Roman History (Classic Reprint) Julius Koch

Excerpt from Roman History Sources. - The tradition as to the oldest period is almost without exception very late, and consequently possesses but little claim to belief. Historical composition in the true sense (for of the oldest Roman Annals we know practically nothing) was first brought by the Greeks to the sister race; but here misunderstanding and distortion of fact to adorn a tale, and often also to point a moral, have disguised the historical kernel. This is the case with the great compilations of the Augustan age, the "Historical Library" of Diodorus Siculus and the "Roman Archaeology" of Dionysius of Hallicarnassus; for are things any better with the monumental work of Roman historical composition, Titus Livius" History, comprising 142 books, but only to a small extent surviving (Books 1-10 and 21-45), for Livius" historical sagacity was dulled by his childishly worked out idea of the predestination of the Roman people to the dominion of the world; and moreover he had at his disposal but scanty and distorted sources for the earliest period. These comprehensive works, especially Livius, were the sources of the later historians, as Florus (end of the second century), Eutropius (second half of the fourth century), Aurelius Victor (about350), Orosius (early fifth century), and others, who are of importance particularly where they drew upon the portions of their great predecessors now lost to us. Similarly much passed over from the magnificently designed but only fragmentarily preserved Roman History of Cassius Dio (early third century, written in Greek) into the so-called "Compilers". Good material for the oldest period of his people is furnished by Cicero, especially in his work "On the State"; for chronology, the learned antiquarian of the age of Caesar, M. Terentius Varro, is of great importance, and to him too is due much of our knowledge of the history of ancient civilisation. Finally, we have to consider the careers of famous men (as Romulus, Numa, and so on) described in the period of the Flavian emperors by Plutarch of Chaeronea, the "biographical Shakespeare of world-history." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге Roman History (Classic Reprint) (Julius Koch)