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διαβολή from διαβάλλειν ‘to sunder or set at variance’, and so ‘to make hostile, to engender a mutual dislike between two parties’, in its technical application to Rhetoric, of which it is a potent instrument; and with its opposite ἀπολύεσθαι ‘to absolve oneself, clear away from oneself ill-feeling and suspicion’, forms one of the principal topics of the προοίμιον (see Introd. pp. 343, 4). It denotes the exciting of suspicion and ill-will in the minds of the judges or audience, in order to prejudice them against the opponent with whom you are in controversy: and is therefore improperly classed with the πάθη or emotions such as ἔλεος and ὀργή. This has been already noticed by Victorius and Muretus: the latter says, ‘διαβολὴ non est πάθος, sed pertinet ad iudicem ponendum ἐν πάθει.’ Top. Δ 5, 126 a 31. [διάβολον] τὸν δυνάμενον διαβάλλειν καὶ ἐχθροὺς ποιεῖν τοὺς φίλους. These words, which seem to be a mere gloss upon διάβολον in the text of the Topics, occur apparently in one MS only, marked u by Waitz, and inserted by him in the critical notes of his edition, Vol. II p. 144. Bekker altogether omits to notice them. Though of no authority they will equally well answer the purpose for which they are here employed, of helping, namely, to define the meaning of διαβολή. On πάθος and πάθη, see Introd. pp. 113—118. οὐ περὶ τοῦ πράγματος δικαστήν] Appeals to the feelings are ἔξω τοῦ πράγματος: they are ‘beside the proper subject, the real question, the direct issue’, which is the fact and the proof of it; and ‘directed to the judge’, intended to bias and pervert his judgment, to incline him to our side in the contest, and so to have the effect of a secondary or indirect kind of proof of the justice of our case. ὥστ᾽ εἰ περὶ πάσας—λέγωσιν] Similarly in Rhet. III 1, 4, it is said of the ornaments of style, and declamation in general, as of appeals to the feelings here, that they are only allowed to be employed διὰ τὴν μοχθηρίαν τῶν πολιτειῶν; in well-governed states they would not be permitted at all.
Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle. Edward Meredith Cope. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1877.
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