Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus) was born in Calagurris (modern Calahorra, Spain) in the Tarraconensis province within a family of rhetoricians around the year 35 CE. He received his education at Rome, where he met famous teachers of the time such as Domitius Afer and Remmius Palaemon. At some point shortly after his formative training Quintilian returned to his native land, where he taught rhetoric probably at Tarraco. From 68 ce Quintilian spent his entire life as a teacher and occasional practitioner of rhetoric in Rome. His professional career was very successful: outstanding members of the Roman elite such as the younger Pliny (Ep. 2.14.9, 6.6.3) and the emperor Domitian’s grandnephews were among his students (probably also Tacitus and Suetonius), and he was appointed the first public chair of rhetoric by the emperor Vespasian in 78.
Quintilian composed his major work, the Institutio Oratoria, after he retired in 88 CE. He devoted two to three years to its composition: it was begun in 93 and published probably in 95. Apart from the Institutio Oratoria, several works circulated in antiquity under the name of Quintilian. The first of them is the De Causis Corruptae Eloquentiae (Inst. 6 praef. 3, 8.3.58), which was written immediately before the Institutio, where Quintilian seems to have fought against the new anticlassical style represented above all by Seneca. (This work was identified with Tacitus’ Dialogus de Oratoribus for centuries; see Brink 1994 and Dominik 1997b for ideological coincidences and differences between both works.) In addition, two books that summarized Quintilian’s teaching were compiled by some students of his and were then issued without his permission (cf. Inst. 1 praef. 7). As we shall see below, Quintilian also pleaded occasionally in the courts, although none of his speeches are extant (see 7.2.24). Finally, two collections of declamations, the complete nineteen Declamationes Maiores and the fragmentary Declamationes Minores have been attributed to Quintilian over the centuries. While he was not the author of these declamations, some of the minores were probably linked in some way to his school.
Quintilian was educated by the best teachers in Rome and lived in close contact with individuals of the highest rank. It was to this elite that the Institutio, a compendium of his lifelong experience in rhetoric, was addressed, and it is not surprising to find him adopting in it decisive positions on almost every significant rhetorical issue.
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