38. Either, then, they must
all have been written and put forward allegorically, and the whole
should be pointed out to us; or nothing has been so written, since what
is supposed to be allegorical does not seem as if it were part
of the narrative.4520
| 4520 i.e.,
if historical, the whole must be so, as bits of allegory would not fit
in. |
These
are all written allegorically,
you say. This seems by no
means certain. Do you ask for what reason, for what cause?
Because,
I answer, all that has taken place and has been set
down distinctly in any book cannot be turned into an
allegory, for
neither can that be undone which has been done, nor can the character
of an event change into one which is utterly different. Can the
Trojan
war be turned into the condemnation of Socrates? or the
battle
of Cannæ become the cruel proscription of Sulla? A
proscription may indeed, as Tullius says
4521
| 4521
Cicero, pro Rosc. Am., c. 32. |
in jest, be spoken of as a
battle, and
be called that of Cannæ; but what has already taken place, cannot
be at the same time a
battle and a proscription; for neither, as I have
said, can that which has taken place be anything else than what has
taken place; nor can that pass over into a substance foreign to it
which has been fixed down firmly in its own nature and peculiar
condition.
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