Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, Book 9, chapter 2, section 9

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[9] Or we may ask a question with a view to throw odium on the person to whom it is addressed, as in the words placed by Seneca in the mouth of Medea:¹

“What lands dost bid me seek?
”

Or our aim may be to excite pity, as is the case with the question asked by Sinon in Virgil:²

“Alas, what lands, lie cried,
What seas can now receive me?
”

Or to embarrass our opponent and to deprive him of the power to feign ignorance of our meaning, as Asinius does in the following sentence: “Do you hear? The will which we impugn is the work of a madman, not of one who lacked natural affection.” In fact questions admit of infinite variety.

1 Med. 451.

2 Aen. ii. 69.

Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.

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