Book Description

Excerpt from The History of Count Zosimus: Sometime Advocate and Chancellor of the Roman Empire; Translated From the Original Greek, With the Notes of the Oxford Edition When Polybius of Megalopolis proposed to write the history of all the remarkable occurrences of his own times, he thought it proper to demonstrate by facts, that the Romans, who were continually at war with the neighbouring states, for six hundred years after the building of their city, acquired in that space of time no considerable extent of dominion. But after they had subdued a small part of Italy, which upon the invasion of Hannibal they lost at the battle of Cannte, and viewed their enemies under their own walls; they made so great a progress in good fortune, that in less than fifty-three years, they became masters, not only of all Italy and Africa, but likewise of Spam. And being still desirous to enlarge their empire, they crdssed the' Ionian sea, conquered Greece, and ruined the Macedonians, whose king they carried to Rome in chains. No person can there fore suppose that all this proceeded from causes merely human, but either from fatalnecessity, the influence of the planets, or the will of the Deity, which regards with favour all our actions, while they are just and virtuous. For these provide for future' contingencies by such a train of apparent causes, that thinking persons must conclude the administration of human affairs to be in the hands of a divine Providence; so that when the energy of nations by the divine influence is roused and alert, they flourish in prosperity; and on the contrary, when they become dis pleasing to the gods, their affairs decline to a state resembling that which now exists. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.