The events that are handed down from the period before and during the foundation of the city, being more appropriate for the plots of poets than the uncorrupted records of accomplishments, I intend neither to affirm nor to refute. The ancient past is given forgiveness for making the beginnings of cities more august by mixing human events with divine ones. If it is suitable for any people to be allowed to consecrate their origins and to place their founders among the gods, the glory in war of the Roman People is such that when they proclaim Mars [the god of war] in particular as their own and their founder's parent, the races of man should bear this with as much equanimity as they do the Romans' rule. As for such matters and the like, however they will be noted or assessed, I at least don't place much importance on this. What each reader should, I ask, pay attention to is the following: what was the way of life and the customs, through what sort of men and with what skills at home and abroad was the empire both acquired and increased. Next, the reader should view in his mind how the customs first gave way as discipline began to slide, and then as they slipped more and more, they started falling headlong, until the present time was reached when we can endure neither our faults nor the cures. What is especially healthy and beneficial in the learning of history is that you can see set out in a clear record instances of every sort of precedent. From these you can grasp on behalf of yourself and your state what you should imitate and also what, being foul at the start and the end, you should avoid. In any event, either the love I feel for the task I've undertaken deludes me or there hasn't ever been a state that is greater or more scrupulous or richer in good examples, or one into which greed and high living moved so late, or where moderate means and frugality received such honor for so long. You see, the less property there was, the less greed. In recent times, riches have imported avarice and abundant delights the desire to be ruined and to ruin everything through riotous, lustful living.
But let complains, which aren't going to be welcome even at a time when they're necessary, be absent from the beginning, at any rate, of undertaking such a great matter. Instead, if we had the same custom as the poets, we would more readily start with good omens and vows and with prayers to the gods and goddesses that they may grant a successful outcome to efforts that have only begun.
(translation by C.S. Mackay, © 2008)