Quintilian engaged as a pleader at Rome, and makes some references to his cases. Some of his speeches were published without his consent.
vii. 2, 24, ‘In causa Naevi Arpiniani ... cuius actionem et quidem solam in hoc tempus emiseram, quod ipsum me fecisse ductum iuvenili cupiditate gloriae fateor. Nam ceterae, quae sub nomine meo feruntur, neglegentia excipientium in quaestum notariorum corruptae minimam partem mei habent.’
iv. 1, 19, ‘Ego pro regina Berenice apud ipsam eam causam dixi.’
Cf. also vii. 2, 5; ix. 2, 73-4.
Quintilian was the first person who received an imperial grant as teacher of oratory.
Jerome yr. Abr. 2104 = A.D. 88, ‘Quintilianus ex Hispania Calagurritanus primus Romae publicam scholam et salarium e fisco accepit et claruit.’ The date given by Jerome is much too late, as it is Quintilian that is alluded to by Sueton. Vesp. 18, ‘Primus e fisco Latinis Graecisque rhetoribus annua centena constituit.’ The appointment must therefore have been made by A.D. 79. The professorship is referred to by Mart. ii. 90, 1,
‘Quintiliane, vagae moderator summe iuventae,
gloria Romanae, Quintiliane, togae.’
Cf. Pliny, Ep. ii. 14, 10, ‘Ita certe ex Quintiliano, praeceptore meo, audisse memini.’ Quintilian’s career as a teacher lasted for twenty years.
i. prooem. 1, ‘Post impetratam studiis meis quietem, quae per viginti annos erudiendis iuvenibus impenderam.’
Teuffel thinks that the Institutio was written A.D. 89-91, in which case Quintilian’s career as professor was from A.D. 68 to 88; Peterson[91] thinks that Quintilian dated his educational work as from A.D. 70 to 90, and that the Institutio was begun A.D. 92.