisque, cantandi, quod inutilius sit an foedius nescio. Quid enim minus oratori convenit quam modulatio scaenica et nonnumquam ebriorum aut comisantium licentiae similis?
LVIII.

But I would rather endure any one of these faults than the one under which men now especially labor in all cases and in the schools, namely, singing—whether it is more useless or more foul I do not know. For what less befits an orator than scenic modulation, sometimes even like the license of drunkards or of revellers?
58.

Quid vero movendis adfectibus contrarium magis quam, cum dolendum irascendum indignandum commiserandum sit, non solum ab his adfectibus, in quos inducendus est iudex, recedere, sed ipsam fori sanctitatem ludorum talarium licentia solvere? Nam Cicero illos ex Lycia et Caria rhetoras paene cantare in epilogis dixit: nos etiam cantandi severiorem paulo modum excessimus.
LIX.

What, indeed, is more contrary to the moving of affections than, when there must be grieving, getting angry, being indignant, and commiserating, not only to withdraw from those very affections into which the judge is to be led, but to dissolve the very sanctity of the forum by the license of knucklebone-games? For Cicero said that those rhetors from Lycia and Caria almost sang in their epilogues: we too have even overstepped a somewhat severer mode of singing.
59.

Quisquamne, non dico de homicidio sacrilegio parricidio, sed de calculis certe atque rationibus, quisquam denique, ut semel finiam, in lite cantat? Quod si omnino recipiendum est, nihil causae est cur non illam vocis modulationem fidibus ac tibiis, immo mehercule, quod est huic deformitati propius, cymbalis adiuvemus.
LX. Facimus tamen hoc libenter: nam nec cuiquam sunt iniucunda quae cantant ipsi, et laboris in hoc quam in agendo minus est.

Does anyone, I do not say in matters of homicide, sacrilege, parricide, but assuredly in calculations and accounts—does anyone, in fine, to conclude once for all, sing in a lawsuit? But if this absolutely must be admitted, there is no reason why we should not assist that modulation of the voice with strings and pipes, nay, by Hercules, with cymbals, which is nearer to this deformity.
60. We do this, however, willingly: for what they themselves sing is not displeasing to anyone, and there is less labor in this than in pleading.

Et sunt quidam qui secundum alia vitae vitia etiam hac ubique audiendi quod aures mulceat voluptate ducantur. Quid ergo? non et Cicero dicit esse aliquem in oratione "cantum obscuriorem" et hoc quodam naturali initio venit?

And there are certain people who, in accordance with the other vices of life, are also everywhere, as regards listening, led by this: that their ears be soothed by pleasure. What then? Does not Cicero also say that there is some “more obscure chant” in oration, and did this come from a certain natural origin?

Ostendam non multo post ubi et quatenus recipiendus sit hic flexus et cantus quidem, sed, quod plerique intellegere nolunt, obscurior.
LXI. Iam enim tempus est dicendi quae sit apta pronuntiatio: quae certe ea est quae iis de quibus dicimus accommodatur.

I will show not much later where and to what extent this inflection and chant are to be admitted—indeed chant, but, as most are unwilling to understand, more obscure.
61. For now it is time to say what delivery is apt: which surely is that which is adapted to the matters about which we speak.

Quod quidem maxima ex parte praestant ipsi motus animorum, sonatque vox ut feritur: sed cum sint alii veri adfectus, alii ficti et imitati, veri naturaliter erumpunt, ut dolentium irascentium indignantium, sed carent arte ideoque sunt disciplina et ratione formandi.
LXII. Contra qui effinguntur imitatione, artem habent; sed hi carent natura, ideoque in iis primum est bene adfici et concipere imagines rerum et tamquam veris moveri.

Which, indeed, for the greatest part the motions of the soul themselves accomplish, and the voice sounds as it is struck: but since some affections are true, others feigned and imitated, the true burst forth naturally—such as those of the grieving, the angering, the indignant—yet they lack art, and therefore are to be shaped by discipline and reason.
62. By contrast, those which are fashioned by imitation have art; but these lack nature, and so in them the first thing is to be well affected and to conceive images of things, and to be moved as though by real things.

Sic velut media vox, quem habitum a nostris acceperit, hunc iudicum animis dabit: est enim mentis index ac totidem quot illa mutationes habet.
LXIII. Itaque laetis in rebus plena et simplex et ipsa quodam modo hilaris fluit; at in certamine erecta totis viribus et velut omnibus nervis intenditur.

Thus, as a kind of middle voice, whatever habit it shall have received from our own, this it will impart to the minds of the judges: for it is an index of the mind and has just as many changes as that has.
63. Therefore, in joyful matters it flows full and simple and itself in a certain way cheerful; but in contest it is erect with all its forces and, as it were, strained and tightened upon all the nerves.

Atrox in ira et aspera ac densa et respiratione crebra: neque enim potest esse longus spiritus cum immoderate effunditur. Paulum in invidia facienda lentior, quia non fere ad hanc nisi inferiores confugiunt; at in blandiendo fatendo satisfaciendo rogando lenis et summissa.
LXIV.

Fierce in anger, and rough and dense, and with frequent respiration: for the breath cannot be long when it is poured out immoderately. Somewhat slower in the making of envy, because generally none save inferiors resort to this; but in blandishing, confessing, making satisfaction, requesting, it is gentle and submissive.
LXIV.

suadentium et monentium et pollicentium et consolantium gravis: in metu et verecundia contracta, adhortationibus fortis, disputationibus teres, miseratione flexa et flebilis et consulto quasi obscurior; at in egressionibus fusa et securae claritatis, in expositione ac sermonibus recta et inter acutum sonum et gravem media.
LXV. Attollitur autem concitatis adfectibus, compositis descendit, pro utriusque rei modo altius vel inferius.

grave for persuading and admonishing and promising and consoling: in fear and modesty contracted, strong in exhortations, polished in disputations, in compassion bent and tearful and, as if by design, somewhat darker; but in egressions poured out and of secure clarity, in exposition and discourses straight, and midway between an acute and a grave sound.
65. It is lifted up, moreover, when the affects are stirred; when they are composed it descends, higher or lower according to the manner of either condition.

Quid autem quisque in dicendo postulet locus paulum differam, ut de gestu prius dicam, qui et ipse voci consentit et animo cum ea simul paret. Is quantum habeat in oratore momenti satis vel ex eo patet, quod pleraque etiam citra verba significat.
LXVI.

But what each place in speaking requires I will defer a little, so that I may speak first about gesture, which itself also agrees with the voice and, together with it, obeys the mind. How much moment it has in the orator is sufficiently evident even from this, that it signifies very many things even without words.
66.

Quippe non manus solum sed nutus etiam declarant nostram voluntatem, et in mutis pro sermone sunt, et saltatio frequenter sine voce intellegitur atque adficit, et ex vultu ingressuque perspicitur habitus animorum, et animalium quoque sermone carentium ira, laetitia, adulatio et oculis et quibusdam aliis corporis signis deprenditur.
LXVII. Nec mirum si ista, quae tamen in aliquo posita sunt motu, tantum in animis valent, cum pictura, tacens opus et habitus semper eiusdem, sic in intimos penetret adfectus ut ipsam vim dicendi nonnumquam superare videatur.

Indeed not the hands alone but even nods declare our will, and among the mute they are in place of speech, and dancing is frequently understood without voice and affects, and from the face and the gait the habitus of minds is seen clearly, and in animals too that lack speech, anger, joy, and adulation are apprehended both by the eyes and by certain other signs of the body.
67. Nor is it a marvel if these things, which nevertheless are set in some motion, have such power in souls, since painting, a silent work and with an ever-the-same habitus, so penetrates into the inmost affections that it sometimes seems to surpass the very force of speaking.

Contra si gestus ac vultus ab oratione dissentiat, tristia dicamus hilares, adfirmemus aliqua renuentes, non auctoritas modo verbis sed etiam fides desit. Decor quoque a gestu atque motu venit.
LXVIII.

On the contrary, if gesture and countenance dissent from the oration—if we say sad things cheerfully, if we affirm certain points while refusing—then not only authority for the words but even credibility is lacking. Decorum too comes from gesture and motion.
68.

Ideoque Demosthenes grande quoddam intuens speculum componere actionem solebat: adeo, quamvis fulgor ille sinistras imagines reddat, suis demum oculis credidit quod efficeret.
Praecipuum vero in actione sicut in corpore ipso caput est, cum ad illum de quo dixi decorem, tum etiam ad significationem.
LXIX. Decoris illa sunt, ut sit primo rectum et secundum naturam: nam et deiecto humilitas et supino adrogantia et in latus inclinato languor et praeduro ac rigente barbaria quaedam mentis ostenditur.

And so Demosthenes, gazing at a certain large mirror, used to compose his action: to such a degree that, although that brilliance renders leftward images, he at last trusted his own eyes as to what he was producing.
The principal thing in action, as in the body itself, is the head, both for that decorum of which I spoke and also for signification.
69. These belong to decorum: that it be first straight and according to nature; for with it cast down humility is shown, with it thrown back arrogance, with it inclined to the side languor, and with it very hard and rigid a certain barbarity of mind is displayed.

tum accipiat aptos ex ipsa actione motus, ut cum gestu concordet et manibus ac lateribus obsequatur:
LXX. aspectus enim semper eodem vertitur quo gestus, exceptis quae aut damnare aut concedere aut a nobis removere oportebit, ut idem illud vultu videamur aversari, manu repellere:
"di talem avertite pestem":
"haud equidem tali me dignor honore."
Significat vero plurimis modis.
LXXI.

then let it take on movements apt from the action/delivery itself, so that it may be in concord with the gesture and comply with the hands and the sides:
70. for the gaze is always turned in the same direction as the gesture, except in those things which we ought either to condemn or to concede or to remove from ourselves, so that we may seem to turn away from that same thing with the face, to repel it with the hand:
"gods, avert such a pestilence":
"indeed I for my part do not deem myself worthy of such an honor."
It signifies, in truth, in very many ways.
71.

Nam praeter adnuendi renuendi confirmandique motus sunt et verecundiae et dubitationis et admirationis et indignationis noti et communes omnibus. Solo tamen eo facere gestum scaenici quoque doctores vitiosum putaverunt. Etiam frequens eius nutus non caret vitio: adeo iactare id et comas excutientem rotare fanaticum est.

For besides the motions of nodding assent, refusing, and confirming, there are also signs of modesty, of hesitation, of admiration, and of indignation, known and common to all. Yet to make a gesture with the head alone even the teachers of the stage have considered faulty. Even a frequent nod of it is not without fault: to toss it and to whirl it, shaking out the hair, is fanatical.

