Institutio Oratoria

Institutio Oratoria (English: Institutes of Oratory) is a twelve-volume textbook on the theory and practice of rhetoric by Roman rhetorician Quintilian.

In the tradition of several Roman emperors, such as Nero and Caligula, Domitian's regime grew harsher as time went on.

“[An] active secret police preyed on the Roman population, and even senators were encouraged in various ways to inform on each other ... under Domitian, even the slightest suspicion of disrespect for the emperor became a capital crime” (xx).

In a move of utmost irony, the debauched Domitian appointed himself “censor perpetuus, making himself responsible for public morals” (xx).

For hundreds of years during the Middle Ages, European scholars only knew about the Institutio from quotations in other works and little fragments that they recovered.

There he found—not in a library but in a dungeon which he declared was not fit for a condemned man—the first complete copy of Quintilian’s Institutio Oratoria (Orator’s Education, 95 CE) that any scholar had seen for nearly six centuries.

Suddenly aware that it was a valuable book, the German monks refused to let Poggio take it away, so he was forced to sit down and copy it by hand over the next 54 days.

Leonardo Aretino wrote, “I entreat you, my dear Poggio, send me the manuscript as soon as possible, that I may see it before I die”In the first two books, Quintilian focuses on the early education of the would-be orator, including various subjects he should be skilled in, such as reading and composition.

Thirdly, the paedagogus, (the slave who attends the young orator) “must be well educated and ready at all times to correct errors in grammar” (Laing, 520).

Writing is then discussed (10.3), followed by correction (10.4), varied forms of composition: translation, paraphrase, theses, commonplaces, and declamations (10.5), premeditation (10.6), and improvisation (10.7).

One only can I discern in all of the boundless waste of waters, Marcus Tullius Cicero, and even he, though the ship in which he entered the seas is of such size and so well found, begins to lessen sail and to row a slower stroke, and is content to speak merely of the kind of speech to be employed by the perfect orator.

To aid the orator in becoming a good man, Quintilian discusses methods for influencing his character, coupled with the study of philosophy (12.2).

But above his other duties, Quintilian makes clear that the orator "should never, like so many, be led by a desire to win applause to neglect the interest of the actual case" (12.9.1).

His final words urge the orator to devote himself fully to the task: "Therefore let us seek with all our hearts that true majesty of oratory, the fairest gift of god to man, without which all things are stricken dumb and robbed alike of present glory and the immortal record of posterity; and let us press forward to whatsoever is best, since, if we do this, we shall either reach the summit or at least see many others far beneath us" (12.11.30).

Quintilian also refused any short, simple lists of rules; he evidently felt that the study and art of rhetoric could not be so reduced.

But by Quintilian's time, the current of popular taste in oratory was rife with what has been called "silver Latin," a style that favored ornate embellishment over clarity and precision.

Quintilian's Institutio Oratoria can in many ways be read as a reaction against this trend; it advocates a return to simpler and clearer language.

Quintilian evidently preferred the natural, especially in language, and disliked the excessive ornamentation popular in the style of his contemporaries.

“Even difficult questions can be dealt with by an orator of moderate ability if he is content to follow nature as his leader and does not give all his attention to a showy style” (Gwynn, 78).

The thorough and sensible presentation reflect his long experience as orator and teacher, and in many ways the work can be seen as the culmination of Greek and Roman rhetorical theory.

Unlike many modern theorists, he “does not see figurative language as a threat to the stability of linguistic reference” (Leitch, 156).

Book I of Institutio Oratoria discusses at length the proper method of training an orator, virtually from birth.

[4] With respect to the parents, Quintilian “do[es] not restrict this remark to fathers alone” (1.1.6);[4] a well-educated mother is regarded as an asset to the growing orator.

“Above all things we must take care that the child, who is not yet old enough to love his studies, does not come to hate them and dread the bitterness which he had once tasted, even when the years of infancy are left behind.

His view is that in public schools students can learn from what is taught to and praised and censured in their peers in the group instead of only those things directed entirely at themselves.