QUINTILIAN

[The following is a modernization of the Latin text provided on page 22, concerning the structure of complex legal charges.]

If one must search to find where the controversy begins, one must consider what creates the first question. 9 The charge may be simple, as: Rabirius killed Saturninus; or it may be complex, as: Lucius Varenus committed an offense under the law regarding assassins, for he arranged for the killing of Gaius Varenus, the wounding of Gnaeus Varenus, and the killing of Salarius. For in such cases there will be various propositions; the same may be said of civil petitions. However, in a complex proposition, there can be multiple questions and statuses The legal classification of the point at issue., if the defendant denies one thing, justifies another, and argues on technical legal grounds that a third is not actionable. In this type of case, the advocate must consider what to refute and where to place each argument. 10 As for the prosecutor, I do not entirely disagree with Celsus, who, undoubtedly following Cicero, insists more vehemently on this point: he believes one should place something firm at the beginning, the firmest at the end, and the weaker arguments in the middle, because the judge must be moved at the start and forcibly compelled at the conclusion. 11 But for the defendant, generally, the most serious points must be addressed first, lest the judge, focusing on those, becomes biased against the defense of the remaining points. Sometimes, however, this will be altered if those lighter points are clearly false and the defense of the most serious one is more difficult.