The lives of the Roman emperors from Domitian, where Suetonius ends, to Constantine the Great containing those of Nerva and Trajan from Dion Cassius : a translation of the six writers of the Augustéan history and those of Dioclesian and his associates from Eusebius and others by John Bernard ...

THE PREFACE.

I Hope, it will appear, that there are many things in these Lives of that great Moment, and which are no where else in the World to be found, that This Publication of them will not be unacceptable to the In∣genuous Reader. They are the most Authen∣tick accounts of the Princes of whom they speak, that are Extant to us at this day. I had almost said, they are the very only Histories which we have of them. For Victor and Eutropius give us no Better than a few Sketches upon them. Herodian begins a great deal too late, and ends a great deal too soon for the Reigns of many of these Princes; and Dion Cassius Concludes his History with his own Consulship under Alexander Severus. Neither is Herodian. in what he says, much less the Imperfect Part of Dion Cassius, so Particular and

of that Latitude, as the Method is, that is taken by these Historians: and therefore whoever would inform himself, or the world, of the Lives and Actions of these Princes, he Unavoidably comes hither for his Materi∣als; and all that any of the Moderns have done, or can do, upon the same Subject, is, to gather from this Stock, and Glean from this Harvest.

This I presume is enough for me to say, to represent at once the Authority, and the Value of the Augustéan Historians. They were Persons, who were Employed upon what they did by the Command of the Emperors, to whom they Dedicate; and I take that to be a very good reason to think, that they took all the care they could of their Per∣formance, and that they had the Reputation in their own Age of being None of the worst Hands.

Yet it is very certain, that the Originals are strangely Coarse, and wonderfully Rug∣ged. The Learned Salmasius, Casaubon, and Gruterus, but especially the two first, have bestowed incredible Pains upon them, to make them intelligible. The Text, and the Manuscripts out of which the Text hath been Printed, are all so very Vitious. But there is no Necessity, that I should Pub∣lish

here, all that I have observed as to those Matters. I must confess, it hath been a Work of no small difficulty to me to Translate them. So obscure and dark as they are in their own Language, it was almost im∣possible to make them shine in another. But yet when I observed, how very much these Lives have been long wanting to the Pub∣lick, and no Collections I thought out of them could be so satisfactory, nor comparable with the Original; I was pleased, that I had chose the Part that would be the most beneficial to the Reader, although at the same time it was the most painful to me.

In what manner I have acquitted my self, I must leave it to his Candor, and to his Goodness to determine. I have endeavoured to make both the Language and the Story so Easie and so Natural, by the Liberty that I take, and which I think is no more than just, that whilst they are in the Original some of the difficultest Books in the World, he that Runs may Read them here, and there is no need of the least Notes to Explain any thing. I have for the most part given to Places the Modern Names, under which they are now known to us: except when it is inconsistent with the Modern Geography so to do, or when they are such Places, as have been long

Extinct, and we have no modern Names for them. Nor is the Reader to be surprised, if he should see the City of Byzantium called Con∣stantinople, even before Constantine. This is a Solecism in point of time. But I stand not upon that, when I consider; that howsoever my Authors writ to the Ages long since past, yet I do translate them to my own.

There is a Question amongst the Criticks, but of not much more moment, than generally the Questions of those Gentlemen are; whether the several Persons, to whose Names these Lives are attributed as the Authors, were really the Authors of them or not; and whether Aelius Spartian and Aelius Lampridius be not the same Person under three Names; because Sal∣masius says, that in the Palatine Manuscript, all the Lives of the first Volume, contrary to the Example of other Manuscripts, and to the received Opinion, are attributed to the Name of Spartianus. Now, as to this, I need say no more, than that I cannot think, that Spartia∣nus was the Author of all the first Volume, for this Reason; because the same Person would ne∣ver have made so many Repetitions: And so it seems the most probable to me to be, that each Part was written by the Hand that it pretends to; but yet all, or however, most of them, writ∣ten by a common Consent, and Undertaking of the Authors, one amongst another.

One thing there is, wherein I crave the Li∣berty farther to speak my Opinion, as to the Praise of these Authors. The Acts which they have faithfully extracted out of the Journal of the Senate, and out of the Ulpian Library; the Bitter Exclamations of the Senate against the Memories of their evil Princes, and their Applauses of their good Ones; the Letters and Speeches which are Here, not as in other Historians invented, but all true Ori∣ginals; These I say, I think, are such Beauties, as are not to be parallell'd out of the best of the Antients, that have ever writ the Roman Hi∣story.

The Lives of Nerva and Trajan, I have translated from the Original Greek of Dion Cassius: He being the only Historian of the Antients, that are now extant, that hath them. And it was necessary that those Two Lives should be premised to the rest, to make the Line of the Roman Emperors perfect, from the end of Suetonius.

Where the Augustéan Historians have themselves ended, I have been obliged to adjoyn a few Collections of my own, for the Lives of Dioclesian, Maximian, Constantius and Galerius: Because we have no antient Origi∣nals left us of those Emperors; and to end with Carinus, it was thought improper, it

being no period; whereas the Addition of those Four, after him, brings down the Account en∣tirely unto Constantine the Great.

To Regulate the better the whole, I have added a Chronology for the satisfaction of any who shall be pleased to turn to it.

The Extract out of the Learned Vossius, which follows, prevents me in the rest, that I might have to offer; it was done to my hand, by an ingenious Gentleman.

I shall only add, that after I had entirely finished this Translation, I received a French one, made about thirty Years ago by the Abbé de Villeloin, a great Writer, who dedicates it to the French King; and, I ob∣serve, takes the Liberty to say, that it is the Tenth Book which he hath had the Honour to dedicate to him. It begins but with Ha∣drian, and ends with Carinus. I perused it, and compared Mine with it; and I shall be glad, if this may be something the better for that Labour.

These Historians have not affected to be eloquent, but they may the more be depended upon for the Truth.