LXXII. Dominatur autem maxime vultus. Hoc supplices, hoc minaces, hoc blandi, hoc tristes, hoc hilares, hoc erecti, hoc summissi sumus: hoc pendent homines, hunc intuentur, hic spectatur etiam antequam dicimus: hoc quosdam amamus hoc odimus, hoc plurima intellegimus, hic est saepe pro omnibus verbis.

72. However, the face rules most of all. With this we are suppliant, with this menacing, with this coaxing, with this sad, with this cheerful, with this erect, with this submissive: upon this men depend, this they look at, this is watched even before we speak: with this we love some people this we hate, with this we understand very many things, this is often in place of all words.

LXXIII. Itaque in iis quae ad scaenam componuntur fabulis artifices pronuntiandi a personis quoque adfectus mutuantur, ut sit Aerope in tragoedia tristis, atrox Medea, attonitus Aiax, truculentus Hercules.
LXXIV.

73. And so, in those plays which are composed for the stage, the artificers of delivery even borrow the affects from the persons, so that Aerope in tragedy be sad, Medea atrocious, Ajax thunderstruck, Hercules truculent.
74.

In comoediis vero praeter aliam observationem, qua servi lenones parasiti rustici milites meretriculae ancillae, senes austeri ac mites, iuvenes severi ac luxuriosi, matronae puellae inter se discernuntur, pater ille, cuius praecipuae partes sunt, quia interim concitatus interim lenis est, altero erecto altero composito est supercilio, atque id ostendere maxime latus actoribus moris est quod cum iis quas agunt partibus congruat.
LXXV. Sed in ipso vultu plurimum valent oculi, per quos maxime animus emanat, ut citra motum quoque et hilaritate enitescant et tristitiae quoddam nubilum ducant.

In comedies indeed, besides the other observation by which slaves, pimps, parasites, rustics, soldiers, young harlots, maidservants, dour and mild old men, stern and luxurious youths, matrons, and girls are distinguished from one another, that father-character, whose parts are principal, since at one time he is agitated and at another gentle, wears one eyebrow raised and the other composed; and it is especially a broad custom among actors to display that which is congruent with the parts they play.
75. But in the very face the eyes prevail most, through which the animus most of all flows forth, so that even without motion they both shine with hilarity and draw a certain cloud of sadness.

Quin etiam lacrimas iis natura mentis indices dedit, quae aut erumpunt dolore aut laetitia manant. Motu vero intenti, remissi, superbi, torvi, mites, asperi fiunt: quae ut actus poposcerit fingentur.
LXXVI.

Indeed, nature has even given to them tears, indices of the mind, which either burst forth from pain or flow from joy. By movement, in truth, they become intent, relaxed, proud, grim, gentle, harsh: and these will be feigned as the act shall have demanded.
LXXVI.

Rigidi vero et extenti aut languidi et torpentes aut stupentes aut lascivi et mobiles et natantes et quadam voluptate suffusi aut limi et, ut sic dicam, venerii aut poscentes aliquid pollicentesve numquam esse debebunt. Nam opertos compressosve eos in dicendo quis nisi plane rudis aut stultus habeat?
LXXVII.

But the eyes ought never to be rigid and extended, or languid and torpid, or stupefied, or lascivious and mobile and swimming, and suffused with a certain pleasure, or sidelong and, so to speak, “Venereal,” or asking for something or promising. For who, in speaking, would keep them covered or compressed, unless plainly a raw beginner or a fool?
77.

Et ad haec omnia exprimenda in palpebris etiam et in genis est quoddam deserviens iis ministerium.
LXXVIII. Multum et superciliis agitur; nam et oculos formant aliquatenus et fronti imperant: his contrahitur attollitur remittitur, ut una res in ea plus valeat, sanguis ille qui mentis habitu movetur, et, cum infirmam verecundia cutem accipit, effunditur in ruborem: cum metu refugit, abit omnis et pallore frigescit: temperatus medium quoddam serenum efficit.

And for expressing all these things, even in the eyelids and in the cheeks there is a certain service subservient to them.
78. Much too is effected by the eyebrows; for they shape the eyes in some measure and command the forehead: by them it is contracted, raised, relaxed, so that one thing may prevail more in it, that blood which is moved by the mind’s habit; and, when bashfulness makes the skin feeble, it is poured out into redness; when it flees in fear, it all departs and grows cold with pallor; a tempered state produces a certain middling serenity.

LXXIX. Vitium in superciliis si aut inmota sunt omnino aut nimium mobilia aut inaequalitate, ut modo de persona comica dixeram, dissident aut contra id quod dicimus finguntur: ira enim contractis, tristitia deductis, hilaritas remissis ostenditur. Adnuendi quoque et renuendi ratione demittuntur aut adlevantur.

79. A vice in the eyebrows is if they are either altogether immobile, or too mobile, or by inequality, as I just now said about the comic persona, they dissent, or are fashioned contrary to that which we are saying: for anger is shown by them contracted, sadness by them drawn down, hilarity by them relaxed. Likewise, by the rationale of assenting and denying they are lowered or elevated.

LXXX. Naribus labrisque non fere quicquam decenter ostendimus, tametsi derisus contemptus fastidium significari solet. Nam et "corrugare nares", ut Horatius ait, et inflare et movere et digito inquietare et inpulso subito spiritu excutere et diducere saepius et plana manu resupinare indecorum est, cum emunctio etiam frequentior non sine causa reprendatur.

80. With the nostrils and the lips we scarcely display anything becoming at all, although derision, contempt, and fastidious disgust are wont to be signified. For both “to corrugate the nostrils,” as Horace says, and to inflate them and to move them and to disquiet them with a finger, and to shake them out with a breath suddenly impelled, and to draw them apart too often, and to turn them up with a flat hand, is indecorous, since even more frequent nose-cleansing is, not without cause, reprehended.

LXXXI. Labra et porriguntur male et scinduntur et adstringuntur et diducuntur et dentes nudant et in latus ac paene ad aurem trahuntur et velut quodam fastidio replicantur et pendent et vocem tantum altera parte dimittunt. Lambere quoque ea et mordere deforme est, cum etiam in efficiendis verbis modicus eorum esse debeat motus: ore enim magis quam labris loquendum est.

81. The lips are badly thrust out, are split, are tightened, are drawn apart, bare the teeth, are drawn to the side and almost to the ear, are, as it were, folded back with a certain fastidiousness, hang, and let out the voice only on one side. To lick them and to bite them is also unseemly, since even in effecting words their motion ought to be moderate: for one should speak more with the mouth than with the lips.

LXXXII. Cervicem rectam oportet esse, non rigidam aut supinam. Collum diversa quidem sed pari deformitate et contrahitur et tenditur, sed tenso subest et labor tenuaturque vox ac fatigatur, adfixum pectori mentum minus claram et quasi latiorem presso gutture facit.

82. The neck ought to be straight, not rigid or thrown back. The neck, though in different ways yet with equal deformity, is both contracted and stretched; but when stretched there is strain beneath, and the voice is thinned and wearied, and a chin fastened to the chest makes it less clear and, with the throat compressed, as it were broader.

LXXXIII. Vmerorum raro decens adlevatio atque contractio est: breviatur enim cervix et gestum quendam humilem atque servilem et quasi fraudulentum facit cum se in habitum adulationis admirationis metus fingunt.
LXXXIV.

83. The elevation and contraction of the shoulders is rarely seemly: for the neck is shortened, and it makes a certain gesture humble and servile and, as it were, fraudulent, when they feign themselves into a habit of adulation, admiration, fear.
84.

Bracchii moderata proiectio, remissis umeris atque explicantibus se in proferenda manu digitis, continuos et decurrentis locos maxime decet. At cum speciosius quid uberiusque dicendum est, ut illud "saxa atque solitudines voci respondent", exspatiatur in latus et ipsa quodam modo se cum gestu fundit oratio.
LXXXV.

A moderate projection of the arm—with the shoulders relaxed and the fingers unfurling themselves as the hand is put forward—most befits continuous and flowing passages. But when something more splendid and more copious is to be said, as in that “the rocks and solitudes answer to the voice,” it expatiates sideways, and the speech itself in a certain manner pours itself out together with the gesture.
85.

Manus vero, sine quibus trunca esset actio ac debilis, vix dici potest quot motus habeant, cum paene ipsam verborum copiam persequantur. Nam ceterae partes loquentem adiuvant, hae, prope est ut dicam, ipsae locuntur.
LXXXVI.

Indeed the hands—without which delivery would be maimed and feeble—can scarcely be said to have countable motions, since they follow almost the very copiousness of words. For the other parts aid the speaker; these, I am almost inclined to say, speak themselves.
86.

An non his poscimus pollicemur, vocamus dimittimus, minamur supplicamus, abominamur timemus, interrogamus negamus, gaudium tristitiam dubitationem confessionem paenitentiam modum copiam numerum tempus ostendimus?
LXXXVII. non eaedem concitant inhibent [supplicant] probant admirantur verecundantur?

Or do we not by these ask, promise, call, dismiss, menace, supplicate, abominate, fear, interrogate, deny, show joy, sadness, dubitation, confession, penitence, measure, abundance, number, time?
87. do not the same incite, inhibit, [supplicate], approve, admire, feel shame?

non in demonstrandis locis atque personis adverbiorum atque pronominum optinent vicem? - ut in tanta per omnis gentes nationesque linguae diversitate hic mihi omnium hominum communis sermo videatur.
LXXXVIII.

Do they not, in demonstrating places and persons, occupy the role of adverbs and pronouns? - so that, amid so great a diversity of language through all peoples and nations, this seems to me the common speech of all human beings.
88.

Et hi quidem de quibus sum locutus cum ipsis vocibus naturaliter exeunt gestus: alii sunt qui res imitatione significant, ut si aegrum temptantis venas medici similitudine aut citharoedum formatis ad modum percutientis nervos manibus ostendas, quod est genus quam longissime in actione fugiendum.
LXXXIX. Abesse enim plurimum a saltatore debet orator, ut sit gestus ad sensus magis quam ad verba accommodatus, quod etiam histrionibus paulo gravioribus facere moris fuit.

And as for those of whom I have spoken, gestures naturally go forth together with the words themselves: others are those who signify things by imitation, as if you were to show, by the likeness of a medic testing the veins of a sick man, or a citharode with the hands shaped in the manner of one striking the strings, which is a type to be avoided as far as possible in delivery.
89. For the orator ought to be very far removed from a dancer, so that the gesture be fitted more to the sense than to the words, which it was even the custom for somewhat more serious actors to do.

