Quintilian: A Biographical Sketch

M. L. Clarke

doi:10.1017/S0017383500016491

Quintilian: A Biographical Sketch

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009

M. L. Clarke

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Calagurris, the modern Calahorra, is situated by the river Ebro about two hundred miles inland, in what in Roman times was the province of Hispania Citerior or Tarraconensis. Here Quintilian was born some time in the fourth decade of the Christian era. If it were not that his birthplace is recorded by later writers, we should be quite unaware of it. There is nothing in the Institutio Oratoria to suggest that its author was a Spaniard, and though there is no reason why he should have referred to his home country in a treatise on rhetorical education, his work includes just enough personal reminiscence to make it a little surprising that he did not. Moreover, on the rare occasions when he refers to Spain he gives no hint of any connexion with the country. It would be rash to assume that he was ashamed of his Spanish birth, but perhaps long residence in Rome had weakened his consciousness of provincial origin. At the same time we can perhaps see in him certain provincial qualities.

Type: Research Article
Information: Greece & Rome , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , April 1967 , pp. 24 - 37

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017383500016491 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Classical Association 1967

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References

^{page 24 note 1} Ausonius, , Prof. Burd. i. 7Google Scholar; Jerome, , Chronicle (a.d. 88).Google Scholar

^{page 24 note 2} i. 5. 8; i. 5. 57. (References, unless otherwise stated, are to the Institutio Oratoria.)

^{page 24 note 3} Pliny, , Epp. ii. 13. 4.Google Scholar

^{page 24 note 4} Badian, E., Foreign Clientelae (Oxford, 1958), 255, 309, 314.Google Scholar

^{page 24 note 5} ix. 3. 73.

^{page 24 note 6} Seneca, Contr. x, pr. 2; ibid. 4 (33). 19.

^{page 25 note 1} Martial ix. 73. 7; x. 103.

^{page 25 note 2} Pliny, , Epp. x. 4. 1.Google Scholar

^{page 25 note 3} For a different view, perverse in my opinion, see F. H. Colson's edition of Book i (Cambridge, 1924), x–xiii.

^{page 25 note 4} i. 1. 4.; Tacitus, , Dial. 29. 1.Google Scholar Paulinus of Pella, brought up in Gaul at the end of the fourth century, describes how he grew up more familiar with Greek than with Latin as a result of mixing with Greek-speaking slaves. (Eucharisticus 75–78)

^{page 25 note 5} i. 4. 1; i. 12. 6. According to a scholiast on Juvenal, vi. 452 Quintilian was a pupil of the grammarian Remmius Palaemon; but the fact that he mentions Palaemon without any suggestion that he was his teacher (i. 4. 20) combined with the generally poor quality of the scholia on Juvenal, has made scholars disinclined to accept the statement.

^{page 26 note 1} i. 4. 2.

^{page 26 note 2} i. 7. 26, 27; viii. 3. 34. In the case of the second reference Quintilian does not specifically mention his teachers but his words pueris nobis … qu et oi utebantur suggest that he had them in mind. The other two reminiscences clearly refer to the grammar school.

^{page 26 note 3} i. 10. 39.

^{page 26 note 4} Pliny, , Epp. vi. 6. 3.Google Scholar

^{page 26 note 5} ii. 5. 3.

^{page 26 note 6} i. 2. 23–25.

^{page 27 note 1} ii. 4. 26. It is a curious fact that the second of these themes provided Propertius with the subject of one of his poems (ii. 12).

^{page 27 note 2} Though aetiologia in i. 9. 3 may refer to them (for text, see Colson, op. cit.).

^{page 27 note 3} xii. 11. 14–15.

^{page 27 note 4} Pliny, , Epp. v. 8. 8.Google Scholar

^{page 27 note 5} vi. 3. 57. Cousin, J., Revue des études latines ix (1931), 62 ff.Google Scholar, unconvincingly tries to identify Junius Bassus with the Julius Bassus known to us from the elder Seneca.

