x. 1, 91, ‘Germanicum Augustum ab institutis studiis deflexit cura terrarum, parumque dis visum est esse eum maximum poetarum’ (cf. iv. prooem. 3-5).
Quintilian married late in life. His wife died at the age of eighteen, his younger son soon afterwards at the age of five, the elder one subsequently at the age of nine.
vi. prooem. § 2, ‘Illum, de quo summa conceperam et in quo spem unicam senectutis reponebam, repetito volnere orbitatis amisi’; § 9, ‘Non flosculos, sicut prior, sed iam decimum aetatis ingressus annum, certos ac deformatos fructus ostenderat’; § 4, ‘erepta prius mihi matre eorumdem, quae nondum expleto aetatis undevicesimo anno duos enixa filios ...’; § 5, ‘cum omni virtute, quae in feminas cadit, functa insanabilem adtulit marito dolorem, tum aetate tam puellari, praesertim meae comparata, potest et ipsa numerari inter volnera orbitatis’; § 6, ‘Mihi filius minor quintum egressus annum prior alterum ex duobus eruit lumen.’
The date of Quintilian’s death is unknown. If he outlived Domitian it was not for long, as Pliny in the letters quoted above (the earlier written about A.D. 100) does not speak of Quintilian as alive.
(2) WORKS.
Earlier works.—Quintilian refers to a work de causis corruptae eloquentiae, and to an ars rhetorica in two Books. For speeches of his taken down and published, see vii. 2, 24, quoted [p. 303].
vi. prooem. 3, ‘eum librum, quem de causis corruptae eloquentiae emisi.’
i. prooem. 7, ‘Duo iam sub nomine meo libri ferebantur artis rhetoricae neque editi a me neque in hoc comparati. Namque alterum, sermone per biduum habito, pueri, quibus id praestabatur, exceperant; alterum pluribus sane diebus, quantum notando consequi potuerant, interceptum, boni iuvenes sed nimium amantes mei, temerario editionis honore volgaverant.’
The Institutio Oratoria.—For the date of publication see [p. 304]. The circumstances of publication are given by Quintilian in the preface addressed to his bookseller Trypho.
‘Efflagitasti cottidiano convicio, ut libros, quos ad Marcellum meum de Institutione oratoria scripseram, iam emittere inciperem. Nam ipse eos nondum opinabar satis maturuisse, quibus componendis, ut scis, paulo plus quam biennium tot alioqui negotiis districtus impendi ... Sed si tanto opere efflagitantur quam tu affirmas, permittamus vela ventis et oram solventibus bene precemur.’