‹‹‹ Vitr. 7.0.1 | Table of Contents | Vitr. 7.0.3 ›››
2Had they omitted to do this, we should not have known what happened in Troy, nor the sentiments of Thales, Democritus, Anaxagoras, Xenophanes, and other physiologists respecting the nature of things; nor the system of ethics laid down by Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus, and other philosophers. Of the actions of Croesus, Alexander, Darius, and other kings, and the principles on which they acted, we should have been uninformed, unless the antients had handed them down to posterity in their writings.
2If they had not done so, we could not have known what deeds were done in Troy, nor what Thales, Democritus, Anaxagoras, Xenophanes, and the other physicists thought about nature, and what rules Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus, and other philosophers laid down for the conduct of human life; nor would the deeds and motives of Croesus, Alexander, Darius, and other kings have been known, unless the ancients had compiled treatises, and published them in commentaries to be had in universal remembrance with posterity.