Delphi Complete Works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 79)

by Dionysius of Halicarnassus

  [4.1] But before I proceed, I desire to show in a few words that it is not without design and mature premeditation that I have turned to the early part of Rome’s history, but that I have well-considered reasons to give for my choice, to forestall the censure of those who, fond of finding fault with everything and not as yet having heard of any of the matters which I am about to make known, may blame me because, in spite of the fact that this city, grown so famous in our days, had very humble and inglorious beginnings, unworthy of historical record, and that it was but a few generations ago, that is, since her overthrow of the Macedonian powers and her success in the Punic wars, that she arrived at distinction and glory, nevertheless, when I was at liberty to choose one of the famous periods in her history for my theme, I turned aside to one so barren of distinction as her antiquarian lore.

  [2] ἔτι γὰρ ἀγνοεῖται παρὰ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ὀλίγου δεῖν πᾶσιν ἡ παλαιὰ τῆς Ῥωμαίων πόλεως ἱστορία, καὶ δόξαι τινὲς οὐκ ἀληθεῖς, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ τῶν ἐπιτυχόντων ἀκουσμάτων τὴν ἀρχὴν λαβοῦσαι τοὺς πολλοὺς ἐξηπατήκασιν, ὡς ἀνεστίους μέν τινας καὶ πλάνητας καὶ βαρβάρους καὶ οὐδὲ τούτους ἐλευθέρους οἰκιστὰς εὐχομένης, οὐ δι᾽ εὐσέβειαν δὲ καὶ δικαιοσύνην καὶ τὴν ἄλλην ἀρετὴν ἐπὶ τὴν ἁπάντων ἡγεμονίαν σὺν χρόνῳ παρελθούσης, ἀλλὰ δι᾽ αὐτοματισμόν τινα καὶ τύχην ἄδικον εἰκῆ δωρουμένην τὰ μέγιστα τῶν ἀγαθῶν τοῖς ἀνεπιτηδειοτάτοις: καὶ οἵ γε κακοηθέστεροι κατηγορεῖν εἰώθασι τῆς τύχης κατὰ τὸ φανερὸν ὡς βαρβάρων τοῖς πονηροτάτοις τὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ποριζομένης ἀγαθά.

  [2] For to this day almost all the Greeks are ignorant of the early history of Rome and the great majority of them have been imposed upon by sundry false opinions grounded upon stories which chance has brought to their ears and led to believe that, having come upon various vagabonds without house or home and barbarians, and even those not free men, as her founders, she in the course of time arrived at world domination, and this not through reverence for the gods and justice and every other virtue, but through some chance and the injustice of Fortune, which inconsiderately showers her greatest favours upon the most undeserving. And indeed the more malicious are wont to rail openly at Fortune for freely bestowing on the basest of barbarians the blessings of the Greeks.

  [3] καὶ τί δεῖ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων λέγειν, ὅπου γε καὶ τῶν συγγραφέων τινὲς ἐτόλμησαν ἐν ταῖς ἱστορίαις ταῦτα γράψαντες καταλιπεῖν, βασιλεῦσι βαρβάροις μισοῦσι τὴν ἡγεμονίαν, οἷς δουλεύοντες αὐτοὶ καὶ τὰ καθ᾽ ἡδονὰς ὁμιλοῦντες διετέλεσεν, οὔτε δικαίας οὔτε ἀληθεῖς ἱστορίας χαριζόμενοι; [p. 8]

  [3] And yet why should I mention men at large, when even some historians have dared to express such views in the writing they have left, taking this method of humouring barbarian kings who detested Rome’s supremacy, — princes to whom they were ever servilely devoted and with whom they associated as flatterers, — by presenting them with “histories” which were neither just nor true?

  [1] ταύτας δὴ τὰς πεπλανημένας, ὥσπερ ἔφην, ὑπολήψεις ἐξελέσθαι τῆς διανοίας τῶν πολλῶν προαιρούμενος καὶ ἀντικατασκευάσαι τὰς ἀληθεῖς, περὶ μὲν τῶν οἰκισάντων τὴν πόλιν, οἵτινες ἦσαν καὶ κατὰ τίνας ἕκαστοι καιροὺς συνῆλθον καὶ τίσι τύχαις χρησάμενοι τὰς πατρίους οἰκήσεις ἐξέλιπον, ἐν ταύτῃ δηλώσω τῇ γραφῇ, δι᾽ ἧς Ἕλληνάς τε αὐτοὺς ὄντας ἐπιδείξειν ὑπισχνοῦμαι καὶ οὐκ ἐκ τῶν ἐλαχίστων ἢ

  [5.1] In order, therefore, to remove these erroneous impressions, as I have called them, from the minds of many and to substitute true ones in their room, I shall in this Book show who the founders of the city were, at what periods the various groups came together and through what turns of fortune they left their native countries.