Ergo ut ad se manum referre cum de se ipso loquatur et in eum quem demonstret intendere et aliqua his similia permiserim, ita non effingere status quosdam et quidquid dicet ostendere.
XC. Neque id in manibus solum sed in omni gestu ac voce servandum est. Non enim aut in illa perihodo "stetit soleatus praetor populi Romani" inclinatio incumbentis in mulierculam Verris effingenda est, aut in illa "caedebatur in medio foro Messanae" motus laterum qualis esse ad verbera solet torquendus aut vox qualis dolori exprimitur eruenda, cum mihi comoedi quoque pessime facere videantur quod, etiam si iuvenem agant, cum tamen in expositione aut senis sermo, ut in Hydriae prologo, aut mulieris, ut in Georgo, incidit, tremula vel effeminata voce pronuntiant;
XCI.

Therefore, while I have permitted that he draw the hand to himself when he speaks about himself, and direct it toward the one whom he demonstrates, and some other things of this sort, yet he must not fashion certain stances and exhibit whatever he says.
90. And this must be observed not only in the hands but in every gesture and in the voice. For neither, in that period “the praetor of the Roman people stood sandal-shod,” must the inclination of Verres leaning over a little woman be portrayed, nor, in that “he was being beaten in the middle of the forum of Messana,” must the movement of the flanks such as is wont to be under blows be twisted, nor a voice such as is expressed for pain be wrung out, since even comedians seem to me to do very badly in that, because, even if they play a young man, yet when in the exposition the speech of an old man, as in the prologue of the Hydria, or of a woman, as in the Georgus, falls to them, they deliver it with a tremulous or effeminate voice;
91.

adeo in illis quoque est aliqua vitiosa imitatio quorum ars omnis constat imitatione.
XCII. Est autem gestus ille maxime communis, quo medius digitus in pollicem contrahitur explicitis tribus, et principiis utilis cum leni in utramque partem motu modice prolatus, simul capite atque umeris sensim ad id quo manus feratur obsecundantibus, et in narrando certus, sed tum paulo productior, et in exprobrando et coarguendo acer atque instans: longius enim partibus iis et liberius exseritur.

so much so that even among those whose whole art consists of imitation there is some faulty imitation.
92. There is, moreover, that most common gesture, in which the middle finger is drawn in to the thumb, with the three extended, and it is useful at openings, when with a gentle motion to either side it is moderately put forward, the head and shoulders at the same time gradually complying toward the direction in which the hand is carried; and in narrating it is steady, but then a little more prolonged; and in reproaching and in refuting, sharp and insistent: for in those parts it is thrust out farther and more freely.

XCIII. Vitiose vero idem sinistrum quasi umerum petens in latus agi solet, quamquam adhuc peius aliqui transversum bracchium proferunt et cubito pronuntiant. duo quoque medii sub pollicem veniunt, et est hic adhuc priore gestus instantior, principio et narrationi non commodatus.

93. But wrongly indeed the same gesture is usually driven to the side, as if aiming at the left shoulder, although some, worse still, thrust the arm across and pronounce with the elbow. The two middle fingers also come under the thumb, and this gesture is yet more insistent than the prior one, not accommodated to the beginning and to narration.

XCIV. At cum tres contracti pollice premuntur, tum digitus ille quo usum optime Crassum Cicero dicit explicari solet. Is in exprobrando et indicando (unde ei nomen est) valet, et adlevata ac spectante umerum manu paulum inclinatus adfirmat, versus in terram et quasi pronus urget, et aliquando pro numero est.

94. But when three are contracted and pressed by the thumb, then that finger—the one which Cicero says Crassus used most excellently—is usually unfolded. It is effective in reproaching and indicating (whence it has its name), and, with the hand raised and turned toward the shoulder, slightly inclined it affirms; turned toward the ground and, as it were, prone, it presses; and sometimes it serves for number.

XCV. Idem summo articulo utrimque leviter adprenso, duobus modice curvatis, minus tamen minimo, aptus ad disputandum est. Acrius tamen argumentari videntur qui medium articulum potius tenent, tanto contractioribus ultimis digitis quanto priores descenderunt.

95. The same, with the top joint lightly grasped on both sides, with two fingers moderately bent—though the little finger less so—is suited for disputation. Yet those who rather hold the middle joint seem to argue more keenly, the outermost fingers being the more contracted, the more the former have been lowered.

XCVI. Est et ille verecundae orationi aptissimus, quo, quattuor primis leviter in summum coeuntibus digitis, non procul ab ore aut pectore fertur ad nos manus et deinde prona ac paulum prolata laxatur.
XCVII.

96. There is also that gesture most apt for a modest oration, whereby, with the first four digits lightly coming together at the tip, the hand is borne toward us not far from the mouth or the breast, and then, prone and a little protracted forward, it is relaxed.
97.

Hoc modo coepisse Demosthenen credo in illo pro Ctesiphonte timido summissoque principio, sic formatam Ciceronis manum cum diceret: "si, iudices, ingeni mei, quod sentio quam sit exiguum." Eadem aliquatenus liberius deorsum spectantibus digitis colligitur in nos et fusius paulo in diversum resolvitur, ut quodam modo sermonem ipsum proferre videatur.
XCVIII. Binos interim digitos distinguimus, sed non inserto pollice, paulum tamen inferioribus intra spectantibus, sed ne illis quidem tensis qui supra sunt.

In this way I believe Demosthenes began in that timid and lowered beginning in the speech For Ctesiphon; thus was Cicero’s hand shaped when he said: "if, judges, of my ingenuity, which I feel how scant it is." The same gesture, with the fingers looking somewhat more freely downward, is gathered toward us and then a little more broadly is loosened to either side, so that it seems, in a certain manner, to bring forth the discourse itself.
98. Meanwhile we distinguish the fingers in pairs, but with the thumb not inserted, the lower ones, however, looking a little inward, yet not even those above being tense.

XCIX. Interim extremi palmam circa ima pollicis premunt, ipse prioribus ad medios articulos iungitur, interim quartus oblique reponitur, interim quattuor remissis magis quam tensis, pollice intus inclinato, habilem demonstrando in latus aut distinguendis quae dicimus manum facimus, cum supina in sinistrum latus, prona in alterum fertur.
C. sunt et illi breves gestus, cum manus leviter pandata, qualis voventium est, parvis intervallis et subadsentientibus umeris movetur, maxime apta parce et quasi timide loquentibus.

99. Meanwhile the outer digits press the palm around the base of the thumb; the thumb itself is joined to the foremost fingers at the middle articulations; sometimes the fourth (ring) finger is set back obliquely; sometimes, with the four fingers more relaxed than tense and the thumb inclined inward, we make the hand handy for demonstrating to the side or for distinguishing what we say, when, supine, it is borne to the left side, prone to the other.
100. There are also those brief gestures, when the hand, lightly spread—such as in those making vows—is moved at small intervals and with the shoulders giving slight assent, most fit for those speaking sparingly and as if timidly.

Est admirationi conveniens ille gestus, quo manus modice supinata ac per singulos a minimo collecta digitos redeunte flexu simul explicatur atque convertitur.
CI. Nec uno modo interrogantes gestum componimus, plerumque tamen vertentes manum, utcumque composita est. Pollici proximus digitus medium qua dexter est unguem pollicis summo suo iungens, remissis ceteris, est et adprobantibus et narrantibus et distinguentibus decorus.

That gesture is fitting for admiration, in which the hand, moderately supinated and gathered finger by finger from the little finger with a returning flexion, is at once unfolded and turned.
101. Nor do we compose the interrogative gesture in one way, for the most part, however, turning the hand, however it is arranged. The finger next to the thumb, joining with its own tip the middle of the thumb’s nail, the others relaxed, is graceful both for those approving and for those narrating and distinguishing.

CII. cui non dissimilis, sed complicitis tribus digitis, quo nunc Graeci plurimum utuntur, etiam utraque manu, quotiens enthymemata sua gestu corrotundant velut caesim. Manus lentior promittit et adsentatur, citatior hortatur, interim laudat.

102. Not dissimilar to this, but with three fingers folded, a gesture which the Greeks now use very much—even with both hands—whenever they pound together their enthymemes with gesture, as if by hewing strokes. A slower hand proffers and assents; a quicker exhorts; at times it lauds.

Est et ille urgentis orationem gestus, vulgaris magis quam ex arte, qui contrahit alterno celerique motu et explicat manum.
CIII. Est et illa cava et rara et supra umeri altitudinem elata cum quodam motu velut hortatrix manus; a peregrinis scholis tamen prope recepta tremula scaenica est.

There is also that gesture which urges on the oration, more common than artful, which with alternating and swift motion both contracts and unfolds the hand.
103. There is also that cupped and spread hand, raised above the height of the shoulder with a certain motion as if hortatory; yet, though almost accepted by foreign schools, it is a tremulous, scenic one.

Digitos cum summi coierunt ad os referre cur quibusdam displicuerit nescio: nam id et leniter admirantes et interim subita indignatione velut pavescentes et deprecantes facimus.
CIV. Quin compressam etiam manum in paenitentia vel ira pectori admovemus, ubi vox vel inter dentes expressa non dedecet: "Quid nunc agam?

When the fingertips have come together, to bring them to the mouth—why this has displeased some I do not know: for we do this both when gently admiring and, at times, as if cowering and deprecating under sudden indignation.
104. Indeed, we also move a clenched hand to the breast in penitence or in ire, where even a voice expressed between the teeth is not unseemly: "What am I to do now?"

Quid facias?" Averso pollice demonstrare aliquid receptum magis puto quam oratori decorum.
CV. Sed cum omnis motus sex partes habeat, septimus sit ille qui in se redit orbis, vitiosa est una circumversio: reliqui ante nos et dextra laevaque et sursum et deorsum aliquid ostendunt. In posteriora gestus non derigitur: interim tamen velut reici solet.

"What should you do?" To point something out with the thumb turned away I reckon more a received usage than becoming for an orator.
105. But since every motion has six parts, and the seventh is that orb which returns into itself, a single circumversion is faulty: the remaining ones point out something before us and to the right and left and upward and downward. Toward the rear the gesture is not directed: yet sometimes it is wont, as it were, to be thrown back.

CVI. Optime autem manus a sinistra parte incipit, in dextra deponitur, sed ut ponere, non ut ferire videatur: quamquam et [in fine] interim cadit, ut cito tamen redeat, et nonnumquam resilit vel negantibus nobis vel admirantibus. Hic veteres artifices illud recte adiecerunt, ut manus cum sensu et inciperet et deponeretur: alioqui enim aut ante vocem erit gestus aut post vocem, quod est utrumque deforme.

106. Best, moreover, the hand begins from the left side, is laid down on the right, but so that it seem to place, not to strike: although also [at the end] it sometimes drops, yet so that it quickly returns, and sometimes it rebounds either when we are denying or admiring. Here the ancient artificers rightly added this: that the hand both should begin and be set down with sense; otherwise the gesture will be either before the voice or after the voice, both of which are unbecoming.

