Institūtiō ōrātōria
Institūtiō ōrātōria (‘education of an orator’), treatise in twelve books by Quintilian.
Book 1 deals with the early education of the future orator; the influence of nurses, parents, slaves; the superiority of school education over education at home; the importance of a thorough study of language as a foundation; and the need for Greek and various other subjects. The subject-matter should not be dictated by commercial consideration.
Book 2, which begins with the boy's entry to the school of rhetoric, is on the general method and aim of training in rhetoric, on the qualifications of a good teacher and the proper treatment of pupils, and on the need in an orator for moral character as well as wide knowledge.
Books 3–7 pass on to technicalities: the three kinds of oratory (judicial, deliberative, laudatory), the parts of a speech (exordium, narrative, etc.), and the arrangement of matters to be dealt with. These are principally related to speeches in the courts, and are illuminating when read in conjunction with the speeches of Cicero.
Books 8–11 deal with style and delivery. Of these book 10 contains the famous discussion of those authors, Greek and Latin, who are to be studied as ‘particularly suitable to those proposing to become orators’, and Quintilian's judgements on them; it should be remembered that these are made solely from a rhetorical viewpoint. Of the Greeks he places Homer first for his many qualities and in particular his oratorical skills. Pindar is by far the greatest of the lyric poets, especially for his flood of eloquence; Aristophanes, Eupolis, and Cratinus are the greatest of the writers of Old Comedy, Menander of New. Sophocles and Euripides are the most accomplished of the tragedians, for Aeschylus, in spite of his dignity, is often uncouth. In history he sets far above the others Thucydides (‘compressed and concise and always pressing on’) and Herodotus (‘delightful, clear, and discursive’). He discusses Demosthenes and his lesser rivals. He praises Plato's acuteness, and his ‘divine and Homeric’ gift of eloquence, Xenophon's unaffected style, and Aristotle's knowledge and penetration. Of the Romans he places Virgil first, as most nearly approaching Homer. The style of Lucretius he thinks difficult. Ennius he compares with those ancient sacred groves whose mighty oaks are admired less for their beauty than for their sanctity. Ovid is too much an admirer of his own genius. Satire, for the Roman Quintilian, is ‘all our own’; he places Horace as a satirist before Lucilius, and mentions Persius favourably. Horace is also the only lyric poet in Latin worth reading (he mentions Catullus only for the invective of his iambics). He thinks the (now lost) Thyestes of Varius the equal of any Greek tragedy, and commends the (also lost) Medea of Ovid, but makes no high claim for Roman tragedy. Comedy is Rome's weakest point. In history he regards Sallust as equal to Thucydides, Livy to Herodotus. Cicero is a match for any Greek orator: Quintilian compares his style with that of Demosthenes, and though scrupulously fair to the merits of both cannot conceal the pleasure he feels at Cicero's overall brilliance. Caesar might have been his rival had he devoted himself to the subject; as it is he equals Cicero in force, acumen, and vigour. Quintilian is critical of Seneca's style and bad influence but admits the value of his subject-matter. Book 11 discusses the manner of delivery.
Book 12 sums up Quintilian's view of the ideal orator, not a speaker merely, but a man of highest character, properly trained in morals as well as in taste; in the words of Cato, vir bonus dicendi peritus, ‘a good man who knows how to speak’.
