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1. WHETHER in tracing the history of the Roman people, from the foundation of the city, I shall employ myself to a useful purpose,1 I am neither very certain, nor, if I were, dare I say: inasmuch as I observe, that it is both an old and hackneyed practice,2 later authors always supposing that they will either adduce something more authentic in the facts, or, that they will excel the less polished ancients [2] in their style of writing. Be that as it may, it will, at all events, be a satisfaction to me, that I too have contributed my share3 to perpetuate the achievements of a people, the lords of the world; and if, amidst so great a number of historians,4 my reputation should remain in obscurity, I may console myself with the celebrity and lustre of those who shall [3] stand in the way of my fame. Moreover, the subject is both of immense labour, as being one which must be traced back for more than seven hundred years, and which, having set out from small beginnings, has increased to such a degree that it is now distressed by its own magnitude. And, to most readers, I doubt not but that the first origin and the events immediately succeeding, will afford but little pleasure, while they will be hastening to these later times,5 in [p. 3]which the strength of this overgrown people has for [4] a long period been working its own destruction. I, on the contrary, shall seek this, as a reward of my labour, viz. to withdraw myself from the view of the calamities, which our age has witnessed for so many years, so long as I am reviewing with my whole attention these ancient times, being free from every care6 that may distract a writer's [5] mind, though it cannot warp it from the truth. The traditions which have come down to us of what happened before the building of the city, or before its building was contemplated, as being suitable rather to the fictions of poetry than to the genuine records of history, I have no intention either to affirm or refute. This indulgence is conceded to antiquity, that by blending things human with divine, it [6] may make the origin of cities appear more venerable: and if any people might be allowed to consecrate their origin, and to ascribe it to the gods as its authors, such is the renown of the Roman people in war, that when they represent Mars, in particular, as their own parent and that of their founder, the nations of the world may submit to [7] this as patiently as they submit to their sovereignty. —But in whatever way these and such like matters shall be attended to, or judged of, I shall not deem of great importance. I would have every man apply his mind seriously to consider these points, viz. what their life and what their manners were; through what men and by what measures, both in peace and in war, their empire was acquired7 and extended; then, as discipline gradually declined, let him follow in his thoughts their morals, at first as slightly giving way, anon how they sunk more and more, then began to fall headlong, until he reaches the present [8] times, when we can neither endure our vices, nor their remedies. This it is which is particularly salutary and profitable in the study of history, that you behold instances of every variety of conduct displayed [p. 4]on a conspicuous monument; that from thence you may select for yourself and for your country that which you may imitate; thence note what is shameful in [9] the undertaking, and shameful in the result, which you may avoid. But either a fond partiality for the task I have undertaken deceives me, or there never was any state either greater, or more moral, or richer in good examples, nor one into which luxury and avarice made their entrance so late, and where poverty and frugality were so much and so long honoured; so that the less wealth there was, the less desire was there. Of late, riches have introduced avarice, and excessive pleasures a longing for them, amidst luxury [10] and a passion for ruining ourselves and destroying every thing else. But let complaints, which will not be agreeable even then, when perhaps they will be also necessary, be kept aloof at [11] least from the first stage of commencing so great a work. We should rather, if it was usual with us (historians) as it is with poets, begin with good omens, vows and prayers to the gods and goddesses to vouchsafe good success to our efforts in so arduous an undertaking.

1 “Employ myself to a useful purpose,” —facere operae pretium, “to do a thing that is worth the trouble,” —“to employ oneself to a good purpose.” —See Scheller's Lat. Lexicon.

2 “A practice,” —rem. —Some, as Baker, refer it to res populi R. Others, as Stroth, to res pop. Rom. perscribere.

3 “My share,” —pro virili parte, or, “to the best of my ability.”

4 “Historians.” —Those mentioned by Livy himself are Q. Fabius Pictor, Valerius Antias, L. Piso, Q. Aelius Tubero, C. Licinius Macer, Cœlius, Polybius, etc.

5 “Hastening to these later times.” —The history of the recent civil wars would possess a more intense interest for the Romans of the Augustan age.

6 "From every care, —the fear of giving offence by expressing his opinions freely, and the sorrow which, as a patriot, he could not but feel in recording the civil wars of his countrymen.

7 “Acquired.” —This refers to the whole period antecedent to the time when Ap. Claudius carried the Roman arms beyond Italy against the Carthaginians; (2) extended, from that time till the fall of Carthage; (3) sinking, the times of the Gracchi; (4) gave way more and more, those of Sulla; (5) precipitate, those of Caesar; (6) the present times, those of Augustus after the battle of Actium. —Stocker.

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load focus Summary (Latin, Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., 1919)
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load focus Summary (Latin, W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1898)
load focus Latin (Robert Seymour Conway, Charles Flamstead Walters, 1914)
load focus English (Rev. Canon Roberts, 1912)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1898)
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  • Commentary references to this page (42):
    • John Conington, Commentary on Vergil's Aeneid, Volume 1, 1.2
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.17
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.44
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.45
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.5
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 32.26
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 32.37
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 32.5
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.17
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.32
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.6
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.22
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 35.28
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 35.47
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.19
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.19
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.3
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.37
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.17
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.24
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.26
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.20
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.22
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.31
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.4
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.9
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 41.8
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 41-42, commentary, 42.63
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 43.13
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 43.15
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.1
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.10
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.12
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.18
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.28
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.36
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.4
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.16
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.2
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.38
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.43
    • Charles Simmons, The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books XIII and XIV, 13.105
  • Cross-references to this page (40):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Latinus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Laurens
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Lavinia
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Lavinium.
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Macedonia
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Pylaemenes
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Sicilia
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Troia
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Troiani
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Troianus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Aborigines
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Achivi
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Adriaticus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Aeneas
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Alpes
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Antenor
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Ascanius
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Veneti
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Dii
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Euganei
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Flamen
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Helenae
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Heneti
    • Harper's, Antēnor
    • Harper's, Euganei
    • Harper's, Lavinia
    • Harper's, Lavinium
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), HOSPI´TIUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ABORI´GINES
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ITA´LIA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LATIUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LAURENTUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LAV´INIUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PATA´VIUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), VENETIA
    • William Gardner Hale, The Art of Reading Latin: How To Teach It, 15
    • Smith's Bio, Aene'as
    • Smith's Bio, Antenor
    • Smith's Bio, Asca'nius
    • Smith's Bio, Lavi'nia
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (34):
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