[19]
Again, when we have depicted some horrible
circumstance in such colours as to raise the detestation of our audience to its height, we then proceed
to make light of them in order that what is to follow
may seem still more horrible: consider the following
passage from Cicero:1 “These are but trivial offences
for so great a criminal. The captain of a warship
from a famous city bought off' his threatened scourging for a price: a humane concession! Another
paid down a sum of money to save his head from
the axe:”
1 Verr. 5, 44, 177.
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