CVII. In illo lapsi nimia subtilitate sunt, quod intervallum motus tria verba esse voluerunt, quod neque observatur nec fieri potest; sed illi quasi mensuram tarditatis celeritatisque aliquam esse voluerunt - neque inmerito - ne aut diu otiosa esset manus aut, quod multi faciunt, actionem continuo motu concideret.
CVIII.

107. In that they slipped by excessive subtlety, in that they wanted the interval of a motion to be three words, which neither is observed nor can be done; but they wished there to be, as it were, some measure of tardity and celerity — and not without merit — lest either the hand be idle for a long time or, as many do, the action (delivery) be chopped to pieces by continuous motion.
108.

Aliud est quod et fit frequentius et magis fallit. sunt quaedam latentes sermonis percussiones et quasi aliqui pedes ad quos plurimorum gestus cadit, ut sit unus motus "novum crimen", alter "C. Caesar", tertius "et ante hanc diem", quartus "non auditum", deinde "propinquus meus" et "ad te" et "Q. tubero" et "detulit".
CIX. Vnde id quoque fluit vitium, ut iuvenes cum scribunt, gestu praemodulati cogitationem, sic componant quo modo casura manus est.

Another thing both happens more often and deceives more. There are certain latent percussions of discourse and, as it were, some feet, upon which the gestures of very many fall, so that there is one movement at "new crime," a second at "Gaius Caesar," a third at "and before this day," a fourth at "not heard," then at "my kinsman" and "to you" and "Quintus Tubero" and "has brought the charge."
109. Whence this fault also flows: that young men, when they write, having pre‑modulated their thought by gesture, compose it in such a way as the hand is going to fall.

Inde et illud vitium, ut gestus, qui in fine dexter esse debet, in sinistrum frequenter desinat.
CX. Melius illud, cum sint in sermone omni brevia quaedam membra ad quae, si necesse sit, recipere spiritum liceat, ad haec gestum disponere. Vt puta: "novum crimen C. Caesar" habet per se finem quendam suum, quia sequitur coniunctio: deinde "et ante hanc diem non auditum" satis circumscriptum est: ad haec commodanda manus est.

Hence also that flaw, that the gesture, which at the end ought to be right, frequently terminates in the left.
110. Better this: since in every discourse there are certain brief members at which, if it be necessary, it is permitted to recover breath, to arrange the gesture to these. As for instance: "a new charge Gaius Caesar" has a certain end of its own, because a conjunction follows; then "and before this day not heard" is sufficiently circumscribed: to these the hand must be accommodated.

Idque dum erit prima et composita actio:
CXI. at ubi eam calor concitaverit, etiam gestus cum ipsa orationis celeritate crebrescet. Aliis locis citata, aliis pressa conveniet pronuntiatio: illa transcurrimus congerimus [abundamus] festinamus, hac instamus inculcamus infigimus.

And this will be while the delivery is first and composed:
111. but when heat has stirred it up, gesture too will grow more frequent with the very speed of the speech. In some places a quickened, in others a pressed delivery will be fitting: with that we run over, we heap up [we abound], we hasten; with this we press on, we inculcate, we infix.

Plus autem adfectus habent lentiora, ideoque Roscius citatior, Aesopus gravior fuit quod ille comoedias, hic tragoedias egit.
CXII. Eadem motus quoque observatio est.

But the slower carry more affect, and therefore Roscius was more rapid, Aesopus more grave, because the former acted comedies, the latter tragedies.
112. The same observation applies also to motions.

Itaque in fabulis iuvenum senum militum matronarum gravior ingressus est, servi ancillulae parasiti piscatores citatius moventur. Tolli autem manum artifices supra oculos, demitti infra pectus vetant: adeo a capite eam petere aut ad imum ventrem deducere vitiosum habetur.
CXIII.

And so in plays the gait of youths, old men, soldiers, matrons is weightier; slaves, little maidservants, parasites, fishermen are moved more quickly. But artists forbid the hand to be raised above the eyes and to be lowered below the chest: thus it is held faulty to seek it from the head or to draw it down to the lowest belly.
113.

In sinistrum intra umerum promovetur, ultra non decet. Sed cum aversantes in laevam partem velut propellemus manum, sinister umerus proferendus, ut cum capite ad dextram ferente consentiat.
CXIV.

It is advanced to the left, within the shoulder; beyond that is not becoming. But when, turning away, we as it were propel the hand toward the left side, the left shoulder is to be brought forward, so that it may be in consonance with the head bearing toward the right.
114.

Manus sinistra numquam sola gestum recte facit: dextrae se frequenter accommodat, sive in digitos argumenta digerimus sive aversis in sinistrum palmis abominamur sive obicimus adversas Sive in latus utramque distendimus sive satisfacientes aut supplicantes (diversi autem sunt hi gestus) summittimus sive adorantes attollimus sive aliqua demonstratione aut invocatione protendimus:
CXV. "vos Albani tumuli atque luci", aut Gracchanum illud: "Quo me miser conferam?
CXVI.

The left hand never by itself makes a gesture rightly: it frequently accommodates itself to the right, whether we digest arguments on the fingers, or with palms turned to the left we abominate, or we present them opposite, or we distend both to the side, or, making satisfaction or supplicating (and these gestures are different), we lower them, or, adoring, we raise them, or in some demonstration or invocation we stretch them forth:
115. "you Alban mounds and groves," or that saying of Gracchus: "Where, wretch that I am, shall I betake myself?
116.

In Capitolium? Ad fratris sanguinem? An domum?" Plus enim adfectus in his iunctae exhibent manus, in rebus parvis mitibus tristibus breves, magnis laetis atrocibus exsertiores.

In the Capitol? To my brother’s blood? Or home?" For joined hands exhibit more affect in these: in small, mild, sad matters they are brief; in great, glad, atrocious ones, more out-thrust.

CXVII. Vitia quoque earum subicienda sunt, quae quidem accidere etiam exercitatis actoribus solent. Nam gestum poculum poscentis aut verbera minantis aut numerum quingentorum flexo pollice efficientis, quae sunt a quibusdam scriptoribus notata, ne in rusticis quidem vidi.

117. The vices of them too must be subjoined, which indeed are wont to occur even to practiced actors. For the gesture of one asking for a cup, or threatening lashes, or, with the thumb bent, effecting the number 500—gestures which have been noted by certain writers—I have not seen even among rustics.

CXVIII. At ut bracchio exserto introspiciatur latus, ut manum alius ultra sinum proferre non audeat, alius in quantum patet longitudo protendat, aut ad tectum erigat, aut repetito ultra laevum umerum gestu ita in tergum flagellet ut consistere post eum parum tutum sit aut sinistrum ducat orbem, aut temere sparsa manu in proximos offendat, aut cubitum utrumque in diversum latus ventilet, saepe scio evenire.
CXIX.

118. But that, with the arm thrust out, the side be peered into; that one man not dare to proffer his hand beyond his bosom-fold, another protend it as far as its length permits, or erect it to the roof, or with a gesture repeated beyond the left shoulder lash his back in such wise that to stand behind him is scarcely safe; or draw a left-hand orbit; or with a hand flung at random collide with those nearby; or wave (as if to ventilate) each elbow to a different side—I know these things often happen.
119.

Solet esse et pigra et trepida et secanti similis +interim etiam uncis digitis aut a capite deiciatur aut eadem manu supinata in superiora iactetur+. Fit et ille gestus, qui, inclinato in umerum dextrum capite, bracchio ab aure protenso, manum infesto pollice extendit: qui quidem maxime placet iis qui se dicere sublata manu iactant.
CXX. Adicias licet eos qui sententias vibrantis digitis iaculantur aut manu sublata denuntiant aut, quod per se interim recipiendum est, quotiens aliquid ipsis placuit in unguis eriguntur, sed vitiosum id faciunt aut digito quantum plurimum possunt erecto aut etiam duobus, aut utraque manu ad modum aliquid portantium composita.

It is wont to be both sluggish and tremulous and similar to one cutting +at times too, with hooked fingers, it is either cast down from the head, or with the same hand upturned it is flung upwards+. And that gesture also occurs, which, with the head inclined onto the right shoulder, with the arm stretched out from the ear, extends the hand with a hostile thumb: which indeed especially pleases those who vaunt that they speak with raised hand.
120. You may add those who hurl their sentences with vibrating fingers, or denounce with the hand upraised, or, which in itself is to be admitted for the moment, whenever something has pleased them they are raised onto their nails (tiptoes), but they do this in a faulty way either with a finger raised as high as they can, or even with two, or with both hands composed after the manner of people carrying something.

CXXI. His accedunt vitia non naturae sed trepidationis: cum ore concurrente rixari; si memoria fefellerit aut cogitatio non suffragetur, quasi faucibus aliquid obstiterit insonare; in adversum tergere nares, obambulare sermone inperfecto, resistere subito et laudem silentio poscere. Quae omnia persequi prope infinitum est: sua enim cuique sunt vitia.

121. To these are added vices not of nature but of trepidation: to quarrel with the mouth running together; if memory has deceived or thought does not give suffrage, to make a sound as if something had stuck in the throat; to wipe the nostrils toward those opposite; to pace about with the discourse unfinished, to stop short suddenly and to demand applause by silence. To pursue all these is well-nigh infinite: for each person has his own vices.

CXXII. Pectus ac venter ne proiciantur observandum: pandant enim posteriora et est odiosa omnis supinitas. Latera cum gestu consentiant: facit enim aliquid et totius corporis motus, adeo ut Cicero plus illo agi quam manibus ipsis putet.

122. It must be observed that the chest and the belly not be projected: for they lay open the posteriors, and every supineness is odious. Let the sides be in agreement with the gesture: for the motion of the whole body also does something, to such a degree that Cicero thinks more is effected by that than by the hands themselves.

Ita enim dicit in Oratore: "nullae argutiae digitorum, non ad numerum articulus cadens, trunco magis toto se ipse moderans et virili laterum flexione."
CXXIII. Femur ferire, quod Athenis primus fecisse creditur Cleon, et usitatum est et indignantes decet et excitat auditorem. Idque in Calidio Cicero desiderat: "non frons" inquit "percussa, non femur." Quamquam, si licet, de fronte dissentio: nam etiam complodere manus scaenicum est et pectus caedere.

For thus he says in the Orator: "no subtleties of the fingers, no joint falling to the measure, but rather the whole trunk governing itself, and with a virile flexion of the flanks."
123. To strike the thigh, which Cleon is believed first to have done at Athens, is both customary and befits the indignant and arouses the hearer. And this Cicero misses in Calidius: "not the brow," he says, "struck, not the thigh." Although, if it is permitted, I dissent about the brow: for even to clap the hands is theatrical, and to beat the breast.

