nec mihi cuncta complectendi cupido incessit: quis enim omnis aevi gesta modico voluminum numero comprehenderit, aut quis compos mentis domesticae peregrinaeque historiae seriem felici superiorum stilo conditam vel attentiore cura vel praestantiore facundia traditurum se speraverit? Te igitur huic coepto, penes quem hominum deorumque consensus maris ac terrae regimen esse voluit, certissima salus patriae, Caesar, invoco, cuius caelesti providentia virtutes, de quibus dicturus sum, benignissime foventur, vitia severissime vindicantur: nam si prisci oratores ab Iove Optimo Maximo bene orsi sunt, si excellentissimi vates a numine aliquo principia traxerunt, mea parvitas eo iustius ad favorem tuum decucurrerit, quo cetera divinitas opinione colligitur, tua praesenti fide paterno avitoque sideri par videtur, quorum eximio fulgore multum caerimoniis nostris inclutae claritatis accessit: reliquos enim deos accepimus, Caesares dedimus.
Nor am I seized with ambition to be all-embracing. Who should comprise the transactions of all time in a moderate number of volumes? Or who in his right mind should hope to transmit with closer care or superior eloquence the procession of domestic and foreign history recorded by the felicitous pens of predecessors? Therefore I invoke you to this undertaking, Caesar, surest salvation of the fatherland, in whose charge the unanimous will of gods and men has placed the governance of land and sea, by whose celestial providence the virtues of which I shall tell are most kindly fostered and the vices most sternly punished. Orators of old rightly began from Jupiter Best and Greatest, the finest poets took their start from some deity. My petty self shall betake me to your goodwill all the more properly in that other divinity is inferred by opinion whereas yours is seen by present certainty  as equal to the star of your father and grandfather, through whose peerless radiance much far-famed lustre has accrued to our ceremonies. For other gods we have received, the Caesars we have bestowed.
final_alignments\Valerius_Memorable_Book1.json