[Illustration: CONSTANTINOPLE. _Outline from D^r. Smith’s Atlas, C.A._] THE SIX BOOKS OF PROCOPIUS OF CÆSAREA, ON THE _BUILDINGS OF THE LORD JUSTINIAN_. INTRODUCTION. I have not begun this work through any desire to make a display of my own virtue, or trusting to my powers of language, or wishing to gain credit by my knowledge of the places described, for I had nothing to encourage me to undertake so bold a project. But I have often reflected on the great blessings which countries derive from history, which transmits to posterity the remembrance of our ancestors, and opposes the efforts of time to cover them with oblivion; which always encourages virtue in its readers by its praise, and deters them from vice by its blame, and in this way destroys its power. All we need study then is to make clear what has been done, and by whom of mankind it was done; and this, I imagine, is not impossible even for the weakest and feeblest writer; besides this, the writing of history enables subjects who have been kindly treated by their rulers, to express their gratitude, and to make a more than adequate return, seeing that they only for a time enjoy the goodness of their princes, while they render their virtues immortal in the memory of their descendants, many of whom in this very way have been led by the glory of their ancestors to a love of virtue, and have been probably preserved from a dissolute course of life by the dread of disgrace. I will shortly explain my object in making these prefatory remarks.