QUINTILIAN (QIILNTILIANIIS, Fianus) was b. 40 A.D., at Calagurris (the modern Calahmra) in Spain, and attended in Rome the prelections of Domitius Afer, who died 59. After this date, however, he revisited Spain, whence he returned in 68 to Rome. in the train of Galba, and began to practice as an advocate, in which capacity his reputa tion became considerable. He was more distinguished, however, as a teacher than as a practitioner of the oratorical art, and his instructions came to be the most eagerly sought after among all his contemporaries, while among his pupils lie numbered Pliny the and the two grand nephews of Domitian. As a mark of the emperor's favor he was invested with the insignia and title of consul; while he also holds the distinction of being the first public teacher who benefited by the endowment of Vespasian and received a fixed salary from the imperial exchequer. His professional career as a teacher of eloquence, commencing probably with 69, extended over a period of 20 years, after which lie retired into private life, and died probably about 118. The reputation of Quintilian in modern times is based on his great work entitled De Institutione Oratorio Lieri XIL, a complete system of rhetoric, which he dedicates to his friend Marcellus Victories, himself a court favorite and orator of distinction. It was written (as he tells us in his preface to his bookseller Trypho) after he had ceased to be a public teacher; and was the fruit of two years' labor. composition. however. he was still acting, in the lifetime of llomitian, as tutor to 'the grand-ucphews of that emperor. 111 the first book. he discusses the preliminary training through which a youth must pass before he can begin those studies which arc requisite for the orator, and he gives us an elaborate outline of the mode in which children should be educated in the interval between the nursery and the final instructions of the grammarian. The second book
treats of the first principles of rhetoric, and contains an inquiry into the essential nature of the art. The subjects of the live following books are invention mid arrangement; wh;;e those of the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh are composition (embracing the proper use of figures of speech) and delivery. The last, and, in the author's view, the most important, book is devoted to the various requisites for the formation of a finished orator, such as his manners, his moral character, his mode of undertaking, preparing, and conducting causes, the style of eloquence most advantageous to adopt, the age at which pleading should be begun, and at which it should be lett off, and other allied top ics. The entire work is remarakble for its sound critical judgments, its purity of taste, and the perfect familiarity it exhibits with the literature of oratory. The condensed survey of Greek and Roman literature with which the tenth book commences, has always been admired for its correctness and animation. The declamations, amounting to 104, which have been ascribed to him,. are now believed to be spurious, as they evidently belong to different authors, and even different epochs. There is better ground, howeYer, for ascribing to him the anonymous Dialogue de Oratorilms, often included in editions of Tacitus. The best editions of Quintilian are those of Burmanu (Leyden, 1720); and of Spalding and Zumpt (Leip. 1798-1829).