§9.4.13quodsi numeris ac modis inest quaedam tacita vis, ut oratione ea vehementissima, quantumque interest sensus idem quibus verbis efferatur, tantum, verba eadem qua compositione vel ut textu iungantur vel ut fine claudantur; nam quaedam et sententiis parva et elocutione modica virtus haec sola commendat.
But if there is in rhythms and measures a certain silent power, so that in speech it is most vehement, and by how much it matters with what words the same sense is expressed, by so much does it matter by what composition the same words are either joined together as a texture or closed at the end; for this virtue alone commends certain things that are both small in thoughts and moderate in expression.
§9.4.14denique quod cuique visum erit vehementer, dulciter, speciose dictum, solvat et turbet: abierit omnis vis, iucunditas, decor.
Finally, let him dissolve and disturb whatever seems to anyone to have been spoken vehemently, sweetly, or beautifully: all force, pleasantness, and grace will have departed.
solvit quaedam sua ut Oratore Cicero: neque me divitiae movent quibus omnis Africanos et Laelios mulli venalicii mercatoresque superarunt. immuta paululum ut sit 'multi superarunt mercatores venaliciique,' et insequentes deinceps periodos; quas si ad illum modum turbes, velut fracta aut transversa tela proieceris.
Cicero dissolves some of his own passages, as in the *Orator*: "nor do riches move me, with which many slave-dealers and merchants have surpassed all the Africani and Laelii." Change it a little, so that it becomes "multi superarunt mercatores venaliciique," and so with the following periods in succession; which if you should disturb in that manner, you would throw them like broken or misdirected weapons.
§9.4.15idem corrigit quae a Graccho composita durius putat.
The same Cicero corrects things which he thinks were composed too harshly by Gracchus.
illum decet; nos hac sumus probatione contenti, quod ut scribendo, quae se nobis solutiora obtulerunt, componimus.
That is fitting for him; we are content with this proof: that in writing, we compose those things which offered themselves to us in a more loose form.
quid enim attinet eorum exempla quaerere, quae sibi quisque experiri potest? illud notasse satis habeo, quo pulchriora et sensu et elocutione dissolveris, hoc orationem magis deformem fore, quia negligentia collocationis ipsa verborum luce deprehenditur.
For what is the use of seeking examples of things which everyone can try for himself? I hold it sufficient to have noted this, that by how much more beautiful the things you dissolve are in both thought and expression, by so much more deformed will the speech be, because the negligence of the arrangement is detected by the very light of the words.
§9.4.16itaque ut confiteor, paene ultimam oratoribus artem compositionis, quae quidem perfecta sit, contigisse, ita illis quoque priscis habitam inter curas, ut quantum adhuc profecerant, puto.
Therefore, as I confess that the art of composition, at least that which is perfect, fell to orators almost last, so also I think it was held among the cares of those ancient writers, so far as they had progressed up to that point.
neque enim mihi quamlibet magnus auctor Cicero persuaserit, Lysian, Herodotum, Thucydiden parum studiosos eius fuisse.
For Cicero, however great an authority, would not persuade me that Lysias, Herodotus, and Thucydides were too little studious of it.
genus fortasse sint secuti non idem, §9.4.17quod Demosthenes aut Plato, quanquam et ii ipsi inter se dissimiles fuerunt.
Perhaps they followed a different style, from that which Demosthenes or Plato followed, although even they themselves were dissimilar to each other.
nam neque illud ut Lysia dicendi textum tenue atque rasum laetioribus numeris corrumpendum erat; perdidisset enim gratiam, quae ut eo maxima est, simplicis atque inadfectati coloris, perdidisset fidem quoque.
For neither was that thin and smooth texture of speaking, as in Lysias, to be corrupted with more cheerful rhythms; for it would have lost its grace, which in him is greatest, of a simple and unaffected style, and it would have lost credibility also.
nam scribebat alis, non ipse dicebat, ut oportuerit esse illa rudibus et incompositis similia; quod ipsum compositio est.
For he wrote for others, and did not speak himself, so that it was fitting for those speeches to be similar to rude and uncomposed ones; which very thing is composition.
§9.4.18et historiae, quae currere debet ac ferri, minus convenissent insistentes clausulae et debita actionibus respiratio et cludendi inchoandique sententias ratio.
And for history, which ought to run and be carried along, halting clauses, and the breathing space due to public pleadings, and the method of closing and beginning sentences would have been less suitable.
in contionibus quidem etiam similiter cadentia quaedam et contraposita deprehendas.
In public speeches, indeed, you may detect even certain similar cadences and antitheses.
in Herodoto vero cum omnia (ut ego quidem sentio) leniter fluunt, tum ipsa διάλεκτος habet eam iucunditatem, ut latentes etiam ut se numeros complexa videatur.
But in Herodotus, while all things (as I indeed feel) flow smoothly, his very dialect has that pleasantness, so that it seems to have embraced even hidden rhythms within itself.
§9.4.19sed de propositorum diversitate post paulum.
But concerning the diversity of purposes, a little later.
nunc, quae prius iis, qui recte componere volent, discenda sint.
Now, what must first be learned by those who wish to compose correctly.
est igitur ante omnia oratio alia vincta atque contexta, soluta alia, qualis ut sermone et epistolis, nisi cum aliquid supra naturam suam tractant, ut de philosophia, de re publica, similibus.
Therefore, before all things, there is one kind of speech that is bound and connected, and another that is loose, such as in conversation and letters, except when they treat something above their own nature, as concerning philosophy, the state, and similar things.
§9.4.20quod non eo dico, quia non illud quoque solutum habeat suos quosdam et forsitan difficiliores etiam pedes; neque enim aut hiare semper vocalibus aut destitui temporibus volunt sermo atque epistola; sed non fluunt nec cohaerent nec verba verbis trahunt, ut potius laxiora ut his vincula quam nulla sint.
Which I do not say for this reason, that that loose style also does not have its own certain, and perhaps even more difficult, feet; for neither do conversation and letters wish to gape always with vowels or to be destitute of quantities; but they do not flow, nor cohere, nor drag words with words, so that in these there are rather looser bonds than none.
§9.4.21nonnunquam ut causis quoque minoribus decet eadem simplicitas quae non nullis, sed aliis utitur numeris, dissimulatque eos et tantum communit occultius.
Sometimes in minor cases also the same simplicity is fitting, which uses some, but different, rhythms, and conceals them, and only fortifies itself more secretly.
§9.4.22at illa connexa series tres habet formas: incisa quae κόμματα dicuntur, membra quae κῶλα, περίοδον, quae est vel ambitus vel circumductum vel continuatio vel conclusio.
But that connected sequence has three forms: incisa which are called *kommata*, membra which are *kola*, and the period, which is either *ambitus*, *circumductum*, *continuatio*, or *conclusio*.
in omni porro compositione tria sunt genera necessaria: ordo, iunctura, numerus.
Moreover, in all composition, three things are necessary: order, connection, and rhythm.