§1.89.1ἃ μὲν οὖν ἐμοὶ δύναμις ἐγένετο σὺν πολλῇ φροντίδι ἀνευρεῖν Ἑλλήνων τε καὶ Ῥωμαίων συχνὰς ἀναλεξαμένῳ γραφὰς ὑπὲρ τοῦ τῶν Ῥωμαίων. γένους, τοιάδʼ ἐστίν.
These, then, are the things which, by reading many writings of both Greeks and Romans, I was able with much care to discover concerning the origin of the Romans.
ὥστε θαρρῶν ἤδη τις ἀποφαινέσθω πολλὰ χαίρειν φράσας τοῖς βαρβάρων καὶ δραπετῶν καὶ ἀνεστίων ἀνθρώπων καταφυγὴν τὴν Ῥώμην ποιοῦσιν Ἑλλάδα πόλιν αὐτήν, ἀποδεικνύμενος μὲν κοινοτάτην τε πόλεων καὶ φιλανθρωποτάτην, ἐνθυμούμενος. ὅτι τὸ μὲν τῶν Ἀβοριγίνων φῦλον Οἰνωτρικὸν ἦν, τοῦτο δὲ Ἀρκαδικόν· §1.89.2μεμνημένος δὲ τῶν συνοικησάντων αὐτοῖς Πελασγῶν, οἳ Θετταλίαν καταλιπόντες Ἀργεῖοι τὸ γένος ὄντες εἰς Ἰταλίαν ἀφίκοντο· Εὐάνδρου τε αὖ καὶ Ἀρκάδων ἀφίξεως, οἳ περὶ τὸ Παλλάντιον ᾤκησαν, Ἀβοριγίνων αὐτοῖς παρασχόντων τὸ χωρίον· ἔτι δὲ Πελοποννησίων τῶν σὺν Ἡρακλεῖ παραγενομένων, οἳ κατῴκησαν ἐπὶ τοῦ Σατορνίου· τελευταῖον δὲ τῶν ἀπαναστάντων ἐκ τῆς Τρωάδος καὶ συγκερασθέντων τοῖς προτέροις.
So let anyone now with confidence declare, bidding a long farewell to those who make Rome a refuge of barbarians and runaways and homeless people, that she is herself a Greek city, demonstrating on the one hand that she is the most hospitable and philanthropic of cities, and reflecting on the other hand that the stock of the Aborigines was Oenotrian, and this Oenotrian stock was Arcadian; and remembering the Pelasgians who settled with them, who having left Thessaly and being Argive by race, came into Italy; and again of the arrival of Evander and the Arcadians, who settled around Pallantium, the Aborigines having provided them with the place; and still of the Peloponnesians who came with Heracles, who settled on the Saturnian hill; and finally of those who emigrated from the Troad and were mingled with the former inhabitants.
τούτων γὰρ ἂν οὐδὲν εὕροι τῶν ἐθνῶν οὔτε ἀρχαιότερον οὔτε Ἑλληνικώτερον.
For of these nations, one could find none either older or more Greek.
§1.89.3αἱ δὲ τῶν βαρβάρων ἐπιμιξίαι, διʼ ἃς ἡ πόλις πολλὰ τῶν ἀρχαίων ἐπιτηδευμάτων ἀπέμαθε, σὺν χρόνῳ ἐγένοντο.
But the admixtures of barbarians, because of which the city unlearned many of her ancient customs, came about in the course of time.
καὶ θαῦμα μὲν τοῦτο πολλοῖς ἂν εἶναι δόξειε τὰ εἰκότα λογισαμένοις, πῶς οὐχ ἅπασα ἐξεβαρβαρώθη Ὀπικούς τε ὑποδεξαμένη καὶ Μαρσοὺς καὶ· Σαυνίτας καὶ Τυρρηνοὺς καὶ Βρεττίους Ὀμβρικῶν τε καὶ Λιγύων καὶ Ἰβήρων καὶ Κελτῶν συχνὰς μυριάδας ἄλλα τε πρὸς τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἔθνη τὰ μὲν ἐξ αὐτῆς Ἰταλίας, τὰ δʼ ἐξ ἑτέρων ἀφιγμένα τόπων μυρία ὅσα οὔτε ὁμόγλωττα οὔτε ὁμοδίαιτα, ὧν καὶ βίους σύγκλυδας ἀναταραχθέντας ἐκ τοσαύτης διαφωνίας πολλὰ τοῦ παλαιοῦ §1.89.4κόσμου τῆς πόλεως νεοχμῶσαι εἰκὸς ἦν· ἐπεὶ ἄλλοι γε συχνοὶ ἐν βαρβάροις οἰκοῦντες ὀλίγου χρόνου διελθόντος ἅπαν τὸ Ἑλληνικὸν ἀπέμαθον, ὡς μήτε φωνὴν Ἑλλάδα φθέγγεσθαι μήτε %5ἐπιτηδεύμασιν Ελλήνων χρῆσθαι, μήτε θεοὺς τοὺς αὐτοὺς νομίζειν, μήτε νόμους τοὺς ἐπιεικεῖς, ᾧ μάλιστα διαλλάσσει φύσις Ἑλλὰς βαρβάρου, μήτε τῶν ἄλλων συμβολαίων μηδʼ ὁτιοῦν.
And this would seem to be a wonder to many who calculate the probabilities, how she was not entirely barbarianized, having received both Opicans and Marsians and Samnites and Tyrrhenians and Bruttians, and many tens of thousands of Umbrians and Ligurians and Iberians and Celts, and countless other nations besides those mentioned, some arriving from Italy itself and others from other places, who were neither of the same tongue nor of the same way of life, whose mixed modes of life, being thrown into confusion by so great a discord, was likely to innovate much of the ancient order of the city; for many others, living among barbarians, after a short time has passed, have unlearned everything Greek, so that they neither speak the Greek language nor practice the customs of the Greeks, nor worship the same gods, nor observe moderate laws —by which especially the Greek nature differs from the barbarian—nor maintain any other social contracts at all.
ἀποχρῶσι δὲ τὸν λόγον τόνδε Ἀχαιῶν οἱ περὶ τὸν Πόντον ᾠκημένοι τεκμηριῶσαι, Ἠλείων μὲν ἐκ τοῦ Ἑλληνικωτάτου γενόμενοι, βαρβάρων δὲ συμπάντων τῶν νῦν ὄντες ἀγριώτατοι.
And those of the Achaeans who settled around the Pontus are sufficient to prove this statement; though having sprung from the Eleans, the most Greek of peoples, they are now the most savage of all barbarians.