The True Theory of Historical Causes
The events I refer to are the wars of Rome against the
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Celtiberians and Vaccaei; those of Carthage
against Massinissa, king of Libya; and those
of Attalus and Prusias in Asia. Then also
Ariarathes, King of Cappadocia, having been
ejected from his throne by Orophernes through
the agency of King Demetrius, recovered his
ancestral power by the help of Attalus; while
Demetrius, son of Seleucus, after twelve years'
possession of the throne of Syria, was deprived
of it, and of his life at the same time, by a combination of the other kings against him. Then
it was, too, that the Romans restored to their
country those Greeks who had been charged
with guilt in the matter of the war with Perseus, after formally
acquitting them of the crimes alleged against them. Not
long afterwards the same people turned their hands against
Carthage: at first with the intention of forcing its removal to
some other spot, but finally, for reasons to be afterwards
stated, with the resolution of utterly destroying it. Contemporaneous with this came the renunciation by the Macedonians of their friendship to Rome, and by the Lacedaemonians of their membership of the Achaean league, to
which the disaster that befell all Greece alike owed its beginning and end.
This is my purpose: but its fulfilment must depend upon
whether Fortune protracts my life to the necessary length. I am
persuaded, however, that, even if the common human destiny
does overtake me, this theme will not be allowed to lie idle
for want of competent men to handle it; for there are many
besides myself who will readily undertake its completion.
But having given the heads of the most remarkable events,
with the object of enabling the reader to grasp the general
scope of my history as well as the arrangement of its several
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parts, I must now, remembering my original plan, go back to
the point at which my history starts.
