TO THE STUDIOUS READER

THE EDITOR

SENDS GREETINGS.

An ornamental woodcut initial 'Q' features foliate and floral motifs within a square frame.
Since a great and frequent cause of delight has come to my later life from Ammianus Marcellinus, I have willingly acted so that this familiarity of ours might become publicly known, and, as if to return the favor, I have granted to him a portion of my hours—of which he had formerly restored to me so many—with the purpose that the remaining volumes of his histories might appear more refined and splendid. This I seemed to owe to him, a man in whom I perceived a purpose that was magnificent and excellent against the backdrop of his own age. For even if I would neither make my own what others have written about him, nor wish to pay heed to it, and would prefer everything else over that observation of fallacious omens and portents; and even if I see in him some things that do not quite conform to our happy polishing: still, I noted that it matters that he lived at that time when Latin studies ought to be said to have barely existed, or when everything was narrowed by the straits of epitomes—that is, by the sluggishness of degenerate idleness. That city, which he praises as Eternal—the Venerable one and the dwelling-place of all virtues—was besieged by wretched and detestable ineptitudes, with every vigor of the spirit ruined, and nothing there resembled its former magnificence. But if a better mind nevertheless elevated some, we see that whatever it was, they applied it only to providing flatteries for the ears of princes. In such a time, what should I more admire in our man: whether that he sustained in his mind the opportunity for so noble and lasting a labor, or that he even undertook it eagerly and executed it? And he did not do this in such a way that it might appear he had poured it out rashly or advanced to this task without consideration, but with a mind well and long strengthened by the Herculean vigor of his studies, and with an equipment that was circumspect, just, and, as he is accustomed to say, obtainable. He was undoubtedly much different from the idle ignorance of the others serving with him; by distinguishing his times under canvas into certain tasks, and where the matter demanded, emulating Mars; and where quiet was granted, emulating Pallas; and by the opportunity of garrisons and various expeditions, learning the regions, peoples, customs, and the history of the ancient world as well as his own time, he pleased himself to bring back the example of an ancient Roman—whether soldier or leader—who did not omit Greek studies any more than Latin, even while battle was imminent. He did this so that he might be able to judge the actions and decisions of the Princes themselves or the Optimates with a calculated reason, and to admonish the inhabitants of the Roman Empire, even by this last specimen of ancient intellect, of the glory and custom of their ancestors, so that in deep leisure they might know that the writings of others, just as those of Juvenal and Marius Maximus, were to be handled. At the same time, he exhorted them, and brought comfort in calamities as present as they were more grievous to come, by stimulating their spirits so that, ignorant of antiquities, they would not easily despond, and so that they might be recalled to the ancient fortitude of protecting the fatherland. The matter itself confesses this, and his whole method loudly proclaims it. I consider nothing more unworthy to have been pronounced than what the recent Parisian preface published: that Ammianus, when he thought to take up this matter after his military oath, then finally, as a former soldier and a Greek, read the older or Censorious Cato, Caesar's commentaries, Sallust, and M. Tullius Cicero most diligently, so that he might become more accustomed to the Latin language and Roman history. Or because he was born and educated in Antioch—where Gallus Caesar is also said to have sought out taverns and crossroads in the evening in the Greek language, and hence calls himself a Greek—was there no use of the Latin language in that city at that time? Or did they speak so at Rome then, in the way that Ammianus now writes, implying that things were corrupted from those barbarisms which he notes in these books had flowed in there?