§1.8.1ἄρχομαι μὲν οὖν τῆς ἱστορίας ἀπὸ τῶν παλαιοτάτων μύθων, οὓς παρέλιπον οἱ πρὸ ἐμοῦ γενόμενοι συγγραφεῖς χαλεποὺς ὄντας ἄνευ πραγματείας μεγάλης ἐξευρεθῆναι·
I begin my history, then, from the most ancient myths, which the writers who came before me omitted, because they were difficult to discover without great trouble.
§1.8.2καταβιβάζω δὲ τὴν διήγησιν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν τοῦ πρώτου Φοινικικοῦ πολέμου τὴν γενομένην ἐνιαυτῷ τρίτῳ τῆς ὀγδόης καὶ εἰκοστῆς ἐπὶ ταῖς ἑκατὸν ὀλυμπιάσιν.
And I bring the narrative down to the beginning of the First Punic War, which occurred in the third year of the hundred and twenty-eighth Olympiad.
ἀφηγοῦμαι δὲ τούς τε ὀθνείους πολέμους τῆς πόλεως ἅπαντας, ὅσους ἐν ἐκείνοις τοῖς χρόνοις ἐπολέμησε, καὶ τὰς ἐμφυλίους στάσεις ὁπόσας ἐστασίασεν, ἐξ οἵων αἰτιῶν ἐγένοντο καὶ δι’ οἵων τρόπων τε καὶ λόγων κατελύθησαν·
And I relate all the foreign wars of the city, as many as it waged in those times, and all the civil dissensions which it suffered, from what causes they arose and by what means and arguments they were brought to an end.
πολιτειῶν τε ἰδέας διέξειμι πάσας ὅσαις ἐχρήσατο βασιλευομένη τε καὶ μετὰ τὴν κατάλυσιν τῶν μονάρχων, καὶ τίς ἦν αὐτῶν ἑκάστης ὁ κόσμος·
And I shall go through all the forms of government which it used, both during the period of kingship and after the overthrow of the monarchs, and what the constitution of each of them was.
ἔθη τε τὰ κράτιστα καὶ νόμους τοὺς ἐπιφανεστάτους διηγοῦμαι καὶ συλλήβδην ὅλον ἀποδείκνυμι τὸν ἀρχαῖον βίον τῆς πόλεως.
I also relate the best customs and the most famous laws, and, in short, I demonstrate the entire ancient life of the city.
§1.8.3σχῆμα δὲ ἀποδίδωμι τῇ πραγματείᾳ οὔθʼ ὁποῖον οἱ τοὺς πολέμους μόνους ἀναγράψαντες ἀποδεδώκασι ταῖς ἱστορίαις οὔθʼ ὁποῖον οἱ τὰς πολιτείας αὐτὰς ἐξ̓ ἑαυτῶν διηγησάμενοι οὔτε ταῖς χρονικαῖς παραπλήσιον, ἃς ἐξέδωκαν οἱ τὰς Ἀτθίδας πραγματευσάμενοι· μονοειδεῖς γὰρ ἐκεῖναί τε καὶ ταχὺ προσιστάμεναι τοῖς ἀκούουσιν·
And I give to the work a form neither such as those who have recorded wars alone have given to their histories, nor such as those who have described constitutions by themselves, nor similar to the chronographies which those who treated the Atthides published; for those are uniform and quickly become wearisome to the listeners.
ἀλλʼ ἐξ ἁπάσης ἰδέας μικτὸν ἐναγωνίου τε καὶ θεωρητικῆς καὶ ἡδείας, ἵνα καὶ τοῖς περὶ τοὺς πολιτικοὺς διατρίβουσι λόγους καὶ τοῖς περὶ τὴν φιλόσοφον ἐσπουδακόσι θεωρίαν καὶ εἴ τισιν ἀοχλήτου δεήσει διαγωγῆς ἐν ἱστορικοῖς ἀναγνώσμασιν, §1.8.4ἀποχρώντως ἔχουσα φαίνηται.
Rather, I make it a mixture of every style—the active, the theoretical, and the pleasant—so that both for those who busy themselves with political discourses, and for those who have been devoted to philosophical speculation, and if any shall require an easy pastime in historical readings, it may appear sufficiently adequate.
ἡ μὲν οὖν ἱστορία περὶ τοιούτων τε γενήσεται πραγμάτων καὶ τοιούτου τεύξεται σχήματος· ὁ δὲ συντάξας αὐτὴν Διονύσιός εἰμι Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἁλικαρνασεύς·
The history, then, will be about such matters and will obtain such a form; and I who have composed it am Dionysius, son of Alexander, of Halicarnassus.
ἄρχομαι δʼ ἐνθένδε.
And I begin from this point.