Groups of words give rise to more serious ambiguity. Such ambiguity may arise from doubt as to a case, as in the following passage:2—
“I say that you, O prince of Aeacus' line,Or it may arise from the arrangement of the words,
Rome can o'erthrow.
”
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[6]
Thus arises the Greek theme
[p. 157]
about Leon and Pantaleon, who go to law because
the handwriting of a will makes it uncertain whether
the testator has left all his property to Leon or his
property to Pantaleon.1
1 i. e. whether he wrote πάντα Λέοντι or Πανταλέοντι.
2 Enn. Ann. 186. An ambiguous oracle quoted by Cicero (de Div. II. lvi.). It might equally mean that Rome or Pyrrhus would conquer. Cp. the oracle given to Croesus: “If thou cross the Halys, thou shalt destroy a mighty empire.”
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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