The PREFACE.
IF we should imitate others in the compiling of their Histories, we should * 1.1 first in the Preface of every Book, observe some things pertinent to the Occasion and Subject in Hand, and then descend to the continuation of our Discourse, upon the Actions and Affairs that follow next in order: For by some small intermission from writing, we gain a breathing fit; the fruit and advantage by Prefaces. But in as much as we have promis'd to endeavour in a few Books, not only to relate things that have been done, but likewise to comprehend in that Relation, the time of above Eleven Hundred Years, it's necessary to avoid Prefaces, and come presently to the matters in Hand. Only promising this to inform the Reader, that in the Six former Books, are contain'd the things done in all Parts of the World, from the Trojan War, to the time the Athenians decreed the War against the Syracusians, to which from the Destruction of Troy, is Seven Hundred and Threescore Years: And that we shall begin this Book with that Expedition against the Syracusians, and end it at the beginning of the Second Carthaginian War against Dionysius the Tyrant of Syracuse.