APPENDIX C
Common Rhetorical Devices
The fact that Latin is inflected allows for flexibility in word order, and Latin
authors take full advantage of this pliability by using literary devices. Here follows
a list of some of the more common rhetorical devices that are featured in NLP.
Alliteration: The repetition of the same sound.
Horace, Carmina 4.1.2 (NLP 4.13): Parce, precor, precor.
Anaphora: The repetition of a word or phrase in successive phrases,
clauses, or lines.
CIL VI 29609 (NLP 1.14): Cinis sum. Cinis terra est.
Pliny the Younger, Epistulae 2.1.12 (NLP 9.15): Vergīnium cōgitō,
Vergīnium videō, Vergīnium iam vānīs imāginibus.
Anastrophe: An inversion of normal word order.
Livy, ab Urbe Condita 9.13.2 (NLP 7.5): Vādunt igitur in proelium
urgentēs signiferōs. (The verb usually comes at the end, not beginning, of a Latin sentence.)
Antithesis: An opposition or contrast of ideas or words.
Ovid, Amores 1.9.1 (NLP 4.9): Mīlitat omnis amans. (Lovers are not
usually soldiers.)
Apostrophe: An exclamatory address to a third party.
Catullus 9.5 (NLP 13.6): Ō mihi nuntiī beātī!
Asyndeton: A lack of conjunctions.
CIL VI 15258 (NLP 2.15): Balnea, vīna, Venus corrumpunt corpora nostra.
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Chiasmus: The ABBA arrangement of corresponding pairs of words in
opposite order (from the shape of the Greek letter chi, X).
Vergil, Aeneid 11.583 (NLP 5.13): Aeternum tēlōrum et virginitātis
amōrem.
Hyperbaton: The separation of a noun from the adjective that agrees
with it.
Ovid, Ars Amatoria 1.116 (NLP 3.5): Cupidās iniciuntque manūs.
Hyperbole: Rhetorical exaggeration.
Cicero, Philippica 13.45 (NLP 9.6): Omnēs tē dī, hominēs, summī,
mediī, infimī, cīvēs, peregrīnī, virī, mulierēs, līberī, servī odērunt.
Sensimus hoc nūper falsō nuntiō, vērō propediem sentiēmus.
Litotes: Rhetorical understatement, often the affirmation of an idea by
denying its opposite.
Catullus 6.2 (NLP 26.1): Nī sint illepidae atque inēlegantēs.
Metonymy: The substitution of one word for another that it suggests.
Martial 1.61.1 (NLP 11.9): Vērōna doctī syllabās amat vātis. (i.e., the
people of Verona love their bard, not the place which here stands in
for its population).
Onomatopoeia: The use of words to imitate natural sounds.
Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 8.95 (NLP 19.3): Hinnītū (a hippopotamus’s whinnying)
Personification: The attribution of personality to an impersonal object.
Catullus 42.10 (NLP 4.4): Circumsistite eam, et reflāgitāte. (Here
Catullus enjoins his lines of verse to retrieve the stolen notebooks.)
Polysyndeton: The use of unnecessary conjunctions.
Juvenal, Saturae 6.85 (NLP 5.8): Inmemor illa domūs et coniugis atque
sorōris.
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Prolepsis: The use of a word before it is logically appropriate.
Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 29.15 (NLP 33.4): Subicit enim quā
medicīnā sē et coniugem usque ad longam senectam perduxerit.
Simile: An explicit comparison (cf. metaphor: An implied
comparison).
Vergil, Aeneid 2.795 (NLP 6.8): Pār levibus ventīs volucrīque simillima
somnō.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.63–64 (NLP 16.6): Quālis ab imbre solet
percussīs sōlibus arcus / inficere ingentī longum curvāmine caelum.
Synchysis: Interlocked word order (ABAB).
Statius, Silvae 5.3.28 (NLP 6.1): Dā vōcem magnō, pater, ingeniumque
dolōrī.
Synechdoche: The use of a part of an object to represent the entire
object.
Vergil, Aeneid 5.115 (NLP 14.13): Quattuor ex omnī dēlectae classe carīnae
(i.e., the keels represent entire ships).
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