CXXIV. Illud quoque raro decebit, cava manu summis digitis pectus adpetere si quando nosmet ipsos adloquemur cohortantes obiurgantes miserantes: quod si quando fiet, togam quoque inde removeri non dedecebit. In pedibus observantur status et incessus.

124. That too will rarely be becoming, to reach at the breast with a hollowed hand with the finger-tips whenever we address our very selves, exhorting, objurgating, commiserating: but if it ever is done, it will not be unseemly for the toga also to be drawn away from there. In the feet, stance and gait are observed.

Prolato dextro stare et eandem manum ac pedem proferre deforme est.
CXXV. In dextrum incumbere interim datur, sed aequo pectore, qui tamen comicus magis quam oratorius gestus est.

To stand with the right advanced, and to put forward the same hand and foot, is deformed.
125. To lean to the right is meanwhile permitted, but with an even chest, which however is a gesture more comic than oratorical.

Male etiam in sinistrum pedem insistentium dexter aut tollitur aut summis digitis suspenditur. Varicare supra modum et in stando deforme est et accedente motu prope obscenum. Procursio oportuna brevis moderata rara conveniet:
CXXVI.

It is also bad when, standing upon the left foot, the right is either lifted or suspended on the tips of the toes. To straddle beyond measure is deformed in standing and, with motion added, nearly obscene. An advance forward, opportune, brief, moderated, and infrequent, will be fitting:
126.

iam et ambulatio quaedam propter inmodicas laudationum moras, quamquam Cicero rarum incessum neque ita longum probat. Discursare vero et, quod Domitius Afer de sura Manlio dixit, "satagere" ineptissimum: urbaneque Flavus Verginius interrogavit de quodam suo antisophiste quot milia passum declamasset.
CXXVII.

now even a certain ambulation because of the immoderate delays of laudations, although Cicero approves a rare gait and not so long. To run about indeed, and, as Domitius Afer said about Manlius Sura, to "satagere," is most inept: and Flavus Verginius wittily asked about a certain anti‑sophist of his how many miles he had declaimed.
CXXVII.

Praecipi et illud scio, ne ambulantes avertamur a iudicibus, sed sint obliqui pedes ad consilium nobis respicientibus. Id fieri iudiciis privatis non potest, verum et breviora sunt spatia nec aversi diu sumus. Interim tamen recedere sensim datur.

I know that this too is prescribed: that, while walking, we not be averted from the judges, but that our feet be oblique toward the council, as we look back toward them. This cannot be done in private judgments; but the spaces are briefer, and we are not turned away for long. In the interim, however, it is permitted to recede gradually.

CXXVIII. Quidam et resiliunt, quod est plane ridiculum. Pedis supplosio ut loco est oportuna, ut ait Cicero, in contentionibus aut incipiendis aut finiendis, ita crebra et inepti est hominis et desinit iudicem in se convertere.

128. Some even spring back, which is plainly ridiculous. The stamping of the foot, though in its place opportune, as Cicero says, in contentions either when beginning or when ending, yet if frequent is the mark of an inept man and ceases to turn the judge toward him.

Est et illa indecora in dextrum ac laevum latus vacillatio alternis pedibus insistentium. Longissime fugienda mollis actio, qualem in Titio Cicero dicit fuisse, unde etiam saltationis quoddam genus Titius sit appellatum.
CXXIX.

There is also that unseemly vacillation to the right and left side by those who stand, setting their feet alternately. A soft—indeed effeminate—action is to be fled farthest, such as Cicero says was in Titius, whence even a certain genus of dancing has been appellated “Titius.”
129.

Reprehendenda et illa frequens et concitata in utramque partem nutatio, quam in curione patre inrisit et Iulius, quaerens quis in luntre loqueretur, et Sicinius: nam cum adsidente collega, qui erat propter valetudinem et deligatus et plurimis medicamentis delibutus, multum se Curio ex more iactasset, "numquam", inquit, "Octavi, collegae tuo gratiam referes, qui nisi fuisset, hodie te istic muscae comedissent".
CXXX. Iactantur et umeri, quod vitium Demosthenes ita dicitur emendasse ut, cum in angusto quodam pulpito stans diceret, hasta umero dependens immineret, ut, si calore dicendi vitare id excidisset, offensatione illa commoneretur. Ambulantem loqui ita demum oportet si in causis publicis, in quibus multi sunt iudices, quod dicimus quasi singulis inculcare peculiariter velimus.

To be reprehended too is that frequent and agitated swaying to either side, which Julius also mocked in Curio the father, asking who was speaking on a skiff, and Sicinius as well: for when his colleague was sitting beside him, who on account of ill health was both bandaged and smeared with very many medicaments, Curio had tossed himself about much after his wont; “never,” he said, “Octavius, will you repay your colleague, who, if he had not been there, today the flies would have eaten you right there.”
130. The shoulders too are tossed about, a vice which Demosthenes is said to have corrected thus: when, standing on a certain narrow platform, he spoke, a spear hanging from his shoulder was made to project, so that, if in the heat of speaking the avoidance of that fault had slipped, he might be reminded by that collision. To speak while walking is proper only then, if in public causes, in which there are many judges, we wish to inculcate what we say as if particularly to each individual.

CXXXI. Illud non ferendum, quod quidam reiecta in umerum toga, cum dextra sinum usque lumbos reduxerunt, sinistra gestum facientes spatiantur et fabulantur, cum etiam laevam restringere prolata longius dextra sit odiosum. Vnde moneor ut ne id quidem transeam, ineptissime fieri cum inter moras laudationum aut in aurem alicuius locuntur aut cum sodalibus iocantur aut nonnumquam ad librarios suos ita respiciunt ut sportulam dictare videantur.

131. That is not to be borne, that certain men, with the toga thrown back onto the shoulder, when with the right hand they have drawn the sinus back as far as the loins, stroll about and chatter, making their gesture with the left—whereas it is odious even to keep the left restrained when the right has been extended farther. Whence I am admonished not to pass over this either: it is done most ineptly when, amid the delays of laudations, they either speak into someone’s ear, or jest with their companions, or sometimes look back at their scribes in such a way that they seem to be dictating the dole-list.

CXXXII. Inclinari ad iudicem cum doceas, utique si id de quo loquaris sit obscurius, decet. Incumbere advocato adversis subselliis sedenti iam contumeliosum.

132. To incline toward the judge when you teach, especially if that about which you speak is more obscure, is fitting. To lean over upon the advocate sitting on the opposing benches is already contumelious.

Reclinari etiam ad suos et manibus sustineri, nisi plane iusta fatigatio est, delicatum: sicut palam moneri excidentis aut legere:
CXXXIII. namque in his omnibus et vis illa dicendi solvitur et frigescit adfectus et iudex parum sibi praestari reverentiae credit. Transire in diversa subsellia parum verecundum est: nam et Cassius Severus urbane adversus hoc facientem lineas poposcit, et si aliquando concitate itur, numquam non frigide reditur.

To recline also towards one’s own supporters and to be held up by hands, unless plainly there is a just fatigue, is over-refined: just as to be openly prompted when faltering, or to read:
133. for in all these practices both that force of speaking is loosened and the affect grows cold, and the judge believes too little reverence is being shown to him. To pass over to different benches is scarcely modest: for even Cassius Severus wittily asked for lines against one doing this; and if at any time one sets off excitedly, one never returns otherwise than coldly.

CXXXIV. Multum ex iis quae praecepimus mutari necesse est ab iis qui dicunt apud tribunalia: nam et vultus erectior, ut eum apud quem dicitur spectet, et gestus ut ad eundem tendens elatior sit necesse est, et alia quae occurrere etiam me tacente omnibus possunt. Itemque ab iis qui sedentes agent: nam et fere fit hoc in rebus minoribus, et idem impetus actionis esse non possunt, et quaedam vitia fiunt necessaria.

134. Much of what we have prescribed must needs be altered by those who speak before tribunals: for the countenance must be more erect, so that he looks at him in whose presence the speech is delivered, and the gesture, as tending toward the same person, must be more elevated, and there are other things which can occur to all even with me silent. Likewise by those who conduct their case while sitting: for this is done for the most part in lesser matters, and the same impetus of the action cannot be, and certain faults become necessary.

CXXXV. Nam et dexter pes a laeva iudicis sedenti proferendus est, et ex altera parte multi gestus necesse est in sinistrum eant, ut ad iudicem spectent. Equidem plerosque et ad singulas clausulas sententiarum video adsurgentis et nonnullos subinde aliquid etiam spatiantis, quod an deceat ipsi viderint: cum id faciunt, non sedentes agunt.

135. For also, for one who is sitting, the right foot ought to be advanced on the judge’s left, and, on the other side, it is necessary that many gestures tend to the left, so that they face toward the judge. For my part, I see very many rising even at the individual clausulae of their sentences, and some from time to time even pacing a little; whether that is decorous, let them themselves judge: when they do this, they are not pleading sitting.

CXXXVI. Bibere aut etiam esse inter agendum, quod multis moris fuit et est quibusdam, ab oratore meo procul absit. Nam si quis aliter dicendi onera perferre non possit, non ita miserum est non agere potiusque multo quam et operis et hominum contemptum fateri.

136. To drink or even to eat during the act of pleading—a thing which was the custom of many and still is of some—let it be far from my orator. For if someone cannot otherwise endure the burdens of speaking, it is not so wretched not to plead, and is much preferable, than to confess a contempt both for the work and for men.

CXXXVII. cultus non est proprius oratoris aliquis, sed magis in oratore conspicitur. Quare sit, ut in omnibus honestis debet esse, splendidus et virilis: nam et toga et calceus et capillus tam nimia cura quam neglegentia sunt reprendenda.

137. there is not some attire peculiar to the orator, but it is rather more conspicuous in the orator. Therefore let it be, as in all honorable things it ought to be, splendid and manly: for the toga and the shoe and the hair are to be censured as much for excessive care as for neglect.

Est aliquid in amictu quod ipsum aliquatenus temporum condicione mutatum est: nam veteribus nulli sinus, perquam breves post illos fuerunt.
CXXXVIII. Itaque etiam gestu necesse est usos esse in principiis eos alio quorum bracchium, sicut Graecorum, veste continebatur: sed nos de praesentibus loquimur.

