M. FABIUS QUINTILIANUS

INSTITUTIO ORATORIA original: "Institutionis Oratoriae"

BOOK IV

PREFACE

Now that the third book of the work dedicated to you, Marcellus Victorius, is complete, and nearly a fourth part of the labor is finished, a new cause for diligence and a deeper anxiety has been added for me: namely, what judgment I might earn from men. Up until now, we were discussing these studies as if between ourselves, and if our system of education original: "institutio" was not sufficiently approved by others, we seemed content with domestic use, believing it enough to form the training of your son and mine. 2 But when Domitianus Augustus entrusted to me the care of his sister’s grandsons, I could not sufficiently understand the honor of such divine referring to the Emperor judgments unless I also measured the magnitude of the burden from this fact. 3 For what standard should I have for cultivating their character, so that the most holy censor might not undeservedly approve of them? Or for their studies, so that I might not appear to have deceived a prince who is most eminent not only in all other things but also in eloquence?