Book 8
2.9
There is, however, a form of propriety of speech which deserves the highest praise, that is to say, the employment of words with the maximum of significance, as, for instance, when Cato Suet. Caes. 53. said that Caesar was thoroughly sober when he undertook the task of overthrowing the constitution, or as Virgil Ecl. vi. 5. spoke of a thin-drawn strain, and Horace Odes I. xii. 1, and III. vi. 36. of the shrill pipe, and dread Hannibal.
2.10
Some also include under this head that form of propriety which is derived from characteristic epithets, such as in the Virgilian Georg. i. 295 and Aen. xi. 681. phrases, sweet unfermented wine, or with white teeth. But of this sort of propriety I shall have to speak elsewhere. SC. ch. vi.
2.11
Propriety is also made to include the appropriate use of words in metaphor, while at times the salient characteristic of an individual comes to be attached to him as a proper name: thus Fabius was called Cunctator, the Delayer, on account of the most remarkable of his many military virtues. Some, perhaps, may think that words which mean more than they actually say deserve mention in connexion with clearness, since they assist the understanding. I, however, prefer to place emphasis See IX. ii. 64. among the ornaments of oratory, since it does not make a thing intelligible, but merely more intelligible.
