XVII.  It is a very proper occasion for having recourse to amplification, when these advantages are either lost, or when there is danger of losing them.  For nothing is so pitiable as a man who has become miserable after having been happy.  And this is enough to move us greatly, if any one falls from good fortune; and if he loses all his friends; and if we have it briefly explained to us what great happiness he is losing or has lost, and by what evils he is overwhelmed, or is about to be overwhelmed.  For tears soon dry, especially at another’s misfortunes.  Nor is there anything which it is less wise to exhaust than amplification.  For all diligence attends to minutiae; but this topic requires only what is on a large scale.  Here again is a matter for a man’s judgment, what kind of amplification we should employ in each cause.  For in those causes which are embellished for the sake of pleasing the hearers, those topics must be dealt with, which can excite expectation, admiration, or pleasure.  But in exhortations the enumerations of instances of good and bad fortune, and instances and precedents, are arguments of great weight.  In trials those topics are the most suitable for an accuser which tend to excite anger; those are usually the most desirable for a person on his trial which relate to raising pity.  But some times the accuser ought to seek to excite pity, and the advocate for the defence may aim at rousing indignation.

Enumeration remains; a topic sometimes necessary to a panegyrist, not often to one who is endeavouring to persuade; and more frequently to a prosecutor than to a defendant.  It has two turns, if you either distrust the recollection of those men before whom you are pleading, either on account of the length of time that has elapsed since the circumstances of which you are speaking, or because of the length of your speech; in this case your cause will have the more strength if you bring up numberless corroborative arguments to strengthen your speech, and explain them with brevity.  And the defendant will have less frequent occasion to use them, because he has to lay down propositions which are contrary to them:  and his defence will come out best if it is brief, and full of pungent stings.  But in enumeration, it will be necessary to avoid letting it have the air of a childish display of memory; and he will best avoid that fault who does not recapitulate every trifle, but who touches on each particular briefly, and dwells only on the more weighty and important points.

XVIII. C.  F. Since you have now discussed the orator himself and his oration, explain to me now the topic of questions, which you reserved for the last of the three.