[19]
Sometimes a fictitious statement is employed
either to stir the emotions of the judges, as in that
passage of the proo Roscio Amerino1 dealing with
Chrysogonus to which I referred just recently, or to
entertain them with a show of wit, as in the
passage of the pro Cluentio2 describing the brothers
Caepasius: sometimes again a digression may be
introduced to add beauty to the speech, as in the
passage about Proserpine in the Verrines,3 beginning “It was here that a mother is once said to have
sought her daughter.” All these examples serve to
show that he who denies a charge may not necessarily
refrain from stating, but may actually state that very
fact which he denies.
[p. 61]
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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