A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

QUINTILIANUS. QUINTILIANUS. 63bt
"Hos inter sumtus sestertia Quintiliano years. This period appears, at first sight, short
Ut multum duo sufficient; res nulla minoris for the completion of a performance so compreConstabit patri quam filius. Unde igitur tot hensive and so elaborate, but we may reasonably
Quintilianus habet saltus," believe that his professional career had rendered
him so familiar with the subject, and that in his
and then proceeds to ascribe his singular prosperity capacity as a lecturer he must have so frequently
to the influence of good luck. On the other hand, enlarged upon all its different branches, that little
Pliny, in a letter inscribed "Quintiliano suo " (vi. would be necessary except to digest and arrange
32, comp. 6), makes him a present of 50,000 ses- the materials already accumulated. Indeed, it
terces, about 4001. sterling,as a contribution towards appears that two books upon rhetoric had been
the outfit of a daughter about to be married, assign- already published under his name, but without his
ing as a reason for his liberality "Te porro, animo sanction; being, in fact, notes taken down by
beatissimum, modicemlnf culatibzus, scio." Passing some of his pupils, of conversations which he had
over the untenable supposition that Pliny may have held with them.
been addressing some Quintilian different from the In an introductory chapter addressed to Marrhetorician, or that the estates indicated above cellus, he briefly indicates the plan which he had,may have been acquired at a later period, we must followed, and the distribution of the different
observe that Juvenal here employs a tone of de- parts. The first book contains a dissertation on
clamatory exaggeration, and that he speaks with the preliminary training requisite before a youth
evident, though suppressed bitterness of the good can enter directly upon the studies necessary to
fortune of Quintilian, probably in consequence of mould an accomplished orator (ca quae suent aste
the flattery lavished by the latter on the hated oficium rhetoris), and presents us with a carefully
Domitian (e. g. prooem. lib. iv.); we must bear in sketched outline of the method to be pursued in
mind also, that although the means of Quintilian educating children, from the time they leave the
may not have been so ample as to render anl act of cradle until they pass from the hands of the gramgenerosity on the part of a rich and powerful pupil marian. In the second book we find an expoin any way unacceptable, still the handsome income sition of the first principles of rhetoric, together
which he enjoyed (100,000 sesterces 8001., Suet. with an investigation into the nature or essence of
Fesp. 18) must have appeared boundless wealth the art (.primel apud 2lhetorem elementa et quae de
when compared with the indigence of the troops of ipsa lhetoricae substantia qzuaeruntur). The five
half-starved grammarians who thronged the metro- following are devoted to invention and arrangepolis, and whose miseries are so forcibly depicted ment (inventio, dispositio); the eighth, ninth, tenth
in the piece where the above lines are found. and eleventh to composition (including the proper
The epistle of Pliny has suggested another diffi- use of the figures of speech) and delivery, comculty. Quintilian, in the preface to his sixth book, prised under the general term elocutio, and the
laments in very touching language the death of his last is occupied with what the author considers
only son, whose improvement had been one of his by far the most important portion of his project
chief inducements to undertake the work. He is (partem operis destinati loage gravissimam), an
thus led on to enter into details regarding his inquiry, namely, into various circumstances not
family bereavements: first of all he lost his wife, included in a course of scholastic discipline, but
at the age of nineteen, who left behind her two essential to the formation of a perfect public
boys; the younger died when five years old, the speaker; such as his manners-his moral chaelder at ten; but there is no allusion to a daughter, racter, - the principles by which he must be
and indeed his words clearly imply that two child- guided in undertaking, in preparing, and in conren only had been born to him, both of whom he had ducting causes, - the peculiar style of eloquence
-lost. Hence we are driven to the supposition that which he may adopt with greatest advantage -
he must have married a second time, that the lady the collateral studies to be pursued - the age at
was the daughter of a certain Tutilius (Plin. 1. c.), which it is most suitable to commence pleading -
and that the offspring of this union was the girl the necessity of retiring before the powers begin
whose approaching marriage with Nonius Celer to fail-and various other kindred topics.
called forth the gift of Pliny. It will be seen too This production bears throughout the impress of
that Quintilian, at the lowest computation, must a clear, sound judgment, keen discrimination, and
have been nearly fifty when he was left childless, pure taste, improved by extensive reading, deep
consequently he must have been so far advanced in reflection, and long practice. The diction is highly
life when his daughter became marriageable, that it polished, and very graceful. The fastidious critic
is impossible to believe that he amassed a fortune may, indeed, detect here and there an obscure,
subsequent to that event. affected phrase, or a word employed in a sense not
The great work of Quintilian is a complete authorised by the purest models of Latinity, but
system of rhetoric in twelve books, entitled De these blemishes, although significant of the age to
[nstitutione Oratoria Libri XII., or sometimes, which the treatise belongs, are by no means so
Institutiones Oratoriae, dedicated to his friend numerous or so glaring as seriously to injure its
Marcellus Victorius, himself a celebrated orator, general beauty. In copiousness, perspicuity, and
and a favourite at court. (Stat. Silv. iv. 4.) It technical accuracy, it is unquestionably superior to
was written during the reign of Domitian, while the essay on the same subject ascribed to Cicero,
the author was discharging his duties as preceptor although each possesses its peculiar merits, which
to the sons of the emperor's niece (Prooem. lib. iv. are fully expounded in the laborious comparison
x. 1. ~ 9). In a short preface to his bookseller instituted by Campanus. The sections which
Trypho, he acquaints us that he commenced this possess the greatest interest for general readers are
undertaking after he had retired from his labours those chapters in the first book which relate to
as a public instructor (probably in A. D. 89), and elementary education, and the commencement of
that he finished his task in little more than two the tenth book, which furnishes us with a com