The Rise of the Roman Empire by Polybius

Author:Polybius
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: classics
ISBN: 9780141920504
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2003-08-28T04:25:01+00:00

BOOK VI

From the Preface

2. Some of my readers, I know, will be wondering why I have postponed until this moment my study of the Roman constitution and thus interrupted the flow of my narrative. I have, however, already made it clear at a number of points that I have always regarded this analysis as one of the essential parts in my design. I touched on this subject in particular at the beginning and in the preliminary survey of this history; there I remarked that the best and most useful aim of my work is to explain to my readers by what means and by virtue of what political institutions almost the whole world fell under the rule of one power, that of Rome, an event which is absolutely without parallel in earlier history. Having made this my purpose, I could find no more suitable occasion than the present to direct attention to what I am about to say and to test the truth of my remarks. In private life, if you wish to pass judgement on the characters of good or of bad men, you would not, assuming that your opinion is to be subjected to a genuine test, examine their actions only at periods of unclouded tranquillity, but rather at times of conspicuous success or failure. The test of true virtue in a man surely resides in his capacity to bear with spirit and with dignity the most complete transformations of fortune, and the same principle should apply to our judgement of states. And so, since I could find no greater or more violent changes of fortune in our time than those which befell the Romans, I have reserved this place in my history for my study of their constitution.

The particular aspect of history which both attracts and benefits its readers is the examination of causes and the capacity, which is the reward of this study, to decide in each case the best policy to follow. Now in all political situations we must understand that the principal factor which makes for success or failure is the form of a state’s constitution: it is from this source, as if from a fountain-head, that all designs and plans of action not only originate but reach their fulfilment.

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