# M. Fabi Quintiliani institutionis oratoriae liber decimus

## xi. 6:)

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62 ἡ ἀρχαία κωμῳδία ... παιδαγωγικὴν παρρησίαν ἔχουσα.—For the reading see Crit. Notes.

grandis = ὑψηλός, §77: 2 §16 (where it is opposed to _tumidus_). Hor. A. P. 93-4 Interdum tamen et vocem comoedia tollit. Iratusque Chremes tumido delitigat ore.

elegans: §§78, 87, 93, 99: 2 §19, ‘choice,’ ‘tasteful.’ Cp. Cic. Brut. §272 verborum delectus elegans. In the treatise ad Herenn. (iv. 12) _elegantia_ stands along with _compositio_ and _dignitas_ as a requisite of style: it includes _Latinitas_ (which avoids solecisms and barbarisms), and _explanatio_, which uses _verba usitata_ and _propria_.

venusta: vi. 3, 18 venustum esse quod cum venere quadam et gratia dicatur apparet. Krüger sees in these adjj. a reference to the main characteristics of the three different styles distinguished by rhetoricians, §44.

nescio an ulla: see Crit. Notes.

ut Achillen: Il. ii. 673-4 Νιρεύς, ὃς κάλλιστος ἀνὴρ ὑπὸ Ἴλιον ἦλθε Τῶν ἄλλων Δαναῶν μετ᾽ ἀμύμονα Πηλεΐωνα: ib. 768. Alcaeus fr. 63 Κρονίδα βασιλήας γένος Αἴαν, τὸν ἄριστον πεδ᾽ Ἀχιλλέα.

similior oratoribus: §63 plerumque oratori similis. The same description of the style of the Old Comedy is given by one of the rhetoricians, Walz Rhet. Gr. v. 471 (cp. vi. 164, vii. 932) λόγοειδεστέρα‧ τοῦτ᾽ ἔστιν ἡ κωμικωτέρα καὶ προσβεβληκυῖα λόγῳ πεζῷ κατὰ συνθήκην, ὅθεν τινὲς καὶ ῥητορικὴν ἔμμετρον τὴν κωμῳδίαν ἐκόλεσαν. Students of oratory went to the comic actors for _pronuntiatio_ and _gestus_: i. 11, 1-14: 12, 14: xi. 3, 181.

I:66 Plures eius auctores, Aristophanes tamen et Eupolis Cratinusque praecipui. Tragoedias primus in lucem Aeschylus protulit, sublimis et gravis et grandiloquus 63 saepe usque ad vitium, sed rudis in plerisque et incompositus; propter quod correctas eius fabulas in certamen deferre posterioribus poetis Athenienses permiserunt, suntque eo modo multi coronati.

§ 66. Aristophanes ... Eupolis ... Cratinus. The same representatives of Old Comedy are named in Hor. Sat. i. 4, 1: cp. Persius i. 123 Audaci quicumque adflate Cratino Iratum Eupolidem praegrandi cum sene palles. So also Dionysius, Art. Rhet. viii. 11, p. 302 R (there is nothing about Old Comedy in the ἀρχ. κρ.): ἡ δὲ κωμῳδία ὅτι πολιτεύεται ἐν τοῖς δράμασι καὶ φιλοσοφεῖ, ἡ τῶν περὶ τὸν Κρατῖνον καὶ Ἀριστοφάνην καὶ Εὔπολιν, τί δεῖ καὶ λέγειν; Velleius i. 16, 3: Diomed. p. 489 K (p. 9 Reiff.) ‘Ar. Eup. et Crat. qui vel principum vitia sectati acerbissimas comoedias composuerunt.’ The chronological order would be, Cratinus (519-422), Aristophanes (448-380), Eupolis (446-410). In 424 B.C. Cratinus with his Πυτίνη (‘Wine-flask’) gained the victory over the _Clouds_ of Aristophanes, while in the previous year Eupolis is said to have helped his greater rival in the composition of the _Knights_. Cratinus was the real originator of political comedy: see the grammarian quoted by Meineke (i. p. 540): ‘he added a serious moral object to the mere amusement in comedy, by reviling evil-doers (τοὺς κακῶς πράττοντας διαβάλλων, cp. insectandis vitiis) and chastising them with his comedy, as it were with a public scourge’: cp. Platon. de Com. p. 27 οὐ γὰρ ὥσπερ ὁ Ἀριστοφάνης ἐπιτρέχειν τὴν χάριν τοῖς σκώμμασι ποιεῖ ... ἀλλ᾽ ἁπλῶς καὶ κατὰ τὴν παροιμίαν γυμνῇ κεφαλῇ τίθησι τὰς βλασφημίας κατὰ τῶν ἁμαρτανόντων.

primus. Just as in treating of Comedy Quintilian passes over the Megarian farces of Susarion, and such earlier writers as Chionides and Magnes, so now he omits all mention of Pratinas, Choerilus, Thespis and Phrynichus. Thespis introduced the actor (ὑποκριτής) and arranged that the dithyrambic choruses should be interrupted by regular dialogue between the coryphaeus and the actor. This step secured the entrance of the dramatic element, as distinct from the lyric, and made subsequent development easy. Aeschylus is however the real founder of tragedy: he introduced a second actor and subordinated the choral song to the dialogue, besides elaborating the machinery of the stage and the scenic decoration employed thereon. Cp. Hor. A. P. 275 sqq.

sublimis, &c. Cp. Dionysius, l.c., (Usener, p. 21) 63 Ὁ δ᾽ οὖν Αἰσχυλος πρῶτος ὑψηλός τε καὶ τῆς μεγαλοπρεπείας ἐχόμενος, καὶ ἠθῶν καὶ παθῶν τὸ πρέπον εἰδώς, καὶ τῇ τροπικῇ καὶ τῇ κυρίᾳ λέξει διαφερόντως // κεκοσμημενος, πολλαχοῦ δὲ καὶ αὐτος δημιουργὸς καὶ ποιητὴς ἰδίων ὀνομάτων καὶ πραγμάτων.

grandiloquus. Cp. Aristoph. Frogs 823 βρυχώμενος ἥσει ῥήματα γομφοπαγῆ, 939 τὴν τέχνην ... οἰδοῦσαν ὑπὸ κομπασμάτων καὶ ῥημάτων ἐπαχθων, 1004, ἀλλ᾽ ὦ πρῶτος τῶν Ἑλλήνων πυργώσας ῥήματα σεμνὰ καὶ κοσμήσας τραγικὸν λῆρον κ.τ.λ. So too the biographer of Aeschylus, κατὰ δὲ τὴν σύνθεσιν τῆς ποιήσεως ζηλοῖ τὸ ἁδρὸν (see on §44) ἀεὶ πλάσμα ... πᾶσι τοῖς δυναμένοις ὄγκον τῇ φράσει περιθεῖναι χρώμενος. Hor. A. P. 280 ‘et docuit magnumque loqui nitique cothurno.’

rudis et incompositus, ‘uncouth and inharmonious.’ Cp. horride atque incomposite 2 §17: and note on _compositus_ §44. In the de Comp. Verb. c. 22 Dionysius names Aeschylus along with Antimachus as a representative of ἡ αὐστηρὰ ἁρμονία (p. 150 R). For _rudis_ cp. Hor. Sat.