A study of `negation of the opposite' in Latin. There are chapters on the problem of defining litotes, on the syntax of negatio contrarii (its syntactic properties, its description in terms of the theory of functional grammar), on the semantics of negatio contrarii, on its pragmatics (including sections on the Gricean maximes, on illocutionary force, on the informational status of negatio contrarii), and on its stylistic aspects.