So the condition of Rome is ever driven by alternating change, like the form of the Ocean, which, unequal every day, now rises for seven days with successive increases, now for as many following days is drawn back by a natural loss and an inward ebbing.
1 Igitur Romani status agitur semper alterna mutatio et uelut forma Oceani maris, quae omni die dispar nunc succiduis per VII dies attollitur incrementis nunc insequentibus totidem diebus naturali damno et defectu interiore subducitur.
For, to begin with the most recent events: when the Roman army perished at the river Rhône, with the Cimbri and the Tigurini victorious, Rome felt the narrowest of straits; but when the disaster was soon turned back upon the Cimbri, she was elated by great advances and forgot her former failures.
2 ut enim de proximis ordiar, Cimbris Tigurinisque uincentibus cum apud Rhodanum flumen Romanus exercitus periit, artissimas Roma sensit angustias; refusa continuo clade Cimbrorum, magnis elata prouectibus priorum oblita defectuum est.
Then the Italian War and Sulla’s tearing apart of the state chastised this boasting in a most recent prosperity. Again, after this domestic and intestine ruin, by which she was all but disembowelled and eaten away to the marrow, in nearly equal spaces of time she was not only restored but also extended, when Lucullus subdued Asia, Pompey Spain, and Caesar Gaul, and the Roman Empire was carried almost to the furthest bounds of the earth.
3 hanc deinde recentissimae prosperitatis iactantiam Italicum bellum et dilaceratio Syllana castigat. rursus post hanc domesticam intestinamque perniciem, qua usque ad medullas paene euiscerata et exesa est, paribus propemodum spatiis temporum non solum reparata, uerum etiam extenta est, cum Lucullus Asiam, Pompeius Hispaniam, Caesar Galliam perdomuit Romanumque imperium usque ad extremos propemodum terrae terminos propagatum est.
This most ample enlargement was now followed by a most vast ruin. For among the Parthians a Roman consul was killed and his army destroyed; that most atrocious civil war of Pompey and Caesar was joined; and amid all this Rome herself, seized by a sudden fire, was burned.
4 hanc nunc amplissimam dilatationem uastissima ruina consequitur. apud Parthos enim consul Romanus occiditur exercitusque deletur, atrocissimum illud Pompei atque Caesaris bellum ciuile conseritur et inter haec Roma ipsa repentino correpta incendio concrematur.
For in the year 700 from the founding of the City, a fire, from what source is uncertain, invaded the greater part of the City; and they say that never before was the city seized and laid waste by so great a fire. For it is recorded that fourteen quarters were consumed, together with the Vicus Iugarius. From this point the civil war was begun, which had long been in preparation through great dissensions and schemes.
5 Anno siquidem ab urbe condita DCC incertum unde concretus plurimam urbis partem ignis inuasit, neque umquam antea tanto incendio correptam ac uastatam ciuitatem ferunt. nam quattuordecim uicos cum uico Iugario consumptos fuisse memoriae proditum est. hinc iam bellum ciuile committitur, quod magnis iamdudum dissensionibus ac molitionibus parabatur.