[16]
As an example of complex defence I may quote
the pro Rabirio: “If he had killed him, he would
have been justified in so doing: but he did not kill
him.” But when we advance a number of points in
answer to a single proposition, we must first of all
consider everything that can be said on the subject,
and then decide which out of these points it is expedient to select and where to put them forward.
My views on this subject are not identical with
those which I admitted a little while ago1 on the
subject of propositions and on that of arguments in
the section which I devoted to proofs,2 to the effect
that we may sometimes begin with the strongest.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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