Latin
Lines 1.51-1.65
Greek and Roman Historians, Ancient Historians on History 1.51-65
Not analysed yet
Diodorus Siculus (d. after 21 B. C.)
It is indeed both just and beneficial to society that history should heap imprecations upon base men who have held positions of authority, but should accord immortal remembrance to those who have been beneficent rulers; for in this way especially, it will be found, many men of later generations will be impelled to work for the general good of mankind. (World History 37. 6)
Josephus (A.D. 37-100)
Those who undertake to write histories, do not, I perceive, take that trouble on one and the same account, but for many reasons, and those such as are very different one from another. For some of them apply themselves to this part of learning to show their skill in composition, and that they may therein acquire a reputation for speaking finely: others of them there are, who write histories in order to gratify those that happen to be concerned in them, and on that account have spared no pains, but rather gone beyond their own abilities in the performance: but others there are, who, of necessity and by force, are driven to write history, because they are concerned in the facts, and so cannot excuse themselves from committing them to writing, for the advantage of posterity; nay, there are not a few who are induced to draw their historical facts out of darkness into light, and to produce them for the benefit of the public, on account of the great importance of the facts themselves with which they have been concerned. Now of these several reasons for writing history, I must profess the two last were my own reasons also; for since I was myself interested in that war which we Jews had with the Romans, and knew myself its particular actions, and what conclusion it had, I was forced to give the history of it, because I saw that others perverted the truth of those actions in their writings. (Antiquities of the Jews ,Preface 1)
Tacitus (c. 55-117 A.D.)
Rome at the beginning was ruled by kings. Freedom and the consulship were established by Lucius Brutus. Dictatorships were held for a temporary crisis. The power of the decemvirs did not last beyond two years, nor was the consular jurisdiction of the military tribunes of long duration. The despotisms of Cinna and Sulla were brief; the rule of Pompeius and of Crassus soon yielded before Caesar; the arms of Lepidus and Antonius before Augustus; who, when the world was wearied by civil strife, subjected it to empire under the title of Princeps. But the successes and reverses of the old Roman people have been recorded by famous historians; and fine intellects were not wanting to describe the times of Augustus, till growing sycophancy scared them away. The histories of Tiberius, Caius, Claudius, and Nero, while they were in power, were falsified through terror, and after their death were written under the irritation of a recent hatred. Hence my purpose is to relate a few facts about Augustus --more particularly his last acts, then the reign of Tiberius, and all which follows, without either bitterness or partiality (sine ira et studio ),from any motives to which I am far removed. (Annales 1. 1)