Textus Originalis

PRAEFATIO.

mentis hoc modo distributis partes minus aequae evadunt. Nam ex dictis factisque sapientium plura excerpta esse quam ex ceteris rebus domi bellique gestis minime mirum est. Universa regula de fragmentis ordinandis si constituenda est, alia esse nequit nisi ut ea et ex temporum rationibus et ex serie, qua excerpta in codicibus referuntur, componantur; singulis autem locis iudicium saepe incertum erit. Nam Diodorus etsi res inter se cohaerentes ad temporum ordinem servandum dirimere orationemque interrumpere veritus non est, tamen haud raro ab hac consuetudine recedens, ut narratio continua et magis perspicua fiat, res priorum posteriorumque temporum coniunxit, atque etiam aliquotiens easdem fere res duobus locis repetivit. Neque magis ordo excerptorum omni suspicione caret; veluti si fragmenta IX 4 et IX 20, 4 vel IX 2 et 34 (cf. etiam p. XLVII) inter se comparaverimus, fieri non poterit, quin ea ex una eademque narratione Diodori excerpta esse arbitremur. Qua in re mihi in mentem venit Jacobi Bernays, qui quaestione posita, quomodo libellus de republica Atheniensium effectus esset, ingeniose disputabat duobus primis capitibus tamquam summam totius operis contineri, tertium autem caput postea additum esse quasi fructum iteratae lectionis. Simili modo etiam ei, qui ex Diodori bibliotheca excerpserunt, quaedam primo seu negligentia seu fastidio omissa posteriore loco supplevisse videntur. Magna licentia eos usos esse intelleget, qui VIII 1. 2 et 3 vel X 18, 1 et 2 inter se contulerit. — Late ergo patet campus, in quo doctrina et divinatio exsultare potest: sed ubi coniecturae luxuriant, ibi laborat veritas.

Traduzione

PREFACE.

ments distributed in this way result in parts that are less equal. For it is by no means surprising that more excerpts were taken from the sayings and doings of the wise men than from other affairs transacted at home and abroad. If a universal rule for the arrangement of fragments is to be established, it can be none other than that they be composed both from chronological considerations and from the series in which the excerpts are reported in the manuscripts; but in individual places the judgment will often be uncertain. For Diodorus, although he did not fear to separate interconnected matters and interrupt his discourse in order to maintain chronological order, yet not infrequently departing from this custom, in order that the narrative might become continuous and more perspicuous, he joined together matters of earlier and later times, and also sometimes repeated nearly the same things in two places. Nor is the order of the excerpts any more free from all suspicion; for instance, if we compare fragments IX 4 and IX 20, 4 or IX 2 and 34 (cf. also p. XLVII) with each other, it will be impossible not to think that they were excerpted from one and the same narrative of Diodorus. In this matter, there comes to mind Jacob Bernays, who, having posed the question of how the little book on the Athenian republic was produced, ingeniously argued that the first two chapters contain, as it were, the sum of the whole work, but the third chapter was added later as a kind of fruit of repeated reading. In a similar way, even those who excerpted from Diodorus' library seem to have supplied in a later place certain things omitted at first either through negligence or distaste. Anyone who compares VIII 1, 2 and 3 or X 18, 1 and 2 with each other will understand that they used great license. — Wide, therefore, is the field open in which learning and divination can exult: but where conjectures run riot, there truth labors.

Commentario Arethe