Timoleon

Democritus says we ought to pray that we may be visited by phantoms which are propitious, and that from out the circumambient air such only may encounter us as are agreeable to our natures and good, rather than those which are perverse and bad, thereby intruding into philosophy a doctrine which is not true, and which leads astray into boundless superstitions.

But in my own case, the study of history and the familiarity with it which my writing produces, enables me, since I always cherish in my soul the records of the noblest and most estimable characters, to repel and put far from me whatever base, malicious, or ignoble suggestion my enforced associations may intrude upon me, calmly and dispassionately turning my thoughts away from them to the fairest of my examples.

Among these were Timoleon the Corinthian and Aemilius Paulus, whose Lives I have now undertaken to lay before my readers;

the men were alike not only in the good principles which they adopted, but also in the good fortune which they enjoyed in their conduct of affairs,

and they will make it hard for my readers to decide whether the greatest of their successful achievements were due to their good fortune or their wisdom.[*](In the MSS. this Introduction stands as the first chapter of the Aemilius Paulus.)

The state of affairs in Syracuse, before the expedition of Timoleon into Sicily, was as follows.