THE ORIGIN AND DEEDS OF THE GOTHS

(Preface)


Though it had been my wish to glide in my little boat 1
by the shore of a peaceful coast and, as a certain writer
says, to gather little fishes from the pools of the ancients,
you, brother Castalius, bid me set my sails toward the
deep. You urge me to leave the little work I have in
hand, that is, the abbreviation of the Chronicles, and to
condense in my own style in this small book the twelve
volumes of the Senator on the origin and deeds of the
Getae from olden time to the present day, descending
through the generations of the kings. Truly a hard command, 2
and imposed by one who seems unwilling to realize
the burden of the task. Nor do you note this, that my
utterance is too slight to fill so magnificent a trumpet of
speech as his. But above every burden is the fact that
I have no access to his books that I may follow his
thought. Still--and let me lie not--I have in times past
read the books a second time by his steward's loan for a
three days' reading. The words I recall not, but the
sense and the deeds related I think I retain entire. To 3
this I have added fitting matters from some Greek and