‘And those who are evidently formidable to our superiors (must necessarily be so to us; the a fortiori argument, or omne maius continet in se minus), because they must have more power to hurt us, if they have it also to hurt our superiors. And also those who are feared by our superiors (must also be formidable to us) for the same reason’. The difference between these two cases lies in the φοβεροί and φοβοῦνται. The first are those who are evidently and notoriously objects of dread by reason of their rank, power, station on the one hand, and their manifest hostility on the other: the second are secret enemies, men of no apparent resources for mischief, whose real character and designs are known to our superiors, though not to the world at large. This is the substance of Victorius' explanation.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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