[88]
Sometimes, too, we get false statements of facts;
these, as far as actual pleading in the courts is concerned, fall into two classes. In the first case the statement depends on external support; Publius Clodius,
for instance, relied on his witnesses when he stated
that he was at Interamna on the night when he committed abominable sacrilege at Rome. The other has
to be supported by the speaker's native talent, and
sometimes consists simply in an assumption of modesty,
which is, I imagine, the reason why it is called a
gloss,1 while at other times it will be concerned with
the question at issue.
1 color is a technical term for “the particular aspect given to a case by the skilful manipulation of the facts—the 'gloss' or ' varnish' put on them by the accused or accuser.”— Peterson on Quint. x. i. 116.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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