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Valerius Maximus
The deeds and sayings of the city of Rome and of foreign nations, worthy of memory, which are spread more widely among others. In this preface, Valerius preserves what is proper to an opening: to capture attention and docility. For he proposes the matters he will speak about, promises that he will write about useful things, and that he will do so as briefly as possible. He also gains benevolence from his own person, as he praises his own duty without arrogance; he also diminishes his own merit when he says that he is not so strong in talent and industry that he can encompass everything, nor does he trust that he will write about the matters he is to treat more ornately or copiously than others.

THE PROLOGUE OF THE BOOK OF MEMORABLE DEEDS AND SAYINGS OF VALERIUS MAXIMUS, TO TIBERIUS CAESAR.

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I have decided to select from illustrious authors the deeds and sayings of the city of Rome and foreign nations, worthy of memory, which are spread widely among others, so that they may be known briefly. Thus, the labor of long research is absent for those who wish to draw out documents meaning lessons or historical evidence. Nor did the desire to encompass everything seize me. For who could comprehend the deeds of all time in a modest number of volumes? Or who, being of sound mind, would have hoped that he could hand down the series of domestic and foreign history, compiled by the happy style of predecessors, with either more attentive care or more outstanding eloquence?

The familiar exposition of Valerius Maximus by Jodocus Badius Ascensius.

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OF THE CITY OF ROME. He proposes the order in which he is about to pursue the matter in an oratorical manner. Then, by an inveterate error of his time, he invokes not God himself, the father of lights from whom every gift and every perfect donation descends, but Tiberius Caesar, whom he recruits into the number of the gods by the consensus already received at that time; which error indeed Laurentius Valla, as he is a man of sharp talent, detests quite bitterly. In the last place, he executes the proposed matters as we will declare in their own places. In the proposition, he renders the reader docile by the order of things, in that he says he will write of domestic matters before foreign ones; attentive, from the difficulty of the task undertaken; and benevolent, from the utility and brevity. At the same time, he cleanses brevity? so that it is not considered a vice, so that we may adapt it more widely with the order which we will begin from the last part of the first period. Because in building and resolving, the order is almost contrary, so that what are the last things here are almost the first things there. Therefore, the order is: I decided, i.e., I resolved with mature consensus and prior deliberation; to select, i.e., to read from many and pick out the deeds and sayings of the city of Rome and foreign nations, i.e., other nations outside the Roman state; worthy of memory, i.e., that they be remembered, that is, recited and brought back to memory. It is known, with Valla as author, that all cities can be called towns except Rome, which is called only "the city" to such an extent that if it is placed by itself, "Rome of the city" is understood. Wherefore the apposition might seem superfluous, for "of the city and foreign nations" is enough, but that dignity which accrued to Rome from the nobility of its deeds did not wish to permit that name. Whether Rome is so called from Romulus or from Rumia or from Ῥώμη Rome, must be investigated in other authors where we pursue the elegance of speech more than that of custom.

In the remaining part, however, he does nothing else but clearly flatter Tiberius; for he invokes his divinity, which is proper to poets, and therefore it cannot be done without the suspicion of adulation. OF THE CITY OF ROME: he executes the history in that order in which he now proposes it; for everywhere he places domestic examples first, then he adds foreign ones. AND OF FOREIGN NATIONS. Because he proposed that all things of almost all matters be gathered into one from many and almost innumerable volumes, as much of Greek as of Latin. Foreign It is said exterarum and externarum, for exter is also found. Statius said exter honos. Virgil, book IV: "And it is right for us to seek foreign kingdoms," and book VI: "And again for foreign marriages." Hesteraus, however, aspirated with an 'h', is something else. It is derived from heri yesterday. DEEDS AND SAYINGS: so that whoever has acted or spoken rightly may be placed before our eyes. WHICH ARE AMONG OTHERS: he shows the utility of his work; for he says that such things are treated prolixly among others and for that reason cannot be easily comprehended. ARE SPREAD MORE WIDELY: they are dispersed more widely so that they cannot be known briefly. BRIEFLY: he is well brief here, because among others, if it must be perceived, it must be as they are found written among them. ILLUSTRIOUS AUTHORS: he also compares the faith in his writings from authority. DOCUMENTS: here he strives to render the listeners benevolent, because he professes to diminish their labor. DOCUMENTS: examples and monuments of virtue or vice; of virtue to persuade, of vice to deter, so that we may imitate one and flee the other. LABOR IS ABSENT: for otherwise it would be necessary that such examples be found among many, which could not be accomplished without the greatest labor. NOR DID THE DESIRE TO ENCOMPASS EVERYTHING SEIZE ME: because it is not enough to praise his own duty to contract benevolence unless he also minimizes it; he does this, and prepares attention when he promises that he will do it briefly. For when he says he does not encompass everything, he signifies that he wants to compress history into a shorter book. FOR WHO COULD OF ALL TIME: He says, I do not trust in myself and my powers so much that I dare to promise everything, but I will write few things out of many; nor am I so confident in my talent that I dare to write more ornately than other writers. Volume IN THE NUMBER OF VOLUMES: as in nine books; this is the difference between a volume and a book, that a volume signifies parts of a work, but not the whole book; a book is accepted both for the whole codex and for the volume. And that is confirmed by the testimony of Pliny the Orator, who said: "Three books, divided into six volumes because of their amplitude." OR WHO, BEING OF SOUND MIND: he said well "unless he were a fool," for he who dares something beyond his strength seems to have approached near to insanity. Whence Flaccus: "Take a subject equal to your strength, you who write; and turn over for a long time what your shoulders refuse, what they are able to bear." Who then, he says, unless he is not sane, would dare to surpass other writers in eloquence and industry? SERIES: order, by asserting; that is, by ordering what is said; HAPPY: fruitful and copious. PREDECESSORS: greater and more elegant. COMPILED: composed. WHO WOULD HAVE SURPASSED: as if to say, no one.