ABSTRACT

My concern is that each reader should pay keen attention to these things: what kind of life, what kind of morals the Romans had, through what kind of men and by what means in peace and in war power was acquired and expanded; then, let him note in his mind how, as discipline tottered a little, morality began to fall apart, so to speak, then collapsed more and more, then began a downward plunge, until we have come to the present time when we can endure neither our faults nor their remedies. The especially healthy and fruitful element of the study of history is this, that you contemplate object-lessons of every type of model set up on a conspicuous monument: from these you can choose for yourself and for your state what to imitate and what to avoid, if loathsome in its beginning and loathsome in its outcome.