[53]
At times we may exaggerate charges against
ourselves which we can easily refute or deny; this
device is too common to require any illustration. At
other times we may by this same method make the
charges brought against us seem incredible just
because of their gravity: thus Cicero in his defence
of Roscius,1 by the sheer force of his eloquence,
exaggerates the horror of parricide, despite the fact
that it requires no demonstration.
1 Roscius of Ameria was accused of parricide.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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