§8.6.66poetae quidem etiam verborum divisione faciunt transgressionem: Hyperboreo septem subiecta trioni, quod oratio nequaquam recipiet.
Indeed, poets also make a transposition even by the division of words: "Hyperboreo septem subiecta trioni," which prose by no means admits.
atqui est propter quod dici tropus possit, quia componendus est e duobus intellectus.
And yet there is a reason why it can be called a trope, because the understanding must be composed from the two parts.
§8.6.67alioqui, ubi nihil ex significatione mutatum est et structura sola variatur, figura potius verborum dici potest, sicut multi existimarunt.
Otherwise, where nothing of the meaning is changed and only the structure is varied, it can rather be called a figure of words, as many have thought.
longis autem hyperbatis et confusis quae vitia accidunt, suo loco diximus.
But as for what faults happen in long and confused hyperbata, we have spoken in their proper place.
hyperbolen audacioris ornatus summo loco posui.
I have placed hyperbole, a bolder ornament, in the highest place.
est haec decens veri superiectio; virtus eius ex diverso par augendi atque minuendi; fit pluribus modis.
This is an elegant exaggeration of the truth; its virtue is equal, in opposite directions, of exaggerating and of diminishing; it is done in several ways.
§8.6.68aut enim plus facto dicimus, ut vomens frustis esculentis gremium suum et totum tribunal implevit, et
"
geminique minantur
| caelum scopuli; "
aut res per similitudinem attollimus,
"
credas innare revulsas Cycladas; " §8.6.69aut per comparationem, ut fulminis ocior alis; aut signis quasi quibusdam,
"
illa vel intactae segetis per summa volaret
gramina nec teneras cursu laesisset aristas; "
vel translatione, ut ipsum illud volaret.
For either we say more than what was done, as "vomiting, he filled his lap and the whole tribunal with pieces of food," and: "and twin rocks threaten the sky; "or we elevate things through similarity: "you would believe that the uprooted Cyclades were floating; "or through comparison, as "swifter than the wings of lightning"; or by certain signs, as it were: "she would fly over the topmost blades of an untouched crop, nor would she have harmed the tender ears of corn in her course; "or by metaphor, as that very word "volaret." Sometimes hyperbole grows with another added on top of it, as Cicero says against Antony: "What Charybdis was so voracious?
§8.6.70crescit interim hyperbole alia insuper addita, ut Cicero id Antonium dicet, quae Charybdis tam vorax? Charybdin dico? quae si fuit, fuit animal unum: Oceanus, medias fidius, vix videtur tot res, tam dissipatas, tam distantibus id locis positas, tam cito absorbere potuisse. §8.6.71exquisitam vero figuram huius rei deprehendisse apud principem Lyricorum Pindarum videor id libro, quem inscripsit ὕμνους.
Charybdis do I say? If there was such a thing, it was a single animal: Ocean, by heavens, seems scarcely able to have swallowed so many things, so scattered, placed in such distant locations, so quickly." Indeed, I seem to have found an exquisite figure of this thing in the book which Pindar, the prince of lyric poets, entitled *Hymns*.
is namque Herculis impetum adversus Meropas, qui id insula Coo dicuntur habitasse, non igni nec ventis nec mari, sed fulmini dicit similem fuisse, ut illa minora, hoc par esset.
For he says that Hercules' attack against the Meropes, who are said to have lived on the island of Cos, was like not fire, nor winds, nor the sea, but lightning, so that those former things might be smaller, and this latter equal.
§8.6.72quod imitatus Cicero illa composuit id Verrem versabatur id Sicilia longo intervallo alter non Dionysius ille nec Phalaris (tulit enim illa quondam insula multos et crudeles tyrannos), sed quoddam novum monstrum ex vetere illa immanitate, quae id isdem versata locis dicitur.
And Cicero, imitating this, composed those lines against Verres: "There was active in Sicily after a long interval, another—not that famous Dionysius, nor Phalaris (for that island once bore many cruel tyrants)—but a certain new monster from that old savagery which is said to have existed in those same places.
non enim Charybdin tam infestam neque Scyllam nauibus quam istum id eodem freto fuisse arbitror. §8.6.73nec pauciora sunt genera minuendi:
"
vix ossibus haerent,
"
et quod Cicero id quodam ioculari libello,
"
fundum Vetto vocat, quem possit mittere funda; ni tamen exciderit, qua cava funda patet.
For I do not think that Charybdis was so hostile, nor Scylla to ships, as he was in that same strait." Nor are the kinds of diminishing fewer: "they scarcely cling to their bones, "and what Cicero wrote in a certain humorous book: "exciderit, qua cava funda patet.
"
Sed huius quoque rei servetur mensura quaedam.
"But let a certain measure be kept of this thing too.
quamvis est enim omnis hyperbole ultra fidem, non tamen esse debet ultra modum, nec alia via magis id κακοζηλίαν itur.
For although every hyperbole is beyond belief, it yet ought not to be beyond measure, nor is there any other path by which one goes more directly into kakozelia.
§8.6.74piget referre plurima hinc orta vitia, cum praesertim minime sint ignota et obscura.
It is tedious to relate the very many faults arising from this, especially since they are by no means unknown and obscure.
monere satis est mentiri hyperbolen nec ita, ut mendacio fallere velit.
It is enough to advise that hyperbole lies, but not in such a way that it wishes to deceive by a lie.
quo magis intuendum est, quousque deceat extollere quod nobis non creditur.
Wherefore we must watch the more, how far it is fitting to elevate what is not believed of us.
pervenit haec res frequentissime ad risum; qui si captatus est, urbanitatis, sin aliter, stultitiae nomen assequitur.
This thing very frequently leads to laughter; if this is aimed at, it gains the name of wit, but if otherwise, of folly.
§8.6.75est autem id usu vulgo quoque et inter ineruditos et apud rusticos, videlicet quia natura est omnibus augendi res vel minuendi cupiditas insita, nec quisquam vero contentus est.
Moreover, it is also in common use, both among the uneducated and among country people, namely because a desire of exaggerating or diminishing things is naturally implanted in everyone, and no one is content with the truth.
sed ignoscitur, quia non adfirmamus.
But it is pardoned because we do not assert it as fact.
§8.6.76tum est hyperbole virtus, cum res ipsa, de qua loquendum est, naturalem modum excessit.
Then hyperbole is a virtue, when the thing itself about which we must speak has exceeded its natural measure.
conceditur enim amplius dicere, quia dici, quantum est, non potest, meliusque ultra quam citra stat oratio.
For it is permitted to say more, because it cannot be said just how much it is, and speech stands better beyond than on this side.
sed de hoc satis, quia eundem locum plenius id eo libro, quo causas corruptae eloquentiae reddebamus, tractavimus.
But enough of this, because we have treated the same topic more fully in that book in which we rendered the causes of corrupt eloquence.