§5.10.91sunt enim et haec maiora et minora aut certe vim similem obtinent, quae si persequamur, nullus erit ea concidendi modus.
For these also are greater and less, or at least possess a similar force, and if we should pursue them, there will be no limit to dividing them.
infinita est enim rerum comparatio, iucundiora, graviora, magis necessaria, honestiora, utiliora.
For the comparison of things is infinite, as more pleasant, more serious, more necessary, more honorable, more useful.
sed mittamus plura, ne in eam ipsam, quam vito, loquacitatem incidam.
But let us pass over further details, lest I fall into that very wordiness which I am avoiding.
§5.10.92exemplorum quoque ad haec infinitus est numerus, sed paucissima attingam.
Of examples also for these the number is infinite, but I will touch upon very few.
ex maiore pro Caecina, quod exercitus armatos movet, id advocationem togatorum non videbitur movisse? ex faciliore in Clodium et Curionem, ac vide, an facile fieri tu potueris, cum is factus non sit, cui tu concessisti. §5.10.93ex difficiliore, vide quaeso, Tubero, ut, qui de meo facto non dubitem, de Ligarii audeam dicere. et ibi, an sperandi Ligario casa non sit, cum mihi apud te locus sit etiam pro altero deprecandi? ex minore pro Caecina, itane scire esse armatos sat est, ut vim factam probes; §5.10.94in manus eorum incidere non est satis? ergo, ut breviter contraham summam, ducuntur argumenta a personis, causis, locis, tempore (cuius tres partes diximus, praecedens, coniunctum, insequens), facultatibus (quibus instrumentum subiecimus), modo (id est, ut quidque sit factum), finitione, genere, specie, differentibus, propriis, remotione, divisione, initio, incrementis, summa, similibus, dissimilibus, pugnantibus, consequentibus, efficientibus, effectis, eventis, comparatione, quae in plures diducitur species.
From the greater, in the speech *Pro Caecina*: "Shall that which moves armed armies not be deemed to have moved a gathering of toga-clad advocates?" From the easier, in the speech *Against Clodius and Curio*: "And see whether you could easily have been made (that), when he, to whom you yielded, was not made." From the more difficult, (in the speech *Pro Ligario*): "Look, I pray you, Tubero, how I, who do not doubt of my own action, dare to speak of that of Ligarius." And in the same place: "Or has Ligarius no reason to hope, when I have a place before you even to plead for another?" From the less, in *Pro Caecina*: "Is it then enough to know that there were armed men, that you may prove that violence was done;" "is it not enough to fall into their hands?" Therefore, to briefly contract the sum, arguments are drawn from persons, causes, places, time (of which we said there are three parts, preceding, concomitant, subsequent), means (under which we included instruments), manner (that is, how each thing was done), definition, genus, species, differences, properties, elimination, division, beginning, increases, sum, things similar, dissimilar, contradictory, consequent, efficient, effects, events, and comparison, which is divided into many species.
§5.10.95illud adiiciendum videtur, duci argumenta non a confessis tantum sed etiam a fictione, quod Graeci καθ᾽ ὑπόθεσιν vocant; et quidem ex omnibus iisdem locis, quibus superiora, quia totidem species esse possunt fictae quot verae.
It seems necessary to add this, that arguments are drawn not only from admitted facts but also from fiction, which the Greeks call *kath' hypothesin*; and indeed from all the same topics as the former, because there can be just as many fictitious species as true ones.
§5.10.96nam fingere hoc loco hoc est proponere aliquid, quod, si verum sit, aut solvat quaestionem aut adiuvet; deinde id, de quo quaeritur, facere illi simile.
For to feign in this place is to propose something which, if it were true, would either solve the question or help to do so; and then to make that which is in question similar to it.
id quo facilius accipiant iuvenes nondum scholam egressi, primo familiaribus magis ci aetati exemplis ostendam.
That young men who have not yet left school may receive this more easily, I will first show it by examples more familiar to that age.
§5.10.97lex: qui parentes non aluerit, vinciatur. non alit aliquis, et vincula nihilominus recusat.
The law: "He who does not support his parents, let him be bound." Someone does not support them, and nevertheless refuses bonds.
utitur fictione, si miles, si infans sit, si reipublicae causa absit. et illa contra optionem fortium, si tyrannidem petas, si templorum eversionem. §5.10.98plurimum ea res virium habet contra scriptum.
He uses fiction: "if he were a soldier, if he were an infant, if he were absent on public business." And against that law concerning the option of the brave: "if you should demand tyranny, if the destruction of temples." This method has the greatest force against the letter of the law.
utitur his Cicero pro Caecina, unde tu aut familia aut procurator tuus. si me villicus tuus solus deiecisset — si vero ne habeas quidem servum praeter eum, qui me deiecerit, et alia in eodem libro plurima.
Cicero uses these in *Pro Caecina*: "whence you, or your household, or your agent [ejected me]...": "What if your bailiff alone had ejected me?" "What if indeed you had no slave at all except the one who ejected me?" and very many other examples in the same book.
§5.10.99verum eadem fictio valet et ad qualitates: si Catilina cum suo consilio nefariorum hominum, quos secum eduxit hoc de re posset iudicare, condemnaret L. Murenam; et ad amplificationem: si hoc tibi inter cenam in illis immanibus poculis tuis accidisset. sic et, si respublica vocem haberet. §5.10.100has fere sedes accepimus probationum in universum, quas neque generatim tradere sat est, cum ex qualibet earum innumerabilis argumentorum copia oriatur, neque per singulas species exsequi patitur natura rerum, quod qui sunt facere conati, duo pariter subierunt incommoda, ut et nimium dicerent nec tamen totum.
But the same fiction is also valid for qualities: "If Catiline, with his council of infamous men whom he took out with him, could judge of this matter, he would condemn Lucius Murena"; and for amplification: "If this had happened to you during dinner, amid those monstrous cups of yours." Likewise also: "if the state had a voice." These are, in general, the seats of proofs which we have received, which it is neither enough to hand down by genera, since an innumerable abundance of arguments arises from each of them, nor does the nature of things allow us to pursue them through individual species; and those who have attempted to do so have suffered two disadvantages alike, that they both said too much and yet did not say the whole.
§5.10.101inde plurimi, cum in hos inexplicabiles laqueos inciderunt, omnem, etiam quem ex ingenio suo poterant habere, conatum velut adstricti certis legum vinculis perdiderunt, et magistrum respicientes naturam ducem sequi desierunt.
Hence very many, when they fell into these inextricable snares, lost all effort, even that which they might have had from their own genius, being as it were bound by certain fetters of rules, and, keeping their eyes on the master, ceased to follow nature as their guide.
§5.10.102nam ut per se non sufficiet scire, omnes probationes aut a personis aut a rebus peti, quia utrumque in plura dividitur, ita ex antecedentibus et iunctis et insequentibus trahenda esse argumenta qui acceperit, num protinus in hoc sit instructus ut, quid in quaque casa ducendum sit ex his, sciat?
For just as it will not be sufficient of itself to know that all proofs are sought either from persons or from things, because both are divided into many parts, so if anyone has received the instruction that arguments are to be drawn from preceding, concomitant, and subsequent circumstances, is he immediately instructed in this, so as to know what is to be drawn from these in each individual case?