There is something in the attire which itself has been somewhat changed by the condition of the times: for among the ancients there were no folds, and after them they were very short.
138. Therefore it must be that, even in gesture, those in the earliest period used a different mode, whose arm, as with the Greeks, was confined by the garment; but we are speaking of the present.

cui lati clavi ius non erit, ita cingatur ut tunicae prioribus oris infra genua paulum, posterioribus ad medios poplites usque perveniant: nam infra mulierum est, supra centurionum.
CXXXIX. Vt purpurae recte descendant levis cura est, notatur interim neglegentia.

for whom the right of the broad clavus will not be, let him be girded so that the tunic’s front edges reach a little below the knees, and the back ones come as far as the middle of the calves: for below is of women, above of centurions.
139. That the purples descend rightly is a light care; negligence, meanwhile, is noted.

Latum habentium clavum modus est ut sit paulum cinctis summissior. Ipsam togam rutundam esse et apte caesam velim, aliter enim multis modis fiet enormis. Pars eius prior mediis cruribus optime terminatur, posterior eadem portione altius qua cinctura.

The measure for those having the broad clavus is that, when girt, it be a little lower. I would wish the toga itself to be rounded and aptly cut, for otherwise it will in many ways become ill-formed. Its front part is best terminated at the middle of the legs, the back part higher by the same proportion, where the cincture is.

CXL. Sinus decentissimus si aliquo supra imam tunicam fuerit, numquam certe sit inferior. Ille qui sub umero dextro ad sinistrum oblique ducitur velut balteus nec strangulet nec fluat.

140. The most becoming fold is, if it be somewhat above the lowest hem of the tunic; certainly let it never be lower. That which, beneath the right shoulder, is drawn obliquely to the left like a baldric, should neither strangle nor flow.

Pars togae quae postea imponitur sit inferior: nam ita et sedet melius et continetur. subducenda etiam pars aliqua tunicae, ne ad lacertum in actu redeat: tum sinus iniciendus umero, cuius extremam oram reiecisse non dedecet.
CXLI.

The part of the toga that is afterward laid on should be lower: for thus it both sits better and is kept in place. Some part of the tunic also should be drawn up, lest in action it go back to the upper arm: then the sinus (fold) is to be cast upon the shoulder, the far edge of which it is not unbecoming to have thrown back.
141.

Operiri autem umerum cum toto iugulo non oportet, alioqui amictus fiet angustus et dignitatem quae est in latitudine pectoris perdet. Sinistrum bracchium eo usque adlevandum est ut quasi normalem illum angulum faciat, super quod ora ex toga duplex aequaliter sedeat.
CXLII.

However, the shoulder together with the whole throat ought not to be covered, otherwise the draping will become narrow and it will lose the dignity that is in the breadth of the chest. The left arm must be raised up to the point that it makes, as it were, that right angle, upon which the border from the toga, doubled, may sit evenly.
142.

Manus non impleatur anulis, praecipue medios articulos non transeuntibus: cuius erit habitus optimus adlevato pollice et digitis leviter inflexis, nisi si libellum tenebit - quod non utique captandum est: videtur enim fateri memoriae diffidentiam et ad multos gestus est impedimento.
CXLIII. Togam veteres ad calceos usque demittebant, ut Graeci palium: idque ut fiat, qui de gestu scripserunt circa tempora illa, Plotius Nigidiusque, praecipiunt.

Let the hand not be filled with rings, especially with those not passing the middle joints: its best bearing will be with the thumb uplifted and the fingers lightly inflected, unless he will hold a little book — which is by no means to be courted: for it seems to confess a diffidence of memory and is an impediment to many gestures.
143. The ancients let the toga down to the shoes, as the Greeks [do] the pallium: and that this be done, those who wrote about gesture about those times, Plotius and Nigidius, prescribe.

Quo magis miror Plini Secundi docti hominis et in hoc utique libro paene etiam nimium curiosi persuasionem, qui solitum id facere Ciceronem velandorum varicum gratia tradit, cum hoc amictus genus in statuis eorum quoque qui post Ciceronem fuerunt appareat.
CXLIV. Palliolum, sicut fascias quibus crura vestiuntur et focalia et aurium ligamenta, sola excusare potest valetudo.
Sed haec amictus observatio dum incipimus: procedente vero actu, iam paene ab initio narrationis, sinus ab umero recte velut sponte delabitur, et cum ad argumenta ac locos ventum est reicere a sinistro togam, deicere etiam, si haereat, sinum conveniet.

All the more do I marvel at the opinion of Pliny Secundus, a learned man and in this very book almost even too curious, who relates that Cicero was accustomed to do this for the sake of veiling varices, since this kind of amictus appears in the statues even of those who were after Cicero.
144. A little pallium, just like the fasciae with which the legs are clothed, and focalia and ear-ligaments, can be excused only by ill-health.
But this observance of the amictus is for when we begin: as the act proceeds, indeed already almost from the beginning of the narration, the sinus from the shoulder properly, as if of its own accord, slips down; and when it has come to the arguments and loci, it will be fitting to throw the toga back from the left, and even to cast down the sinus, if it should cling.

CXLV. Laeva a faucibus ac summo pectore abducere licet: ardent enim iam omnia. Et ut vox vehementior ac magis varia est, sic amictus quoque habet actum quendam velut proeliantem.

145. It is permitted to draw the left hand away from the throat and the top of the chest: for already all things are ardent. And just as the voice is more vehement and more various, so the drapery too has a certain action, as though battling.

CXLVI. Itaque ut laevam involvere toga et incingi paene furiosum est, sinum vero in dextrum umerum ab imo reicere solutum ac delicatum (fiuntque adhuc peius aliqua), ita cur laxiorem sinum sinistro bracchio non subiciamus? Habet enim acre quiddam atque expeditum et calori concitationique non inhabile.

146. Therefore, just as to wrap the left hand with the toga and to gird oneself is almost frenzied, while to cast the fold down onto the right shoulder from below is loose and delicate (and some things are done even worse), so why should we not underlay the looser fold with the left forearm? For it has something keen and expeditious, and is not unfit for heat and for concitation.

CXLVII. cum vero magna pars est exhausta orationis, utique adflante fortuna, paene omnia decent, sudor ipse et fatigatio et neglegentior amictus et soluta ac velut labens undique toga.
CXLVIII.

147. but when indeed a great part of the oration has been exhausted, especially with fortune breathing favor, almost everything is becoming: the very sweat and fatigue and a more negligent draping, and the toga loosened and, as it were, slipping on all sides.
148.

Quo magis miror hanc quoque succurrisse Plinio curam, ut ita sudario frontem siccari iuberet ne comae turbarentur, quas componi post paulum, sicuti dignum erat, graviter et severe vetuit. Mihi vero illae quoque turbatae prae se ferre aliquid adfectus et ipsa oblivione curae huius commendari videntur.
CXLIX.

All the more do I marvel that this concern too occurred to Pliny, namely that he ordered the forehead to be dried with a sudarium in such a way that the hair not be disordered, which he forbade to be arranged a little later, gravely and severely, as was worthy. To me, however, those same locks, even when disordered, seem to display something of affect, and to be commended by the very forgetfulness of this care.
149.

At si incipientibus aut paulum progressis decidat toga, non reponere eam prorsus neglegentis aut pigri aut quo modo debeat amiciri nescientis est. Haec sunt vel inlustramenta pronuntiationis vel vitia, quibus propositis multa cogitare debet orator.
CL. Primum quis, apud quos, quibus praesentibus sit acturus (nam ut dicere alia aliis et apud alios magis concessum est, sic [et] etiam facere; neque eadem in voce gestu incessu apud principem senatum populum magistratus, privato publico iudicio, postulatione actione similiter decent: quam differentiam subicere sibi quisque qui animum intenderit potest): tunc qua de re dicat et efficere quid velit.

But if, when beginning or having advanced a little, the toga should slip down, not to replace it at all is the mark of someone careless or slothful or of one who does not know how it ought to be draped. These things are either embellishments of pronunciation (delivery) or vices, and with these set forth the orator ought to consider many matters.
150. First, who he is, before whom, and in whose presence he is going to plead (for just as it is more permitted to say different things to different people and before different audiences, so [also] to do them; nor do the same things in voice, gesture, and gait equally befit one before the princeps, the senate, the people, the magistrates, in a private or public trial, in a petition or in an action: a distinction which anyone who applies his mind can set before himself): then, what he is speaking about and what he wishes to accomplish.

CLI. Rei quadruplex observatio est: una in tota causa (sunt enim tristes hilares, sollicitae securae, grandes pusillae, ut vix umquam ita sollicitari partibus earum debeamus ut non et summae meminerimus):
CLII. altera quae est in differentia partium, ut in prohoemio narratione argumentatione epilogo: tertia in sententiis ipsis, in quibus secundum res et adfectus variantur omnia: quarta in verbis, quorum ut est vitiosa si effingere omnia velimus imitatio, ita quibusdam nisi sua natura redditur vis omnis aufertur.

151. The observation of the matter is fourfold: one in the whole cause (for cases are sad or cheerful, anxious or secure, grand or small, so that we should hardly ever be so concerned with their parts as not also to remember the overall sum):
152. the second is that which is in the difference of the parts, as in the proem, narration, argumentation, epilogue; the third in the sentences themselves, in which, according to the matters and the affects, all things are varied; the fourth in the words, in regard to which, just as imitation is faulty if we should wish to reproduce everything, so, unless their own nature is rendered to certain ones, all force is taken away.

CLIII. Igitur in laudationibus, nisi si funebres erunt, gratiarum actione, exhortatione, similibus laeta et magnifica et sublimis est actio. funebres contiones, consolationes, plerumque causae reorum tristes atque summissae.

153. Therefore in laudations—unless they are funerary—the delivery is cheerful and magnificent and sublime, with thanksgiving, exhortation, and the like. Funeral speeches, consolations, and for the most part the defendants’ cases are sad and subdued.

In senatu conservanda auctoritas, apud populum dignitas, in privatis modus. De partibus causae et sententiis verbisque, quae sunt multiplicia, pluribus dicendum.
CLIV.

In the senate authority is to be preserved, among the people dignity, in private matters measure. On the parts of the cause and the sentences and the words, which are manifold, there must be fuller discussion.
154.

Tria autem praestare debet pronuntiatio, ut conciliet persuadeat moveat, quibus natura cohaeret ut etiam delectet. Conciliatio fere aut commendatione morum, qui nescio quo modo ex voce etiam atque actione perlucent, aut orationis suavitate constat, persuadendi vis adfirmatione, quae interim plus ipsis probationibus valet.
CLV.

Delivery ought to furnish three things, that it conciliate, persuade, and move, to which there coheres by nature that it also delight. Conciliation generally consists either in a commendation of character, which somehow shines through even from the voice and from the action, or in the suavity of the speech; the force of persuading lies in affirmation, which sometimes avails more than the proofs themselves.
155.

