Scipio's Success Due to his Character
I have spoken somewhat at length on the character of
note
Scipio, because I thought that such a story
would be agreeable to the older, and useful to
the younger among my readers. But especially
because I wished to make what I have to tell
in my following books appear credible; that
no one may feel any difficulty because of the
apparent strangeness of what happened to this man; nor
deprive him of the credit of achievements which were the
natural consequences of his prudence, and attribute them to
Fortune and chance. I must now return from this digression
to the regular course of my history. . . .