Book 9
2.12
A figure is also involved in a reply, when one question is asked and another is answered, because it suits the respondent's purpose better to do so, or because it aggravates the charge brought against the accused. For example, a witness for the prosecution was asked whether he had been cudgelled by the plaintiff, and replied, And what is more, I had done him no harm. Or the purpose may be to elude a charge, a very common form of reply. The advocate says, I ask if you killed the man? The accused replies, He was a robber. The advocate asks, Have you occupied the farm? The accused replies, It was my own.
2.13
Again, the answer may be of such a kind as to make defence precede confession. For example, in the Eclogues Ecl. iii. 17 and 21. of Virgil, when one shepherd asks: Did I not see you, villain, snare a goat Of Damon's? the other replies: I vanquished him in song, and should he not Pay me the prize, my due?