"An ista", inquit Calidio Cicero, "si vera essent, sic a te dicerentur?" et: "tantum abest ut inflammares nostros animos: somnum isto loco vix tenebamus." Fiducia igitur appareat et constantia, utique si auctoritas subest.
CLVI. Movendi autem ratio aut in repraesentandis est aut imitandis adfectibus.

"But would these things," said Cicero to Calidius, "if they were true, be said thus by you?" and: "it is so far from the case that you were inflaming our minds: at that point we were scarcely staying awake." Therefore let confidence and constancy be apparent, especially if authority is present.
156. But the method of moving is either in representing or in imitating emotions.

Ergo cum iudex in privatis aut praeco in publicis dicere de causa iusserit, leniter est consurgendum: tum in componenda toga vel, si necesse erit, etiam ex integro inicienda dumtaxat in iudiciis (apud principem enim et magistratus et tribunalia non licebit) paulum est commorandum, ut et amictus sit decentior et protinus aliquid spatii ad cogitandum.
CLVII. Etiam cum ad iudicem nos converterimus et consultus praetor permiserit dicere, non protinus est erumpendum, sed danda brevis cogitationi mora: mire enim auditurum dicturi cura delectat et iudex se ipse componit.

Therefore, when the judge in private cases or the herald in public causes has ordered you to speak on the case, one must rise gently: then, in arranging the toga or, if it is necessary, even re-donning it anew—only in the law-courts (for in the presence of the princeps and the magistrates and the tribunals it will not be permitted)—one should linger a little, so that both the attire may be more becoming and there be at once some space for thinking.
157. Even when we have turned to the judge and the praetor, consulted, has permitted us to speak, one must not burst forth immediately, but a brief delay must be given to cogitation: for the care of one about to speak wonderfully delights the one about to listen, and the judge composes himself.

CLVIII. Hoc praecipit Homerus Vlixis exemplo, quem stetisse oculis in terram defixis inmotoque sceptro priusquam illam eloquentiae procellam effunderet dicit. In hac cunctatione sunt quaedam non indecentes, ut appellant scaenici, morae: caput mulcere, manum intueri, infringere articulos, simulare conatum, suspiratione sollicitudinem fateri, aut quod quemque magis decet, et ea diutius si iudex nondum intendet animum.

158. Homer prescribes this, by the example of Ulysses, whom he says stood with his eyes fixed upon the ground and with an unmoved scepter before he poured forth that tempest of eloquence. In this hesitation there are certain delays, not unseemly, as the actors call them: to stroke the head, to gaze at the hand, to crack the joints, to feign an attempt, to confess anxiety by a sigh, or whatever more befits each person—and these for longer, if the judge has not yet directed his attention.

CLIX. Status sit rectus, aequi et diducti paulum pedes, vel procedens minimo momento sinister: genua recta, sic tamen ut non extendantur: umeri remissi, vultus severus, non maestus nec stupens nec languidus: bracchia a latere modice remota, manus sinistra qualem supra demonstravi, dextra, cum iam incipiendum erit, paulum prolata ultra sinum gestu quam modestissimo, velut spectans quando incipiendum sit.
CLX.

159. Let the stance be erect, the feet even and a little drawn apart, or the left advancing by the smallest increment: the knees straight, yet so that they are not fully extended: the shoulders relaxed, the countenance severe, not mournful nor stupified nor languid: the arms moderately removed from the side, the left hand such as I have shown above, the right, when it is now to be begun, put forward a little beyond the bosom with the most modest gesture, as though looking out for when it should begin.
160.

Vitiosa enim sunt illa, intueri lacunaria, perfricare faciem et quasi improbam facere, tendere confidentia vultum aut quo sit magis torvus superciliis adstringere, capillos a fronte contra naturam retro agere, ut sit horror ille terribilis: tum, id quod Graeci frequentissime faciunt, crebro digitorum labrorumque motu commentari, clare exscreare, pedem alterum longe proferre, partem togae sinistra tenere, stare diductum vel rigidum vel supinum vel incurvum vel umeris, ut luctaturi solent, ad occipitium ductis.
CLXI. Prohoemio frequentissime lenis convenit pronuntiatio: nihil enim est ad conciliandum gratius verecundia, non tamen semper: neque enim uno modo dicuntur exordia, ut docui.

For those things are vicious: to gaze at the coffered ceilings, to rub the face and, as it were, make it shameless, to stretch the countenance with overconfidence or to compress it with the eyebrows so that it be more grim, to drive the hair back from the forehead against nature so that there be that terrible bristling; then, that which the Greeks most frequently do, to rehearse with frequent movement of fingers and lips, to clear the throat loudly, to thrust one foot far forward, to hold a part of the toga with the left hand, to stand straddling or stiff or thrown back or bent, or with the shoulders, as those about to wrestle are wont, drawn back toward the occiput.
161. In the proem a gentle delivery most frequently is fitting: for nothing is more pleasing for conciliation than modesty (verecundia), yet not always; for exordia are not delivered in one way, as I have taught.

Plerumque tamen et vox temperata et gestus modestus et sedens umero toga et laterum lenis in utramque partem motus, eodem spectantibus oculis, decebit.
CLXII. Narratio magis prolatam manum, amictum recidentem, gestum distinctum, vocem sermoni proximam et tantum acriorem, sonum simplicem frequentissime postulabit - in his dumtaxat: "Q. enim Ligarius, cum esset in Africa nulla belli suspicio", et "A. Cluentius Habitus pater huiusce." Aliud in eadem poscent adfectus, vel concitati: "nubit genero socrus", vel flebiles: "constituitur in foro Laodiceae spectaculum acerbum et miserum toti Asiae provinciae".
CLXIII.

For the most part, however, both a tempered voice and a modest gesture and, as one sits, the toga resting on the shoulder, and a gentle motion of the sides in either direction, with the eyes looking in the same direction, will be becoming.
162. Narration will most often require a more extended hand, the mantle falling back, a distinct gesture, a voice proximate to conversation and only so much sharper, a simple sound — at least in these: "For Quintus Ligarius, since there was no suspicion of war in Africa," and "Aulus Cluentius Habitus, the father of this man." The affections will demand something different in these same cases, whether excited: "the mother-in-law weds her son-in-law," or tearful: "in the forum of Laodicea there is set a bitter and wretched spectacle for the whole province of Asia."
163.

Maxime varia et multiplex actio est probationum: nam et proponere partiri interrogare sermoni sunt proxima, et contradictionem sumere: nam ea quoque diversa propositio est. Sed haec tamen aliquando inridentes, aliquando imitantes pronuntiamus.
CLXIV.

Most varied and manifold is the delivery of proofs: for to propose, to partition, to interrogate are closest to discourse, and to take up contradiction as well; for that too is a different proposition. Yet these we deliver sometimes ridiculing, sometimes imitating.
164.

Argumentatio plerumque agilior et acrior et instantior consentientem orationi postulat etiam gestum, id est fortem celeritatem. Instandum quibusdam in partibus et densanda oratio. Egressiones fere lenes et dulces et remissae, raptus Proserpinae, Siciliae descriptio, Cn. Pompei laus: neque est mirum minus habere contentionis ea quae sunt extra quaestionem.

Argumentation for the most part demands a more agile and sharper and more insistent delivery, one consonant with the speech, even in gesture—that is, a vigorous celerity. In certain parts one must press on, and the speech must be made denser. Digressions are generally smooth and sweet and relaxed—the Abduction of Proserpina, the description of Sicily, the praise of Gnaeus Pompey; nor is it a wonder that those things which are outside the question have less of contention.

CLXV. Mollior nonnumquam cum reprensione diversae partis imitatio: "videbar videre alios intrantis, alios autem exeuntis, quosdam ex vino vacillantis", ubi non dissidens a voce permittitur gestus quoque, in utramque partem tenera quaedam, sed intra manus tamen et sine motu laterum tralatio.
CLXVI.

165. A softer imitation of the opposing party, sometimes with reproof: “I seemed to see some entering, others however exiting, certain ones vacillating from wine,” where a gesture also is permitted, not discordant with the voice—a certain gentle shift in either direction, yet confined to the hands and without movement of the sides.
166.

Accendendi iudicis plures sunt gradus. summus ille et quo nullus est in oratore acutior: "suscepto bello, Caesar, gesto iam etiam ex parte magna" (praedixit enim: "quantum potero voce contendam ut populus hoc Romanus exaudiat"). Paulum inferior et habens aliquid iam iucunditatis: "quid enim tuus ille, tubero, in acie Pharsalica gladius agebat?"
CLXVII. Plenius adhuc et lentius ideoque dulcius: "in coetu vero populi Romani, negotium publicum gerens": producenda omnia trahendaeque tum vocales aperiendaeque sunt fauces.

There are several degrees for inflaming the judge. the highest one, than which there is none sharper in an orator: "with the war undertaken, Caesar, now even in great part waged" (for he pre-declared: "as much as I shall be able I will contend with my voice that this Roman people may hear this"). A little lower and already possessing something of jocundity: "for what, Tubero, was that sword of yours doing in the Pharsalian battle-line?"
167. Fuller yet and slower and therefore sweeter: "indeed in the assembly of the Roman people, conducting public business": everything is to be prolonged, and then the vowels are to be drawn out, and the throat is to be opened.

Pleniore tamen haec canali fluunt: "vos, Albani tumuli atque luci". Iam cantici quiddam habent sensimque resupina sunt: "saxa atque solitudines voci respondent".
CLXVIII. Tales sunt illae inclinationes vocis quas invicem Demosthenes atque Aeschines exprobrant, non ideo improbandae: cum enim uterque alteri obiciat, palam est utrumque fecisse. Nam neque ille per Marathonis et Plataearum et Salaminis propugnatores recto sono iuravit, nec ille Thebas sermone deflevit.

Yet these flow with a fuller channel: "you, Alban mounds and groves." Already they have something of chant and are gently thrown back: "rocks and solitudes answer to the voice."
168. Such are those inclinations of the voice which Demosthenes and Aeschines upbraid in one another, not therefore to be disapproved: for since each charges the other, it is manifest that both did it. For neither did the one swear by the defenders of Marathon and Plataea and Salamis in a straight tone, nor did the other bewail Thebes in mere speech.

CLXIX. Est his diversa vox et paene extra organum, cui Graeci nomen amaritudinis dederunt, super modum ac paene naturam vocis humanae acerba: "quin compescitis vocem istam, indicem stultitiae, testem paucitatis?" Sed id quod excedere modum dixi in illa parte prima est: "quin compescitis."
CLXX. Epilogus, si enumerationem rerum habet, desiderat quandam concisorum continuationem: si ad concitandos iudices est accommodatus, aliquid ex iis quae supra dixi: si placandos, inclinatam quandam lenitatem: si misericordia commovendos, flexum vocis et flebilem suavitatem, qua praecipue franguntur animi quaeque est maxime naturalis: nam etiam orbos viduasque videas in ipsis funeribus canoro quodam modo proclamantis.