^{page 27 note 6} ii. 8. 14.

^{page 27 note 7} viii. 3. 31.

^{page 27 note 8} Cichorius, C., Römische Studien (Leipzig, 1922), 426–9.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 27 note 9} Tac. Dial 1. 2. The dramatic date of the Dialogus is a.d. 75.

^{page 27 note 10} Tac. Ann. xiii. 33.

^{page 27 note 11} vi. 1. 14.

^{page 28 note 1} v. 7. 7.

^{page 28 note 2} xii. 11. 3.

^{page 28 note 3} x. 5. 19.

^{page 28 note 4} Tac. Dial. 2. 1.

^{page 28 note 5} x. 1. 118.

^{page 28 note 6} Tac. Ann. iv. 52. 8; 66. 1.

^{page 29 note 1} v. 7. 7.

^{page 29 note 2} Pliny, . Epp. ii. 14. 9–11.Google Scholar

^{page 29 note 3} x. 1. 86.

^{page 29 note 4} xii. 11. 3.

^{page 29 note 5} ii. 12. 12.

^{page 29 note 6} i, pr. 1.

^{page 29 note 7} vii. 2. 24.

^{page 29 note 8} x. 1. 118.

^{page 29 note 9} viii. 5. 19; x. 1. 119; xii. 5. 5–6; xii. 10. 11.

^{page 29 note 10} v. 13. 48; viii. 5. 17; x. 1. 119; xii. 10. 11.

^{page 29 note 11} x. 1. 125–31; xii. 10. 11.

^{page 29 note 12} x. 1. 120–1; x. 3. 12; xii. 10. 11.

^{page 30 note 1} i. 11. 10.

^{page 30 note 2} vi. 1. 39–40; vi. 1. 44–45; vi. 1. 47.

^{page 30 note 3} ii. 12. 9.

^{page 30 note 4} vi. 1. 42–45; viii. 5. 21.

^{page 30 note 5} xii. 3. 2.

^{page 30 note 6} xii. 6. 5.

^{page 30 note 7} xii. 8. 2. See Austin, R. G.'s edition of xii (Oxford, 1948), p. xii.Google Scholar

^{page 30 note 8} The date is little more than a guess, but as Quintilian was brought back to Rome by Galba in 68 we may assume that he had been in Spain long enough to make himself known there.

^{page 30 note 9} Seneca, Contr. x, pr. 14; ibid. 16.

^{page 30 note 10} Ibid. ix, pr. 3.

^{page 30 note 11} Martial i. 49. 35.

^{page 30 note 12} Suet. Galba 10. 2.

^{page 31 note 1} Suet. Vesp. 18.

^{page 31 note 2} i, pr. 1.

^{page 31 note 3} Suet. Vesp. 18.

^{page 31 note 4} Id. Gramm. 17.

^{page 31 note 5} Ibid. 23; Dio Cassius lxxix. 22. 5.

^{page 31 note 6} Juvenal vii. 186–7.

^{page 31 note 7} i. 2. 15; x. 5. 22; xii. 11. 14.

^{page 31 note 8} Juvenal vii. 188 f.

^{page 31 note 9} xii. 7. 8–12.

^{page 31 note 10} ii. 12. 2.

^{page 31 note 11} iv. 1. 19.

^{page 31 note 12} Martial ii. 90.

^{page 31 note 13} vii. 2. 24.

^{page 32 note 1} xii. 8. 7–14. Although Quintilian does not say so, this passage is evidently based on his own practice.

^{page 32 note 2} vii. 1. 4–6.

^{page 32 note 3} iv. 2. 86.

^{page 32 note 4} vi. 2. 36.

^{page 32 note 5} Juvenal vii. 188–9.

^{page 33 note 1} Seneca, Contr. i, pr. 14.

^{page 33 note 2} xii. 1. 6.

