Profili retorici in Plin. Epist. 8.18 (sul testamento di Domizio Tullo)

In Epistle 8.18, Pliny recounts the will of Domitius Tullus, who was adopted together with his brother, Domitius Lucanus, by the famous orator Gnaeus Domitius Afer. The letter's structure effectively uses a variety of rhetorical devices, including pathos, which is prepared by surprise and fuelled by the description of positive feelings and behaviour, contrasting with sordid plots; irony, verging on sarcasm and the grotesque (which heighten the pathos); and antithesis, which follow one another in rapid succession and intertwine, evoking the technique of contradiction, or antilogía. The exposition is therefore lively and passionate, in accordance with Quintilian's principles (Inst. or. 12.9.3). Even the portraits of the characters are not ends in themselves but also represent rhetorical examples: those we need to learn how to live, as Pliny writes at the end of his speech (ad rationem vitae exemplis erudimur).

在《书信集》第8卷第18封中，普林尼记述了多米提乌斯·图卢斯的遗嘱。多米提乌斯·图卢斯与其兄弟多米提乌斯·卢卡努斯一同被著名演说家格奈乌斯·多米提乌斯·阿菲尔（Gnaeus Domitius Afer）收养。该书信的结构巧妙运用了多种修辞技法：其一为悲情（pathos），先以突转的情节铺垫情绪基调，再通过正面情感与行为的描摹强化感染力，与卑劣的阴谋形成强烈反差；其二为近乎讽刺与荒诞意味的反讽（irony），进一步烘托悲情氛围；其三为层层递进、彼此交织的对照（antithesis），其创作逻辑与矛盾修辞法（antilogía）相呼应。此番叙事生动鲜活、情感充沛，完全契合昆体良（Quintilian）在《雄辩术原理》（*Institutio Oratoria*，对应原文缩写Inst. or. 12.9.3）中提出的创作原则。即便书中的人物刻画也并非单纯的叙事点缀，而是兼具修辞示范价值：正如普林尼在书信末尾所言，我们借助这些范例习得立身行事的准则。