That many errors must have crept into an undertaking of this magnitude
I have only too vivid forebodings, and this in spite of no
inconsiderable efforts of mine to avoid them: herein I can but beg the
clemency of my readers and judges and hope that such faults may be
found to be mostly of a minor character. And perhaps I can do no
better than to make common cause at once with Mr. Francis Manning
whose book I recently mentioned; for, in his Epistle Dedicatory "To
The | Right Honourable | CHARLES | Earl of Orrery", he voices as well
as possible the feelings with which I write on the dedication page the
name of Professor Gildersleeve:

"Your Lordship will forgive me for detaining you thus long with
relation to the Work I have made bold to present you with in our own
Tongue. How well it is perform'd, I must leave entirely to my Readers.
I assume nothing to myself but an endeavour to make my Author speak
intelligible _English_. I shall only add what my Subject leads me to,
and what for my Reader's sake I ought to mention: That as there are
but few Authors that can present any Book to your Lordship in most
other Languages, and on most of the Learned Subjects, but might wish
they had been assisted by your Lordship's Skill and Knowledge therein,
as well as Patronage and Protection; so the Translator of this _Greek_
Historian in particular must lament, that notwithstanding all his
Industry and Pains, he is faln infinitely short of that great
Judgment, Nicety and Criticism in the _Greek_ Language, which your
Lordship has in your Writings made appear to the World."

* * * * *

Dio has long served as a source to writers treating topics of greater