  [2] φαυλοτάτων ἐθνῶν συνεληλυθότας. περὶ δὲ τῶν πράξεων, ἃς μετὰ τὸν οἰκισμὸν εὐθέως ἀπεδείξαντο, καὶ περὶ τῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων, ἐξ ὧν εἰς τοσαύτην ἡγεμονίαν προῆλθον οἱ μετ᾽ αὐτοὺς, ἀπὸ τῆς μετὰ ταύτην ἀρξάμενος ἀναγραφῆς ἀφηγήσομαι, παραλιπὼν οὐδὲν ὅση μοι δύναμις τῶν ἀξίων ἱστορίας, ἵνα τοῖς γε μαθοῦσι τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἃ προσήκει περὶ τῆς πόλεως τῆσδε παραστῇ φρονεῖν, εἰ μὴ παντάπασιν ἀγρίως καὶ δυσμενῶς διάκεινται πρὸς αὐτήν, καὶ μήτε ἄχθεσθαι τῇ ὑποτάξει κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς γενομένῃ （φύσεως γὰρ δὴ νόμος ἅπασι κοινός, ὃν οὐδεὶς καταλύσει χρόνος, ἄρχειν ἀεὶ τῶν ἡττόνων τοὺς κρείττονασ᾽ μήτε κατηγορεῖν τῆς τύχης, ὡς οὐκ ἐπιτηδείῳ πόλει τηλικαύτην ἡγεμονίαν καὶ τοσοῦτον ἤδη χρόνον προῖκα δωρησαμένης:

  [2] By this means I engage to prove that they were Greeks and came together from nations not the smallest nor least considerable. And beginning with the next Book I shall tell of the deeds they performed immediately after their founding of the city and of the customs and institutions by virtue of which their descendants advanced to so great dominion; and, so far as I am able, I shall omit nothing worthy of being recorded in history, to the end that I may instil in the minds of those who shall then be informed of the truth the fitting conception of this city, — unless they have already assumed an utterly violent and hostile attitude toward it, — and also that they may neither feel indignation at their present subjection, which is grounded on reason (for by an universal law of Nature, which time cannot destroy, it is ordained that superiors shall ever govern their inferiors), nor rail at Fortune for having wantonly bestowed upon an undeserving city a supremacy so great and already of so long continuance,

  [3] μαθοῦσί γε δὴ παρὰ τῆς ἱστορίας, ὅτι μυρίας ἤνεγκεν ἀνδρῶν ἀρετὰς εὐθὺς ἐξ ἀρχῆς μετὰ τὸν οἰκισμὸν, [p. 9] ὧν οὔτ᾽ εὐσεβεστέρους οὔτε δικαιοτέρους οὔτε σωφροσύνῃ πλείονι παρὰ πάντα τὸν βίον χρησαμένους οὐδέ γε τὰ πολέμια κρείττους ἀγωνιστὰς οὐδεμία πόλις ἤνεγκεν οὔτε Ἑλλὰς οὔτε βάρβαρος, εἰ δὴ ἀπέσται τοῦ λόγου τὸ ἐπίφθονον: ἔχει γάρ τι καὶ τοιοῦτον ἡ τῶν παραδόξων καὶ θαυμαστῶν ὑπόσχεσις.

  [3] particularly when they shall have learned from my history that Rome from the very beginning, immediately after its founding, produced infinite examples of virtue in men whose superiors, whether for piety or for justice or for life-long self-control or for warlike valour, no city, either Greek or barbarian, has ever produced. This, I say, is what I hope to accomplish, if my readers will but lay aside all resentment; for some such feeling is aroused by a promise of things which run counter to received opinion or excite wonder.

  [4] οἱ δὲ σύμπαντες οἱ τοσοῦτο περιθέντ�
�ς αὐτῇ δυναστείας μέγεθος ἀγνοοῦνται πρὸς Ἑλλήνων, οὐ τυχόντες ἀξιολόγου συγγραφέως: οὐδεμία γὰρ ἀκριβὴς ἐξελήλυθε περὶ αὐτῶν Ἑλληνὶς ἱστορία μέχρι τῶν καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς χρόνων, ὅτι μὴ κεφαλαιώδεις ἐπιτομαὶ πάνυ βραχεῖαι,

  [4] And it is a fact that all those Romans who bestowed upon their country so great a dominion are unknown to the Greeks for want of a competent historian. For no accurate history of the Romans written in Greek language has hitherto appeared, but only very brief and summary epitomes.

