“First”, “Only”, “One of a Few”, and “No One Else” 61 to elaborate on a praiseworthy deed, what strategies to use to convince us that so-and-so deserves our respect. It is here that Aristotle explains the principle of “uniqueness”: [In epideictic] one should also use many kinds of amplification, for example if the subject [of praise] is the only (movno") one or the first (prwto") or one of a few (met∆ ojlivgwn) or the one who most (mavlista) ' has done something; for all these things are honorable (Rhet. 1.9.38 emphasis added; see also Rhet. 2.7.2). Four amplifications of praise are mentioned, each of which stresses some form of uniqueness. As we shall see, being the first or only person to achieve something constitutes the most common forms of amplification in the rhetoric of praise. Centuries later, Cicero provides a Roman witness to the principle of uniqueness. Speaking about what deserves an orator’s praise, he cites virtue, benefaction, endurance, and unique deeds: And one must select achievements that are of outstanding importance (magnitudine praestabiles) or unprecedented (novitate primae) or unparalleled in their actual character (genere singulares); for small achievements or those that are not unusual or out of the ordinary are not as a rule felt to be specifically admirable or to deserve praise at all (De Orat. 2.85.347). “Unprecedented” sounds like “first” in Aristotle’s catalogue; thus an unprecedented deed, which has never before been done, is unique. “Unparalleled” suggests “only”, in the sense that this person is the only one ever to do such-and-such. Although Cicero’s tag “of outstanding importance” does not automatically signal “unique” or “exclusive”, it sets unique actions apart from “small achievements,” from what are “not unusual ... not out of the ordinary”. And so, it might be said that an action, if not done by this man alone, was rare and done by “one of a few” (7). Quintilian’s rhetorical treatise contains remarks on uniqueness similar to Aristotle’s: ... what most pleases an audience is the celebration of deeds which our hero was first (primus) or only (solus) man or at any rate one of the (7) Augustus Caesar claimed maximum honor because of unique bene- factions to the army: “I was the first and only one (primus atque solus omnium) to do this of all those who up to my time settled colonies of soldiers in Italy or in the provinces” (Res Gestae 16). Plutarch states: “... in public life one must escape... from love of fame, the desire to be first or greatest (prw'ton kai; mevgiston)” (Old Men in Public Affairs 788E).