The traditions of what happened prior to the foundation of the City or
							whilst it was being built, are more fitted to adorn the creations of the
							poet than the authentic records of the historian, and I have no
							intention of establishing either their truth or their falsehood. This much licence is conceded to the ancients, that by intermingling
							human actions with divine they may confer a more august dignity on the
							origins of states. Now, if any nation ought to be allowed to claim a
							sacred origin and point back to a divine paternity that nation is Rome.
						 For such is her renown in war that when she chooses to represent Mars as
							her own and her founder's father, the nations of the world accept the
							statement with the same equanimity with which they accept her dominion.
						 But whatever opinions may be formed or criticisms passed upon these and
							similar traditions, I regard them as of small importance. The subjects
							to which I would ask each of my readers to devote his earnest attention
							are these-the life and morals of the community; the men and the
							qualities by which through domestic policy and foreign war dominion was
							won and extended. Then as the standard of morality gradually lowers, let
							him follow the decay of the national character, observing how at first
							it slowly sinks, then slips downward more and more rapidly, and finally
							begins to plunge into headlong ruin, until he reaches these days, in
							which we can bear neither our diseases nor their remedies. There is this exceptionally beneficial and fruitful advantage to be
							derived from the study of the past, that you see, set in the clear light
							of historical truth, examples of every possible type. From these you may
							select for yourself and your country what to imitate, and also what, as
							being mischievous in its inception and disastrous in its issues, you are
							to avoid.