In my first Book, the third, that is, from this counting backwards, I explained that I fixed as the starting-points of my work, the Social war, the Hannibalic war, and the war for <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Coele-Syria&groupId=484&placeId=908">Coele-Syria</a>.
I likewise set forth in the same place the reasons why I wrote the two preceding Books dealing with events of an earlier date.
I will now attempt to give a well attested account of the above wars, their first causes and the reasons why they attained such magnitude; but in the first place I have a few words to say regarding my work as a whole.
The subject I have undertaken to treat, the how, when, and wherefore of the subjection of the known parts of the world to the dominion of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>, should be viewed as a single whole,
with a recognized beginning, a fixed duration, and an end which is not a matter of dispute; and I think it will be advantageous to give a brief prefatory survey of the chief parts of this whole from the beginning to the end.
For I believe this will be the best means of giving students an adequate idea of my whole plan.
Since a previous general view is of great assistance to the mind in acquiring a knowledge of details, and at the same time a previous notion of the details helps us to knowledge of the whole, I regard a preliminary survey based on both as best and will draw up these prefatory remarks to my history on this principle.
I have already indicated the general scope and limits of this history.
The particular events comprised in it begin with the above-mentioned wars and culminate and end in the destruction of the Macedonian monarchy. Between the beginning and end lies a space of fifty-three years,
comprising a greater number of grave and momentous events than any period of equal length in the past.
Starting from the 140th Olympiad I shall adopt the following order in my exposition of them.
Walbank Commentary