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
or less length in Roman history. He is now presented entire to the
casual reader: his veracious narrative must ever continue to interest
the historical student, who may correct him by others or others by
him, the ecclesiastic, to whom is here offered so graphic a picture of
the conditions surrounding early Christianity, and the literary man,
who finds the limpid stream of Hellenic diction far from its source
grow turbid and turgid in turning the mill wheels for this dealer in
[Greek: onkos]. Dio's faults are patent, but his excellencies,
fortunately, are patent, too; and the world may rejoice that in an age
of lust and bloodshed this serious-minded magistrate bethought him to
record with religious exactness what he believed to be the truth
respecting the Kingdom, the Republic, and the Empire of Rome even to
his own day.

I desire in conclusion to express especial gratitude and appreciation
for assistance and suggestions to Professor C.W.E. Miller of Johns
Hopkins University, Professors J.H. Wright and A.A. Howard of Harvard
University, and to Mr. A.T. Robinson of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Likewise I must acknowledge my obligations, in the
e