Their luxury, and their manners, have been the subject of minute and laborious disposition: but as such inquiries would divert me too long from the design of the present work, I shall produce an authentic state of Rome and its inhabitants, which is more peculiarly applicable to the period of the Gothic invasion.

Ammianus Marcellinus, who prudently chose the capital of the empire as the residence the best adapted to the historian of his own times, has mixed with the narrative of public events a lively representation of the scenes with which he was familiarly conversant.
The judicious reader will not always approve of the asperity of censure, the choice of circumstances, or the style of expression; he will perhaps detect the latent prejudices, and personal resentments, which soured the temper of Ammianus himself; but he will surely observe, with philosophic curiosity, the interesting and original picture of the manners of Rome.
"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.