Page:Dio's Roman History, tr. Cary - Volume 1.djvu/28

 Lydus, of the sixth century, who wrote of the Magistrates of the Roman Republic, and Cedrenus, a historian of the eleventh century.

The present text and division into books are based on Boissevain's edition, which has been courteously placed at the disposal of the Editors by Messrs. Weidmann of Berlin. The departures from his readings are relatively few, but are not always indicated in the critical notes, as it has seemed simpler to take the Ms. reading as the standard, and merely cite such emendations as are adopted in the text. For convenience of reference the traditional divisions of Books LXI-LXXX are given in the margin; and it is by these numbers that passages are cited.

The translation is based on that of H. B. Foster (Troy, N.Y., 1905-06), the first to appear in English. At the outset it was hoped that his translation would require few changes to bring it into conformity with the Greek text here adopted; but this hope was promptly disappointed, as soon as the task of careful comparison with the original was fairly under way, by the discovery of many errors of a more or less serious nature, as well as of frequent infelicities in the English. So far as has proved possible, his words have been retained; yet the changes found to be either necessary or desirable are so numerous that the editors have decided in favour of the present wording of the title page.