[5]
Some have drawn a distinction between
αἴτιον and αἰτίαν making αἴτιον mean the cause of the
trial, namely the murder of Clytemnestra, αἰτία the
motive urged in defence, namely the murder of
Agamemnon. But there is such lack of agreement
over these two words, that some make αἰτία the cause
of the trial and αἴτιον the motive of the deed, while
others reverse the meanings. If we turn to Latin
writers we find that some have given these causes the
names of initinum, the beginning, and ratio, the reason,
while others give the same name to both.
Quintilian. With an English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1920.
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