^{page 33 note 3} viii. 3. 8–10. But the use of the first person here does not necessarily mean that Quintilian is drawing on his own experience.

^{page 33 note 4} ii. 12. 12; vi, pr. 2.

^{page 33 note 5} iv, pr. 2.

^{page 33 note 6} Suet. Dom. 15. 1. c. 90 is the date given by the Cambridge Ancient History. Giet, C., Revue des sciences religieuses (1959), 1–17Google Scholar would put the birth of the children in 82 and 83. This early dating makes it easier to understand Quintilian's tutorship, but it involves supposing that both their mother and their grandmother married at the age of fourteen. See Cousin in Revue des études latines ix (1931), 62 ff., for further arguments, some rather weak, for dating the Institutio to the very end of Domitian's reign.

^{page 33 note 7} Ep. ad Tryph. 1.

^{page 33 note 8} vi, pr. 10. It is not clear whether iam decimum aetatis ingressus annum refers to the time of his death after an eight months' illness or to the time when he fell ill. The former seems a little more probable.

^{page 33 note 9} vi, pr. 3–9.

^{page 34 note 1} Pliny, , Epp. ii. 14. 9.Google Scholar

^{page 34 note 2} Quintilian, recalling something his friend Julius Secundus had said to him, writes ‘qua de re memini narrasse mihi Iulium Secundum’ (x. 3. 12). Secundus was then dead.

^{page 34 note 3} vi, pr. 13.

^{page 34 note 4} Ibid. 8 and 13.

^{page 34 note 5} Ausonius, , Grat. Act. 7.Google Scholar

^{page 34 note 6} Dio Cassius lxvii. 14. 2.

^{page 34 note 7} For a recent discussion see Smallwood, E. M. in CPh li (1956), 1 ff.Google Scholar Miss Smallwood argues that Clemens and Domitilla were adherents of Judaism rather than of Christianity. That Domitilla at any rate was a Christian seems, however, if not proved, at least likely.

^{page 34 note 8} A passage (i. 3. 5) which bears a certain resemblance to the parable of the sower has given rise to the suggestion that he may have become acquainted with the Gospels through Domitilla (Colson, F. H. in CR xxxix (1925), 166–70Google Scholar; cf. H. J. Rose, ibid. 17). But the passage was presumably written before Domitilla's sons were entrusted to him, and he may well have been unacquainted with her then. It is also worth noting that the First Epistle of Clement, a contemporary document of Roman Christianity (it is usually dated to the end of Domitian's reign, and it has been surmised that its author was a freedman of Flavius Clemens), shows no clear evidence of a knowledge of the Gospels as we have them.

^{page 35 note 1} iii. 7. 21.

^{page 35 note 2} Contrast the highly complimentary reference to Moses in ‘Longinus’ (9. 9).

^{page 35 note 3} Book iii was written before Clemens' fall, but the sentence could have been inserted before publication. See CPh li (1956), 8.

^{page 35 note 4} Tac. Agr. 42. 5.

^{page 35 note 5} iv, pr. 3–5.

^{page 35 note 6} x. 1. 91–92.

^{page 35 note 7} Pliny, , Epp. i. 12. 8.Google Scholar

^{page 36 note 1} Leaving aside contemporaries we find Ammianus Marcellinus, otherwise hostile to Domitian, praising him for this law. Amm. Marc. xviii. 4. 5.

^{page 36 note 2} Among other passages showing Quintilian's disapproval of homosexual practices, see his stern comment on Afranius in x. 1. 100.

^{page 36 note 3} Martial vi. 4. 5.

^{page 36 note 4} i, pr. 15.

^{page 36 note 5} xii. 3. 12.

^{page 36 note 6} See Austin, R. G.'s ed. of Book xii, p. xvi.Google Scholar

^{page 37 note 1} Tac. Hist. i. 1.

^{page 37 note 2} xii. 11. 7.

^{page 37 note 3} vii. 3. 30.

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