The purpose of this note is to banish for ever from our histories of Roman literature the term elocutio nouella as a description of the style preached and practised by Cornelius Fronto.
Commenting on a speech recently delivered by the Emperor Marcus, Fronto declares (De eloquentia 5. 1 = p. 146. 13 van den Hout):
Pleraque in oratione recenti tua, quod ad sententias attinet, animaduerto egregia esse; pauca admodum uno tenus uerbo corrigenda; non nihil interdum elocutione nouella parum signatum.
The standard interpretation of the last clause is that given by Haines (ii. 81): ‘some parts here and there were not sufficiently marked with novelty of expression’. It is my contention that it means: ‘some parts here and there were insufficiently clear through new-fangled diction’.