The New Student's Reference Work/Quintilian, M. Fabius Quintilianus

Quintil' ian, M. Fabius Quintilianus, was born about 35 A. D., at Calagurris in Spain, and attended the lectures of Domitius Afer in Rome. After 59 A. D., however, he revisited Spain, whence he returned to Rome in the train of Galba and began to practise as a pleader in courts, gaining considerable reputation. He was more distinguished as a teacher of oratory, however, and his instructions were eagerly sought, his pupils including the younger Pliny and the two grand-nephews of Domitian, who conferred the title and insignia of consul. After 20 years of labor as advocate and teacher, he retired to private life and died about 95 A. D. His reputation rests securely on his great but mutilated Institutes of Oratory, a complete system of rhetoric. It was written after he had ceased to be a teacher, and was the fruit of two years' labor, as he says in his preface. The best edition of Quintilian's work is that of Burmann. There also are special editions of the tenth book, a masterly criticism of classic literature that ranks Quintilian with the great critics.