169. There is a voice different from these and almost beyond the instrument, to which the Greeks gave the name “bitterness,” harsh beyond measure and almost beyond the nature of the human voice: “why don’t you restrain that voice, an index of stupidity, a witness of poverty?” But that which I said goes beyond the measure is in that first part: “why don’t you restrain.”
170. The epilogue, if it has an enumeration of matters, requires a certain continuation of concise items; if it is adapted to stirring up the judges, something from those things I said above; if to appeasing them, a certain inclined lenity; if to moving them to compassion, a flexion of the voice and a plaintive suavity, by which spirits are especially broken and which is most natural: for you may even see orphans and widows at the very funerals crying out in a certain canorous manner.

CLXXI. Hic etiam fusca illa vox, qualem Cicero fuisse in Antonio dicit, mire faciet: habet enim in se quod imitamur. duplex est tamen miseratio, altera cum invidia, qualis modo dicta de damnatione Philodami, altera cum deprecatione demissior.

171. Here too that dusky voice, such as Cicero says was in Antonius, will work wondrously: for it has in itself something that we imitate. Yet miseration is twofold: one coupled with envy, such as was just now spoken of about the condemnation of Philodamus; the other more downcast with deprecation.

CLXXII. Quare, etiam si est in illis quoque cantus obscurior: "in coetu vero populi Romani" (non enim haec rixantis modo dixit) et "vos Albani tumuli" (neque enim quasi inclamaret aut testaretur locutus est), tamen infinito magis illa flexa et circumducta sunt: "me miserum, me infelicem", et "quid respondebo liberis meis?" et "revocare tu me in patriam potuisti, Milo, per hos: ego te in eadem patria per eosdem retinere non potero?" et cum bona C. Rabiri nummo sestertio addicit: "o meum miserum acerbumque praeconium."
CLXXIII. Illa quoque mire facit in peroratione velut deficientis dolore et fatigatione confessio, ut pro eodem Milone: "sed finis sit, neque enim prae lacrimis iam loqui possum": quae similem verbis habere debent etiam pronuntiationem.

172. Wherefore, even if in those too there is a more obscure chant: “in the assembly indeed of the Roman people” (for he did not say these things in the manner of one brawling), and “you, Alban tombs” (for neither did he speak as if he were shouting or calling to witness), nevertheless infinitely more those are inflected and rounded: “wretched me, unhappy me,” and “what shall I answer to my children?” and “you, Milo, were able to recall me into my fatherland through these: shall I not be able to retain you in the same fatherland through these same?” and when he knocks down the goods of C. Rabirius for a sesterce: “O my wretched and bitter proclamation.”
173. That also works wondrously in the peroration—the confession, as it were, of one failing through grief and fatigue—as on behalf of the same Milo: “but let there be an end, for indeed because of tears I am now unable to speak”: which ought to have a delivery also similar to the words.

CLXXIV. Possunt videri alia quoque huius partis atque officii, reos excitare, pueros attollere, propinquos producere, vestes laniare: sed suo loco dicta sunt. Et quia in partibus causae talis est varietas, satis apparet accommodandam sententiis ipsis pronuntiationem, sicut ostendimus, sed verbis quoque, quod novissime dixeram, non semper, sed aliquando.

CLXXIV. Other things too of this part and office may seem [to belong]: to rouse the defendants, to lift up children, to bring forward kinsfolk, to lacerate garments; but they have been spoken of in their proper place. And since in the parts of a cause there is such variety, it is clear enough that delivery must be accommodated to the sentiments themselves, as we have shown, but to the words also, as I said most recently—not always, but sometimes.

CLXXV. An non +haec+ "misellus" et "pauperculus" summissa atque contracta, "fortis" et "vehemens" et "latro" erecta et concitata voce dicendum est? Accedit enim vis et proprietas rebus tali adstipulatione, quae nisi adsit aliud vox, aliud animus ostendat.

175. Or should not +these+ "poor little wretch" and "little pauper" be spoken with a subdued and contracted voice, and "brave" and "vehement" and "bandit" with a raised and impetuous voice? For force and propriety accrue to matters by such corroboration; and unless this be present, the voice will show one thing, the mind another.

CLXXVI. Quid quod eadem verba mutata pronuntiatione indicant adfirmant exprobrant negant mirantur indignantur interrogant inrident elevant? Aliter enim dicitur:
"tu mihi quodcumque hoc regni"
et
"cantando tu illum?"
et
"tune ille Aeneas?"
et
"meque timoris
argue tu, Drance,"
et ne morer, intra se quisque vel hoc vel aliud quod volet per omnis adfectus verset: verum esse quod dicimus sciet.

176. What of the fact that the same words, with the delivery altered, indicate, affirm, upbraid, deny, marvel, are indignant, interrogate, deride, make light? For it is said otherwise:
"you, for me, whatever this is of kingship"
and
"by singing, you him?"
and
"are you that Aeneas?"
and
"and me with fear
charge, you, Drance,"
and, not to linger, let each person within himself turn over this or some other thing he will through all the passions: he will know that what we say is true.

CLXXVII. Vnum iam his adiciendum est: cum praecipue in actione spectetur decorum, saepe aliud alios decere. Est enim latens quaedam in hoc ratio et inenarrabilis, et ut vere hoc dictum est, caput esse artis decere quod facias, ita id neque sine arte esse neque totum arte tradi potest.

177. One thing now must be added to these: since in action decorum is especially regarded, often different things befit different people. For there is in this a certain latent and inenarrable rationale; and just as it has truly been said that the head of the art is that what you do be seemly, so that can neither exist without art nor be handed down wholly by art.

CLXXVIII. In quibusdam virtutes non habent gratiam, in quibusdam vitia ipsa delectant. Maximos actores comoediarum, Demetrium et Stratoclea, placere diversis virtutibus vidimus.

178. In certain people virtues do not find favor; in others, the vices themselves delight. We have seen the greatest actors of comedies, Demetrius and Stratocles, please by diverse virtues.

Sed illud minus mirum, quod alter deos et iuvenes et bonos patres servosque et matronas et graves anus optime, alter acres senes, callidos servos, parasitos, lenones et omnia agitatiora melius - fuit enim natura diversa: nam vox quoque Demetri iucundior, illius acrior erat;
CLXXIX. adnotandae magis proprietates, quae transferri non poterant. Manus iactare et dulces exclamationes theatri causa producere et ingrediendo ventum concipere veste et nonnumquam dextro latere facere gestus, quod neminem alium Demetrium decuit (namque in haec omnia statura et mira specie adiuvabatur):
CLXXX.

But that is less a marvel, that the one did the gods and youths and good fathers and slaves and matrons and grave old women very well, the other old men of edge, shrewd slaves, parasites, panders, and all the more agitated roles better—for their nature was different: for Demetrius’s voice too was more pleasant, the other’s was sharper;
179. rather to be noted were the peculiarities which could not be transferred: to toss the hands and to produce “sweet exclamations” for the sake of the theater, and in walking to catch wind with the garment, and sometimes to make gestures with the right side—things which befitted no one other than Demetrius (for in all these he was aided by his stature and wondrous appearance):
180.

illum cursus et agilitas et vel parum conveniens personae risus, quem non ignarus rationis populo dabat, et contracta etiam cervicula. Quidquid horum alter fecisset, foedissimum videretur. Quare norit se quisque, nec tantum ex communibus praeceptis sed etiam ex natura sua capiat consilium formandae actionis.

that one was commended by his running and agility, and even by a laugh scarcely suitable to his persona, which, not ignorant of the rationale, he would offer to the people, and even by a contracted little neck. Whatever of these the other had done, it would have seemed most foul. Therefore let each person know himself, and let him take counsel for the shaping of his action not only from common precepts but also from his own nature.

CLXXXI. Neque illud tamen est nefas, ut aliquem vel omnia vel plura deceant. huius quoque loci clausula sit eadem necesse est quae ceterorum est, regnare maxime modum: non enim comoedum esse, sed oratorem volo.

181. Nor, however, is that wrong, that someone may be befitted by either everything or more things. The conclusion of this passage too must of necessity be the same as that of the others: let measure reign above all; for I do not want him to be a comedian, but an orator.

Quare neque in gestu persequemur omnis argutias nec in loquendo distinctionibus temporibus adfectionibus moleste utemur.
CLXXXII. Vt si sit in scaena dicendum:
"quid igitur faciam?

Therefore neither in gesture shall we pursue all the subtleties, nor in speaking shall we vexatiously make use of distinctions of tenses and affections.
182. As, for instance, if it must be said on the stage:
"what then am I to do?"

non eam ne nunc quidem,
cum arcessor ultro? an potius ita me comparem,
non perpeti meretricum contumelias?"
Hic enim dubitationis moras, vocis flexus, varias manus, diversos nutus actor adhibebit. Aliud oratio sapit nec vult nimium esse condita: actione enim constat, non imitatione.

Am I not to go, not even now,
when I am being invited of her own accord? Or rather should I so compose myself,
not to endure the contumelies of courtesans?
For here the actor will employ delays of hesitation, flexions of the voice, varied hands, different nods. Speech savors otherwise and does not wish to be over-seasoned: for it consists in delivery, not in imitation.

CLXXXIII. Quare non inmerito reprenditur pronuntiatio vultuosa et gesticulationibus molesta et vocis mutationibus resultans. Nec inutiliter ex Graecis veteres transtulerunt, quod ab iis sumptum Laenas Popilius posuit, esse hanc +mocosam+ actionem.

183. Wherefore not undeservedly is a pronuntiation full of facial display and troublesome with gesticulations and rebounding with mutations of the voice reprehended. Nor uselessly did the ancients transfer from the Greeks what, taken from them, Laenas Popilius set down: that this action is +mocosam+.

CLXXXIV. Optime igitur idem qui omnia Cicero praeceperat quae supra ex Oratore posui: quibus similia in Bruto de M. Antonio dicit. Sed iam recepta est actio paulo agitatior et exigitur et quibusdam partibus convenit, ita tamen temperanda ne, dum actoris captamus elegantiam, perdamus viri boni et gravis auctoritatem.

184. Most excellently, therefore, the same Cicero, who had given precepts about everything, prescribed those which I set above from the Orator; and he says similar things in the Brutus about M. Antonius. But now a delivery (action) somewhat more agitated has been received, is demanded, and suits certain parts; yet it must be tempered, lest, while we grasp at the elegance of an actor, we lose the authority of a good and grave man.