Book 9
2.90
Now though I am ready to admit that more figures of speech may perhaps be discovered by certain writers, I cannot agree that such figures are better than those which have been laid down by high authorities. Above all I would point out that Cicero has included a number of figures in the third book of the de Oratore, See IX. i. 26. which in his later work, the Orator, See IX. i. 37. he has omitted, thereby seeming to indicate that he condemned them. Some of these are figures of thought rather than of speech, such as meiosis, the introduction of the unexpected, imagery, answering our own questions, digression, permission, See IX. ii. 25. arguments drawn from opposites (for I suppose that by contrarium See IX. i. 33. sqq. If contrarium is what Quintilian supposes, its sense must be approximate to that given above. Cp. Auct. ad Herenn. iv. 25. contrarium est quod ex diversis rebus duabus alteram altera breviter etfacile confirmat. But it is possible that Cicero meant antithesis. he means what is elsewhere styled ἐναντιότης ), and proof borrowed from an opponent. There are some again which are not figures at all,
