M. CORNELIUS FRONTO
he exaggerates, he forestalls objections, he repeats, he postpones, he harks back, he asks questions, describes, divides, introduces fictitious characters, puts his own words in another's mouth: those are the meanings of αὔξειν, διασκενάζειν, ἐξεργάζεσθαι, πάλιν, λέγειν, ἐπαναφέρειν, παράπτειν, προσωποποιεῖν.[1]
16. Do you see that he handles almost all the weapons of the orator? Therefore if Chrysippus himself has shewn that these should be used, what more do I ask, unless it be that you should not employ the verbiage of the dialecticians but rather the eloquence of Plato? . . . . A sword must be used in fight against (opponents), but it matters much whether the blade be rusty or burnished . . . . Epictetus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . if he had dared, an epitaph[2] . . . . . . . . . . . . carried through with the greatest credit . . . . . . . . . . . . If anywhere . . . . a disciple of Anaxagoras not of the sycophant Alexinus[3] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17. The tragedian Aesopus is said never to have put on a tragic mask without setting it in front of him and studying it a long time that he might conform his gestures and adapt his voice to the face of the mask . . . . . . . . . . . . or do you think it a greater task to write the tragedy Amphiaraus[4] than to speak on the subject of an earthquake? . . . . you argue about a thunderbolt . . . .
- ↑ These words mean to amplify, divide, treat fully, recapitulate, hark back, make the application, introduce characters.
- ↑ The epitaph of Epictetus was: I Epictetus was by name | Who now lie here, | As Irus poor, a slave, and lame | And to the Immortals dear.
- ↑ i.e. Pericles. See Cic. De Orat. iii. 34; Orat. iv. 15.
- ↑ He was swallowed up by an earthquake, while trying to escape from the disastrous expedition against Thebes. There seems to be a reference to the Cyzicus earthquake in 162.
