The Third Punic War
IT may occur to some to ask why I have not given a
note
dramatic turn to my narrative, now that I have
so striking a theme and a subject of such importance, by recording the actual speeches
delivered; a thing which the majority of
historians have done, by giving the appropriate
arguments used on either side. That I do not reject this
method altogether I have shown in several parts of my work,
in which I have recorded popular harangues and expositions
delivered by statesmen; but that I am not inclined to employ
it on every occasion alike will now be made clear; for it
would not be easy to find a subject more remarkable than
this, nor material more ample for instituting a comparison of
such a character. Nor indeed could any form of composition
be more convenient to me. Still, as I do not think it becoming in statesmen to be ready with argument and exposition on
every subject of debate without distinction, but rather to adapt
their speeches to the nature of the particular occasion, so neither
do I think it right for historians to practise their skill or
show off their ability upon their readers: they ought on the
contrary to devote their whole energies to discover and record
what was really and truly said, and even of such words only
those that are the most opportune and essential. . . .
