of the book. For I have felt obliged to allow inconsistency of letter
in the hope of approaching a consistency of spirit. I suppose that the
ideal plan to follow in a translation would be to let a given English
word represent a given Greek word, so that "beautiful" should occur as
many times in the English version as [Greek: kalos] in the original,
and "strength" as many times as [Greek: rhômê]. Such a scheme,
however, is not feasible in a passage of any length, and its
impossibility simply goes to show what a makeshift translation is and
always has been, after all. Therefore single Greek words will be found
reproduced by various English terms, but with that color which seems
best adapted to the context.

Again, in spelling I have chosen a method not unknown to recent
historians, which consists in anglicising familiar proper names that
are household words, like Antony, Catiline, etc., but keeping the
classical Latin form for persons less well known, as Antonius the
grandfather of Mark Antony. To the names of gods I have given a Latin
dress unless a particular god happened to be named by a Greek on Greek
soil. Similarly in geographical or topographical designations the
translator of Dio must needs confront a more difficult situation than
did Dio himself. Greek reduces _all_ names to its own basis. In
English one must often select from the Latin form, Greek form, Native
form, or Anglicised form. Since Dio lived in Italy and was to all
intents and purposes a Roman I decided to make the Latin form the
standard, and admit rarely the Anglicised form, less often the Greek,
and least often the Native. As to the minutiæ of spelling I need
scarcely say that I have been tremendously aided by Boissevain's
exhaustive studies, briefly summarized in his notes. This painstaking
care, for which he feels almost obliged to apologize, will lend a
permanent lustre to his invaluable work.