Quintilian

When Quintilian says that circumstantial evidence can take the place of a witness, later lawyers took him as authorizing it to be considered as half of a complete proof.

Nevertheless, Quintilian carefully distinguishes between what he terms ‘technical’ and ‘non-technical’ proofs.

‘Circumstances’, we have seen, is Quintilian’s coinage.

Arnauld is not copying Quintilian, but he is reworking him in order to go beyond him.

Quintilian is a fundamental reference point for Arnauld: ‘Quintilian and all the other rhetoricians, Aristotle and all the philosophers...’