Quintilian Institutes: Verisimilitude and Narrative

At the beginning of Book II, Quintilian categorizes narrative 

verisimilitude according to the categories "fictitious" and "true." 

Later he questions the "truth" in some historical narratives, 

even though he classifies them as true here. It's going to be 

interesting to see how his different categories play out when he 

get to the "best method of narration" later. Will he, like 

Corax and Tisias play truth games with the probable and make 

the worse the better? 

"Now there are three forms of narrative, without 2 
counting the type used in actual legal cases. First 
there is the fictitious narrative as we get it in 
tragedies and poems, which is not merely not true 
but has little resemblance to truth. Secondly, there 
is the realistic narrative as presented by comedies, 
which, though not true, has yet a certain verisimili- 
tude. Thirdly there is the historical narrative, which 
is an exposition of actual fact. Poetic narratives 
are the property of the teacher of literature. The 
rhetorician therefore should begin with the his- 
torical narrative, whose force is in proportion to its 
truth.I will, however, postpone my demonstration 3 
of what I regard as the best method of narration 
till I come to deal with narration as required in the 
courts."