  [1] πρώτου μὲν, ὅσα κἀμὲ εἰδέναι, τὴν Ῥωμαϊκὴν ἀρχαιολογίαν ἐπιδραμόντος Ἱερωνόμου τοῦ Καρδιανοῦ συγγραφέως ἐν τῇ περὶ τῶν ἐπιγόνων πραγματείᾳ: ἔπειτα Τιμαίου τοῦ Σικελιώτου τὰ μὲν ἀρχαῖα τῶν ἱστοριῶν ἐν ταῖς κοιναῖς ἱστορίαις ἀφηγησαμένου, τοὺς δὲ πρὸς Πύρρον τὸν Ἠπειρώτην πολέμους εἰς ἰδίαν καταχωρίσαντος πραγματείαν: ἅμα δὲ τούτοις Ἀντιγόνου τε καὶ Πολυβίου καὶ Σιληνοῦ καὶ μυρίων ἄλλων τοῖς αὐτοῖς πράγμασιν οὐχ ὁμοίως ἐπιβαλόντων, ὧν ἕκαστος ὀλίγα καὶ οὐδὲ ἀκριβῶς αὐτῷ διεσπουδασμένα, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ τῶν ἐπιτυχόντων ἀκουσμάτων συνθεὶς ἀνέγραψεν.

  [6.1] The first historian, so far as I am aware, to touch upon the early period of the Romans was Hieronymus of Cardia, in his work on the Epigoni. After him Timaeus of Sicily related the beginnings of their history in his general history and treated in a separate work the wars with Pyrrhus of Epirus. Besides these, Antigonus, Polybius, Silenus and innumerable other authors devoted themselves to the same themes, though in different ways, each of them recording some few things compiled without accurate investigation on his own part but from reports which chance had brought to his ears.

  [2] ὁμοίας δὲ τούτοις [p. 10] καὶ οὐδὲν διαφόρους ἐξέδωκαν ἱστορίας καὶ Ῥωμαίων ὅσοι τὰ παλαιὰ ἔργα τῆς πόλεως Ἑλληνικῇ διαλέκτῳ συνέγραψαν, ὧν εἰσι πρεσβύτατοι Κόιντός τε Φάβιος καὶ Λεύκιος Κίγκιος, ἀμφότεροι κατὰ τοὺς Φοινικικοὺς ἀκμάσαντες πολέμους. τούτων δὲ τῶν ἀνδρῶν ἑκάτερος, οἷς μὲν αὐτὸς ἔργοις παρεγένετο, διὰ τὴν ἐμπειρίαν ἀκριβῶς ἀνέγραψε, τὰ δὲ ἀρχαῖα τὰ μετὰ τὴν κτίσιν τῆς πόλεως γενόμενα κεφαλαιωδῶς ἐπέδραμεν.

  [2] Like to these in all respects are the histories of those Romans, also, who related in Greek the early achievements of the city; the oldest of these writers are Quintus Fabius and Lucius Cincius, who both flourished during the Punic wars. Each of these men related the events at which he himself had been present with great exactness, as being well acquainted with them, but touched only in a summary way upon the early events that followed the founding of the city.

  [3] διὰ ταύτας μὲν δὴ τὰς αἰτίας ἔδοξέ μοι μὴ παρελθεῖν καλὴν ἱστορίαν ἐγκαταλειφθεῖσαν ὑπὸ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων ἀμνημόνευτον, ἐξ ἧς ἀκριβῶς γραφείσης συμβήσεται τὰ κράτιστα καὶ δικαιότατα τῶν ἔργων: τοῖς μὲν ἐκπεπληρωκόσι τὴν ἑαυτῶν μοῖραν ἀνδράσιν ἀγαθοῖς δόξης αἰωνίου τυχεῖν καὶ πρὸς τῶν ἐπιγιγνομένων ἐπαινεῖσθαι, ἅ ποιεῖ τὴν θνητὴν φύσιν ὁμοιοῦσθαι τῇ θείᾳ καὶ μὴ συναποθνήσκειν αὐτῆς τὰ ἔργα τοῖς σώμασι:

  [3] For these reasons, therefore, I have determined not to pass over a noble period of history which the older writers left untouched, a period, moreover, the accurate portrayal of which will lead to the following most excellent and just results: In the first place, the brave men who have fulfilled their destiny will gain immortal glory and be extolled by posterity, which things render human nature like upon the divine and prevent men’s deeds from perishing together with their bodies.

