[sect. 2]
Phraseology.
93. Alliteration.
While alliteration is found in the prose and poetry of
all periods, it is especially common in ancient legal and religious formulae
and in popular sayings. As the latter appear in large numbers in the more
familiar letters, alliteration becomes one of the stylistic characteristics of
Cicero's correspondence. Cf . cura, cogitatio, . . . commentatio causarum
(Fam. 9.20.1); opera et oleum (Att. 2.17.1).
94. Asyndeton.
In addition to asyndeton for emphasis and between
clauses in lively narration, which is found in contemporaneous formal
literature, Bckel286
calls attention to two classes of cases in which asyndeton
occurs in the Letters, as it does in other colloquial literature, with great
frequency : (1) between two expressions of opposite meaning, e.g.
palam secreto (Cael., Fam. 8.1.4), velit nolit (Q. fr. 3.8.4); (2)
between two expressions of similar meaning, e.g. intercedendi impediendi
(Fam. 8.8.6), certa clara (Att. 16.13c. 2). Many of these
expressions, like those discussed under Alliteration, are stereotyped popular phrases.