Liber I, pr
[1] That I will be rewarded, if I will tell the achievements of the Romans
from the beginning of the city, ]2] I don’t know, nor, if I knew, I would
dare to say it; for, I see that the theme is both old and hackneyed, while
each new writer believes that he will bring more certainty to the theme or
that he will surpass the rudeness of antiquity in the art of writing.
[3]Anyway, it will be useful to have taken care myself and to the utmost
of my possibilities of the memory of the deeds of the people of the
foremost people of the world; and if my reputation should be obscured in
the midst of so many authors, I will console myself with the renown and
greatness of those who eclipse my name.
[4] Furthermore it is an immense work, for it dates back seven hundred
years, and, once it set off from its humble origins, it has grown so much
that it is overburdened by its greatness; for the majority of my readers I
have little doubt that the origins as well as the times coming immediately
after will offer little pleasure to those who hurry to the most recent
things, on which for a long time now the forces of the paramount people
have been consummating themselves. [5] On the contrary, I shall seek
for a reward in closing my eyes to the evils which our generation has
seen for many years, certainly for so long as I am devoting all my
thoughts to the pristine records, free from every preoccupation that can if
not warp the mind of the writer from the truth, at least make him
anxious.
[6] The legends before the city was founded or about to be founded are
transmitted more by poetic fairy-tales than by trustworthy records of the
deeds, I purpose neither to affirm nor to refute. [7] This license is
conceded to antiquity, that mingling the humane with the divine to
confer a more august dignity to the beginnings of the city: and if to any
people we must allow to consecrate their origins and refer/point back to
divine makers: the military glory of the roman people is such that, when
it professes that is father and its founder’s father is the powerful Mars,
the people accept this with equanimity just as they accept the dominion.
[8] But I shall attach no great importance to this and to things similar to
it, however they are regarded and evaluated: [9] each according to his
ability carefully directs his thoughts to those things, namely what life and
morals were like, through which men and qualities both in peace and in
war the dominion was established and enlarged. Then, with the gradual
lowering of discipline, let him observe how morals first gave way, then
sank lower and lower, finally began the downward plunge, until we
arrived at the present times in which we cannot endure our vices nor their
cure. [10] What is especially wholesome and profitable in the study of
these things is that you behold the lessons of every kind of experience set
forth in a conspicuous monument: from these, you may select for you
and your state what to imitate, from these what to avoid that is shameful
in the conception and in the result. [11] For the rest, either the love for
the task I have set myself deceives me, or there has never been a
commonwealth/state greater, more righteous and richer in good
examples, nor a society in which avarice and luxury entered so late, nor
in which so much and for so long poverty and frugality were honoured:
the less they had, the less they desired. [12] Recently, riches introduced
greed and excessive pleasures the desire to ruin and destroy everything
through self-indulgence and luxury. But may complaints, always
unwelcome, even if perhaps necessary, not appear from the beginning of
such an extensive work. [13] We would rather start with favourable
omens and we would start more pleasantly with prayers and
supplications to gods and goddesses, if it were a tradition for us, as for
the poets, that they might grant us favourable success to the great work
undertaken