  [4] τοῖς δὲ ἀπ᾽ ἐκείνων τῶν ἰσοθέων ἀνδρῶν νῦν τε οἶσι καὶ ὕστερον ἐσομένοις μὴ τὸν ἥδιστόν τε καὶ ῥᾷστον αἱρεῖσθαι τῶν βίων, ἀλλὰ τὸν εὐγενέστατον καὶ φιλοτιμότατον, ἐνθυμουμένους ὅτι τοὺς εἰληφότας καλὰς τὰς πρώτας ἐκ τοῦ γένους ἀφορμὰς μέγα ἐφ᾽ ἑαυτοῖς προσήκει φρονεῖν καὶ μηδὲν ἀνάξιον ἐπιτηδεύειν τῶν προγόνων:

  [4] And again, both the present and future descendants of those godlike men will choose, not the pleasantest and easiest of lives, but rather the noblest and most ambitious, when they consider that all who are sprung from an illustrious origin ought to set a high value on themselves and indulge in no pursuit unworthy of their ancestors.

  [5] ἐμοὶ δὲ, ὃς οὐχὶ κολακείας χάριν ἐπὶ ταύτην [p. 11] ἀπέκλινα τὴν πραγματείαν, ἀλλὰ τῆς ἀληθείας καὶ τοῦ δικαίου προνοούμενος, ὧν δεῖ στοχάζεσθαι πᾶσαν ἱστορίαν, πρῶτον μὲν ἐπιδείξασθαι τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ διάνοιαν, ὅτι χρηστὴ πρὸς ἅπαντας ἀνθρώπους ἐστὶ τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς καὶ φιλοθεώρους τῶν καλῶν ἔργων καὶ μεγάλων: ἔπειτα χαριστηρίους ἀμοιβάς, ἃς ἐμοὶ δύναμις ἦν, ἀποδοῦναι τῇ πόλει, παιδείας τε μεμνημένῳ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἀγαθῶν ὅσων ἀπέλαυσα διατρίψας ἐν αὐτῇ.

  [5] And I, who have not turned aside to this work for the sake of flattery, but out of a regard for truth and justice, which ought to be the aim of every history, shall have an opportunity, in the first place, of expressing my attitude of goodwill toward all good men and toward all who take pleasure in the contemplation of great and noble deeds; and, in the second place, of making the most grateful return that I may to the city and other blessings I have enjoyed during my residence in it.

  [1] ἀποδεδωκὼς δὲ τὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς προαιρέσεως λόγον ἔτι βούλομαι καὶ περὶ τῶν ἀφορμῶν εἰπεῖν, αἷς ἐχρησάμην ὅτ᾽ ἔμελλον ἐπιχειρεῖν τῇ γραφῇ: ἴσως γὰρ οἱ προανεγνωκότες Ἱερώνυμον ἢ Τίμαιον ἢ Πολύβιον ἢ τῶν ἄλλων τινὰ συγγραφέων, ὑπὲρ ὧν ἐποιησάμην λόγον ὀλίγῳ πρότερον ὡς ἐπισεσυρκότων τὴν γραφήν, πολλὰ τῶν ὑπ᾽ ἐμοῦ γραφομένων οὐχ εὑρηκότες παρ᾽ ἐκείνοις κείμενα σχεδιάζειν υπολήψονταί με καὶ πόθεν ἡ τούτων γνῶσις εἰς ἐμὲ παραγέγονεν ἀξιώσουσι μαθεῖν. ἵνα δὴ μὴ τοιαύτη δόξα παραστῇ τισι περὶ ἐμοῦ, βέλτιον ἀφ᾽ ὧν ὡρμήθην λόγων τε καὶ

  [7.1] Having thus given the reason for my choice of subject, I wish now to say something concerning the sources I used while preparing for my task. For it is possible that those who have already read Hieronymus, Timaeus, Polybius, or any of the other historians whom I just now mentioned as having slurred over their work, since they will not have found in those authors many things mentioned by me, w
ill suspect me of inventing them and will demand to know how I came by the knowledge of these particulars. Lest anyone, therefore, should entertain such an opinion of me, it is best that I should state in advance what narratives and records I have used as sources.

  [2] ὑπομνηματισμῶν προειπεῖν. ἐγὼ καταπλεύσας εἰς Ἰταλίαν ἅμα τῷ καταλυθῆναι τὸν ἐμφύλιον πόλεμον ὑπὸ τοῦ Σεβαστοῦ Καίσαρος ἑβδόμης καὶ ὀγδοηκοστῆς καὶ ἑκατοστῆς ὀλυμπιάδος μεσούσης, καὶ τὸν ἐξ ἐκείνου χρόνον ἐτῶν δύο καὶ εἴκοσι μέχρι τοῦ παρόντος γενόμενον ἐν Ῥώμῃ διατρίψας, διάλεκτόν τε τὴν Ῥωμαϊκὴν ἐκμαθὼν καὶ γραμμάτων τῶν ἐπιχωρίων [p. 12] λαβὼν ἐπιστήμην, ἐν παντὶ τούτῳ τῷ χρόνῳ τὰ συντείνοντα πρὸς τὴν ὑπόθεσιν ταύτην διετέλουν πραγματευόμενος.