§8.4.21illud quoque est ex relatione ad aliquid, quod non eius rei gratia dictum videtur, amplificationis genus.
There is also that genus of amplification which arises from reference to something else, which seems not to have been said for the sake of the thing itself.
non putant indignum Troiani principes, Graios Troianosque propter Helenae speciem tot mala tanto temporis spatio sustinere: quaenam igitur illa forma credenda est? non enim hoc dicit Paris, qui rapuit, non aliquis iuvenis aut unus e vulgo, sed senes et prudentissimi et Priamo assidentes.
The Trojan leaders do not think it unworthy that the Greeks and Trojans should endure so many evils for so long a span of time on account of Helen's beauty: what sort of beauty, then, must that be believed to be? For it is not Paris who says this, who carried her off, nor any youth, nor one of the common people, but the old men, the most prudent, and those who sat by Priam.
§8.4.22verum et ipse rex decennii bello exhaustus, amissis tot liberis, imminente summo discrimine, cui faciem illam, ex qua tot lacrimarum origo fluxisset, invisam atque abominandam esse oportebat, et audit haec et eam filiam appellans iuxta se locat et excusat etiam atque sibi esse malorum causam negat.
But even the king himself, exhausted by a ten years' war, having lost so many children, with the ultimate danger impending—for whom that face, from which the source of so many tears had flowed, ought to have been hateful and abominable—both hears these things and, calling her daughter, places her near him, and even excuses her and denies that she is the cause of his misfortunes.
§8.4.23nec mihi videtur in Symposio Plato, cum Alcibiadem confitentem de se, quid a Socrate pati voluerit, narrat, ut illum culparet, haec tradidisse, sed ut Socratis invictam continentiam ostenderet, quae corrumpi speciosissimi hominis tam obvia voluntate non posset.
Nor does it seem to me that Plato in his Symposium, when he relates Alcibiades confessing about himself what he wished to suffer from Socrates, handed down these things in order to blame him, but to show the unconquered continence of Socrates, which could not be corrupted even by the so obvious desire of the most beautiful of men.
§8.4.24quin ex instrumento quoque heroum illorum magnitudo aestimanda nobis datur.
Indeed, from their equipment also, the greatness of those heroes is given to us to be estimated.
huc pertinet clipeus Aiacis et Pelias Achillis.
To this belongs the shield of Ajax and the Pelian ash of Achilles.
qua virtute egregie est usus in Cyclope Vergilius.
Virgil made excellent use of this virtue in his description of the Cyclops.
nam quod illud corpus mente concipiam, cuius
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trunca manum pinus regit?
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Quid?
For what body should I conceive in my mind, of which 'a lopped pine-tree guides the hand'? What?
§8.4.25cum vix loricam duo multiplicem connixi humeris ferunt, quantus Demoleos, qui indutus ea
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cursu palantes Troas agebat?
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Quid? M. Tullius de M. Antonii luxuria tantum fingere saltem potuisset, quantum ostendit dicendo, conchyliatis Cn. Pompeii peristromatis servorum in cellis stratos lectos videres? conchyliata peristromata et Cn. Pompeii terunt servi in cellis: nihil dici potest ultra, et necesse est tamen infinito plus in domino cogitare.
When two men with strained shoulders can scarcely carry a many-folded breastplate, how great was Demoleos, who, clad in it, 'was driving the scattered Trojans in his course'? What? Could Marcus Tullius at least have imagined as much concerning the luxury of Marcus Antony as he showed by saying, 'you might see beds spread in the cells of slaves with the purple coverlets of Gnaeus Pompey'? The slaves wear out purple coverlets, and those of Gnaeus Pompey, in their cells: nothing further can be said, and yet it is necessary to think infinitely more concerning the master.
§8.4.26est hoc simile illi, quod ἔμφασις dicitur; sed illa ex verbo, hoc ex re coniecturam facit tantoque plus valet, quanto res ipsa verbis est firmior.
This is similar to that which is called emphasis; but that makes a conjecture from words, this from the fact, and is the more powerful as the fact itself is firmer than words.
potest adscribi amplificationi congeries quoque verborum ac sententiarum idem significantium.
The piling up also of words and sentences signifying the same thing can be ascribed to amplification.
nam, etiamsi non per gradus ascendant, tamen velut acervo quodam adlevantur: §8.4.27quid enim tuus ille, Tubero, destrictus in acie Pharsalica gladius agebat? cuius latus ille mucro petebat? qui sensus erat armorum tuorum? quae tua mens, oculi, manus, ardor animi? quid cupiebas? quid optabas? Simile est hoc figurae, quam συναθροισμόν vocant; sed illic plurium rerum est congeries, hic unius multiplicatio.
For, even if they do not ascend by degrees, yet they are elevated as if by a heap: 'For what was that sword of yours doing, Tubero, drawn in the Pharsalian battle-line? Whose side did that point seek? What was the meaning of your weapons? What was your mind, your eyes, your hands, your fiery spirit? What did you desire? What did you wish?' This is similar to the figure which they call synathroismus; but there is a piling up of several things, here a multiplication of one.
haec etiam crescere solet verbis omnibus altius atque altius insurgentibus: aderat ianitor carceris, carnifex praetoris, mors terrorque sociorum et civim Romanorum, victor Sextius. 28 Eadem fere est ratio minuendi.
This is also accustomed to grow by all the words rising higher and higher: 'There was present the keeper of the prison, the executioner of the praetor, the death and terror of the allies and of Roman citizens, the victor Sextius.' The method of diminishing is almost the same.
nam totidem sunt ascendentibus quot descendentibus gradus.
For there are just as many steps in descending as in ascending.
ideoque uno ero exemplo contentus eius loci, quo Cicero de oratione Rulli haec dicit: pauci tamen qui proximi adstiterant, nescio quid illum de lege agraria voluisse dicere suspicabantur. quod si ad intellectum referas, minutio est, si ad obscuritatem, incrementum.
Therefore I shall be content with only one example of that place in which Cicero says these things concerning the speech of Rullus: 'Yet a few who had stood closest suspected that he had wished to say something about the agrarian law.' If you refer this to understanding, it is a diminution; if to obscurity, an increment.
§8.4.29scio posse videri quibusdam speciem amplificationis hyperbolen quoque, nam et haec in utramque partem valet; sed quia excedit hoc nomen in tropos, differenda est.
I know that hyperbole also can seem to some a species of amplification, for this also is valid in both directions; but because this term falls under tropes, it must be deferred.
quos continuo subiungerem, nisi esset a ceteris separata ratio dicendi,.
Which I would immediately subjoin, were it not that their method of speaking is separated from the rest.
Demus ergo breviter hoc desiderio iam paene publico, ne omittamus eum, quem plerique praecipuum ac paene solum putant orationis ornatum.
Let us therefore yield briefly to this desire, which is now almost public, so that we do not omit that which most people think is the chief and almost sole ornament of speech.