98 .-- M.] [Footnote 34: It is incumbent on me to explain the liberties which I have taken with the text of Ammianus.1.I have melted down into one piece the sixth chapter of the fourteenth and the fourth of the twenty-eighth book.2.I have given order and connection to the confused mass of materials.3.I have softened some extravagant hyperbeles, and pared away some superfluities of the original.4.I have developed some observations which were insinuated rather than expressed.

With these allowances, my version will be found, not literal indeed, but faithful and exact.] "The greatness of Rome"-- such is the language of the historian--"was founded on the rare, and almost incredible, alliance of virtue and of fortune.

The long period of her infancy was employed in a laborious struggle against the tribes of Italy, the neighbors and enemies of the rising city.

In the strength and ardor of youth, she sustained the storms of war; carried her victorious arms beyond the seas and the mountains; and brought home triumphal laurels from every country of the globe.

At length, verging towards old age, and sometimes conquering by the terror only of her name, she sought the blessings of ease and tranquillity.