Kitap 4
pr.2
In dealing with this question I shall deliberately pass over the divisions made by certain writers, who make too many classes and err on the side of subtlety. For they demand an explanation dealing not only with the facts of the case which is before the court, but with the person involved (as in the sentence, Sall. Hist. iv. 25. Marcus Lollius Palicanus, a Picentine of humble birth, a man gifted with loquacity rather than eloquence ) or of the place where an incident occurred (as in the sentence Cic. Verr. xxiv. 63. Lampsacus, gentlemen, is a town situated on the Hellespont ), or of the time at which something occurred (as in the verse Verg. G. i. 43. In early spring, when on the mountains hoar The snows dissolve), or of the causes of an occurrence, such as the historians are so fond of setting forth, when they explain the origin of a war, a rebellion or a pestilence. Further they style some statements of fact complete, and others incomplete, a distinction which is self-evident. To this they add that our explanation may refer to the past (which is of course the commonest form), the present (for which compare Cicero's pro Rosc. Am. xxii. 60. remarks about the excitement caused among the friends of Chrysogonus when his name was mentioned), or of the future (a form permissible only to prophets): for hypotyposis or picturesque description cannot be regarded as a statement of facts.
