Hist. 1.1.1Initium mihi operis Servius Galba iterum Titus Vīnius cōnsulēs erunt.My work will begin with the year when Servius Galba, for the second time, and Titus Vinius were consuls. Hist. 1.1.1Nam post conditam urbem octingentōs et vīgintī priōris aevī annōs multī auctōrēs rettulērunt, dum rēs populī Rōmānī memorābantur parī ēloquentiā ac lībertāte: postquam bellātum apud Actium atque omnem potentiam ad ūnum cōnferrī pācis interfuit, magna illa ingenia cessēre;For the eight hundred and twenty years of the earlier age since the founding of the city many writers have recorded, and while it was the history of the Roman people they related, they did so with equal eloquence and freedom: after the war was fought at Actium and it served the interests of peace that all power be conferred on one man, those great talents passed away; Hist. 1.1.1simul vēritās plūribus modīs īnfrācta, prīmum īnscītiā reī pūblicae ut aliēnae, mox libīdine adsentandī aut rūrsus odiō adversus dominantīs: ita neutrīs cūra posteritātis inter īnfēnsōs vel obnoxiōs.at the same time truth was impaired in several ways, first by ignorance of public affairs, as though they belonged to others, then by a passion for flattery or, on the other hand, by hatred towards those in power: so neither side cared for posterity, the one hostile, the other beholden.
Hist. 1.1.1Sed ambitiōnem scrīptōris facile āversēris, obtrectātiō et līvor prōnīs auribus accipiuntur;But while you may easily turn away from a writer's self-seeking, detraction and spite are received with ready ears; Hist. 1.1.1quippe adūlātiōnī foedum crīmen servitūtis, malignitātī falsa speciēs lībertātis īnest.for flattery carries the foul charge of servility, malice the false appearance of independence. Hist. 1.1.1Mihi Galba Othō Vitellius nec beneficiō nec iniūriā cognitī.To me Galba, Otho and Vitellius were known neither by any favour nor by any injury. Hist. 1.1.1Dignitātem nostram ā Vespasiānō inchoātam, ā Titō auctam, ā Domitiānō longius prōvectam nōn abnuerim: sed incorruptam fidem professīs neque amōre quisquam et sine odiō dīcendus est.That my own standing was begun by Vespasian, increased by Titus and advanced still further by Domitian I would not deny: but those who profess unimpaired honesty must speak of no one with affection or with hatred. Hist. 1.1.1Quod sī vīta suppeditet, prīncipātum dīvī Nervae et imperium Trāiānī, ūberiōrem sēcūriōremque māteriam, senectūtī sēposuī, rārā temporum fēlīcitāte ubi sentīre quae velīs et quae sentiās dīcere licet.But if life suffices, I have set aside for my old age the principate of the deified Nerva and the rule of Trajan, a richer and safer subject, by the rare good fortune of times when one may think what one wishes and say what one thinks.