[30]
For an argument
must needs tell against a speaker if it be one which
his opponent can use with effect. “But, you say, it
is not probable that a crime of this magnitude was
designed by Marcus Cotta. Is it probable then that
a crime of this magnitude was attempted by
Oppius?” On the other hand it is a task for a real
artist to discover inconsistencies, real or apparent,
in the speech of his opponent, though such inconsistencies are sometimes evident from the bare facts,
as for instance in the case of Caelius,1 where Clodia
asserts on the one hand that she lent Caelius money,
which is an indication of great intimacy, and on the
other hand that he got poison to murder her, which
[p. 331]
is a sign of violent hatred. Tubero similarly2
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1921.
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