Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Book 8
Harold Edgeworth Butler, Ed.

[20] Antonomasia, which substitutes something else for a proper name, is very common in poets: it may be done in two ways: by the substitution of an epithet as equivalent to the name which it replaces, such as “Tydides,” “Pelides,”¹ or by indicating the most striking characteristics of an individual, as in the phrase

Father of gods and king of men,

Aen. i. 65.

[p. 319] or from acts clearly indicating the individual, as in the phrase,

The arms which he, the traitor, left
Fixed on the chamber wall.

Aen. iv. 495. This third example does not correspond with the twofold division given by utroque and may be spurious.

This form of trope is rare in oratory,