Kitap 9
2.50
But both the last example and the last but one involve a different figure as well, which, owing to the absence of connecting particles, is called dissolution ( asyndeton ), and is useful when we are speaking with special vigour: for it at once impresses the details on the mind and makes them seem more numerous than they really are. Consequently, we apply this figure not merely to single words, but to whole sentences, as, for instance, is done by Cicero in his reply Only a few fragments remain. to the speech which Metellus made to the public assembly: I ordered those against whom information was laid, to be summoned, guarded, brought before the senate: they were led into the senate, while the rest of the passage is constructed on similar lines. This kind of figure is also called brachylogy, which may be regarded as detachment without loss of connexion. The opposite of this figure of asyndeton is polyxyndeton, which is characterised by the number of connecting particles employed.
2.51
In this figure we may repeat the same connecting particle a number of times, as in the following instance: His house and home and arms And Amyclean hound and Cretan quiver; Georg. iii. 344. or they may be different,
2.52
as in the case of arma virumque followed by multum ille et terris and multa quoque. Aen. i. sqq.
