The Society for Ancient Languages
Week One
T. LIVI |
TITUS LIVIUS (LIVY) |
LIBER I |
BOOK 1 |
| Facturusne operae pretium sim, si a primordio urbis res populi Romani perscripserim, nec satis scio, nec, si sciam, dicere ausim, quippe qui cum veterem tum volgatam esse rem videam, dum novi semper scriptores aut in rebus certius aliquid allaturos se aut scribendi arte rudem vetustatem superaturos credunt. Utcumque erit, iuvabit tamen rerum gestarum memoriae principis terrarum populi pro virili parte et ipsum consuluisse; et si in tanta scriptorum turba mea fama in obscuro sit, nobilitate ac magnitudine eorum me qui nomini officient meo consoler. Res est praeterea et immensi operis, ut quae supra septingentesimum annum repetatur, et quae ab exiguis profecta initiis eo creverit ut iam magnitudine laboret sua; et legentium plerisque haud dubito quin primae origines proximaque originibus minus praebitura voluptatis sint, festinantibus ad haec nova, quibus iam pridem praevalentis populi vires se ipsae conficiunt: ego contra hoc quoque laboris praemium petam, ut me a conspectu malorum quae nostra tot per annos vidit aetas, tantisper certe dum prisca illa tota mente repeto, avertam, omnis expers curae quae scribentis animum, etsi non flectere a vero, sollicitum tamen efficere posset. | Whether I am about to bring about something worth the exertion, if I should write in full the history of the Roman people from the first beginning of the city, I do not quite know, nor if I should know, would I dare to say, for I would perceive the history by all means to be both of long standing and especially to be commonly known, yet always new authors believe themselves either about to add to the labors in histories more dependably or they believe themselves about to surpass rough antiquity in style being written. In whatever manner it will be it will nevertheless please myself to have regarded the interests of the memory of the affairs of the foremost people of the world to the utmost of my ability; and if in so great a throng of authors my fame should be obscure, consolation for me would be from the excellence and greatness of those who shadow my name. And beyond this the subject of the labor is vast, that which is traced back from beyond seven hundred years, and which having begun fron this will have increased meager beginnings so that now it labors from its own greatness; and indeed I hardly doubt that the large part of those reading the first beginnings are to be offered less of pleasure from origins more closely related, with them hastening to this new age, in which the strengths of the prevailing people they long since now themselves waste. I shall strive against this and also I shall seek the worth of the labor, in order that I might turn myself from the countenance of evils which our generation has been witnessing through so many years, just so long as I trace back such great ancient days with that recollection, having no share in every care which, even if not to turn the mind of him writing from the truth, it would never- theless be able to bring about anxiety. |
| Hoc illud est praecipue in cognitione rerum salubre ac frugiferum, omnis te exempli documenta in inlustri posita monumento intueri; inde tibi tuaeque rei publicae quod imitere capias, inde foedum inceptu, foedum exitu, quod vites. Ceterum aut me amor negotii suscepti fallit, aut nulla umquam res publica nec maior nec sanctior nec bonis exemplis ditior fuit, nec in quam civitatem tam serae avaritia luxuriaque inmigraverint, nec ubi tamtus ac tam diu paupertati ac parsimoniae honos fuerit. Adeo quanto rerum minus, tanto minus cupiditatis erat; nuper divitiae avaritiam et abundantes voluptates desiderium per luxum atque libidinem pereundi perdendique omnia invexere. | This is an especially fruitful thing in the sound investigation of histories, that you to contemplate all proof of example as having been set in place on a conspicuous monument, thence you might select which to imitate for you and your state, thence you might avoid that fouled in the commencement, and fouled in the completion. Furthermore, either love of the occupation having been undertaken deceives me, or never has a state been greater nor more ordained nor more richly endowed in good examples, nor in which avarice and excess will have befallen the state so late, and nor where such great honor for humble means and thrift will have existed so long. To that point so much was the lack of wealth, so much was the lack of desire; recently wealth to introduce avarice, and abundant pleasures to introduce the longing through excess and also caprice for every squandering and destruction. |
| Sed querellae, ne tum quidem gratae futurae cum forsitan necessariae erunt, ab initio certe tantae ordiendae rei absint; cum bonis potius ominibus votisque et precationibus deorum dearumque, si, ut poetis, nobis quoque mos esset, libentius inciperemus, ut orsis tantum operis successus prosperos darent. | But complaints, will indeed not be pleasing, even when perchance necessary for the future, let the ordering for so great a history be absent from a sure beginning; we might rather begin more generously with everything good, and with prayers and entreaties to the gods and goddesses, if, as with the poets, the custom would also be for us, so that they might give favorable success for the undertaking of so great a task. |