The Roman History

TO THE READER.

...brevity and the weakness of our judgment, which is not sufficient for every event of life and fortune: what can be more pleasant, what more welcome, what more useful, than to learn from history accurately written (such as that of Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 330–391 AD) was a Roman soldier and historian. His work is the primary source for the late 4th century.) many precepts for life and the most excellent and certain lessons of character? And what could be better than to see things which occurred over the span of many years encompassed within a single small volume? Or to behold events that happened many centuries ago as if they were present and moving before our very eyes, thanks to the merit of such a great writer?

From this, we seem to have lived in earlier ages and to have been present for past events no less than for current ones. Thus we acquire for ourselves a great deal of wisdom from the destruction of so many men, towns, and nations—a wisdom which the limited experience of our own affairs is unable to make great. Cicero wisely said, "to be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child" original: nescire quid acciderit antequam natus sis, id est esse semper puerum. This famous quote from Cicero’s Orator argues that history is essential for intellectual maturity.. And that Egyptian priest rightly called Solon and the rest of the Greeks "children"—meaning ignorant and inexperienced—because they possessed no memory of antiquity, as witnessed in Plato's Timaeus In Plato's dialogue Timaeus, an Egyptian priest tells the Greek statesman Solon that the Greeks have no ancient history because their civilizations are periodically destroyed, leaving them like children with no memory of the distant past..

Therefore, Reader, you have in Marcellinus a sincere and illustrious narrative of deeds performed, for the manifold use of life, which we have [endeavored] to clarify with certain notes...