Book 8
3.13
There is also what is called a clausula. If this merely means a conclusion, it is a perfectly correct and sometimes a necessary device, as in the following case: You must, therefore, first confess your own offence before you accuse Ligarius of anything. Pro Lig. i. 2. It is a conclusion in the logical sense. But clausula more commonly means close, conclusion, cadence of a period. Cp. what follows. But to-day something more is meant, for our rhetoricians want every passage, every sentence to strike the ear by an impressive close.
3.14
In fact, they think it a disgrace, nay, almost a crime, to pause to breathe except at the end of a passage that is designed to call forth applause. The result is a number of tiny epigrams, affected, irrelevant and disjointed. For there are not enough striking reflexions in the world to provide a close to every period.
3.15
The following forms of reflexion are even more modern. There is the type which depends on surprise for its effect, as, for example, when Vibius Crispus, in denouncing the man who wore a breastplate when strolling in the forum and alleged that he did so because he feared for his life, cried, Who gave you leave to be such a coward? Another instance is the striking remark made by Africanus to Nero with reference to the death of Agrippina: Caesar, your provinces of Gaul entreat you to bear your good fortune with courage.
