On the Magistrates of the Roman Republic

COMMENTARY

...correct the text of this work with the greatest diligence and clarify it with a Latin translation. It has been most gratifying to me that I might also contribute something from my own ability to this work and be able to enroll my name in such a praiseworthy undertaking. For, having been chosen by the owner of the Manuscript original: "Codicis", I took on the task of providing a preface concerning those matters which it most concerns readers to know. Therefore, I began to set down in writing the thoughts that came to mind after I had read the book through, and to divide them into five parts.

The first of these I have devoted to the history of the author; the second to the fate of Lydus’s writings during the Middle Ages; the third to a catalog original: "elencho" of his fragments existing here and there in various libraries. In the fourth part, I have identified those who have published any portion of his work or have planned to do so; in the fifth, I describe the unexpected circumstances by which his works were recently recovered in Greece and have now begun to be published in France original: "Gallia".

I shall begin, therefore, with the life of Lydus, as planned. However, I must first ask my readers to tolerate not only the new names for administrative offices original: "magistratuum" and ranks, but also the vocabulary of a declining or decaying Latinity original: "cadentis jacentisve latinitatis"; the author is apologizing for using "Late Latin" terms that would have shocked fans of Cicero but were necessary for describing Byzantine government.. I use these terms now because there is almost nothing in the approved classical authors that exactly corresponds to them. I have adopted them here as if they were proper and common usage—at least where there is no danger of confusion—lest I seem to anyone to be overly fastidious regarding my choice of words.