Book 8
40.4
I believe that the true history has been falsified by funeral orations and lying inscriptions on the family busts, since each family appropriates to itself an imaginary record of noble deeds and official distinctions. It is at all events owing to this cause that so much confusion has been introduced into the records of private careers and public events.
40.5
There is no writer of those times now extant who was contemporary with the events he relates and whose authority, therefore, can he depended upon.
