34. It is incumbent on me to explain the liberties which I
have taken with the text of Ammianus. 1. I have melted down
into one piece the sixth chapter of the fourteenth and the
fourth of the twenty-eighth book. 2. I have given order and
connection to the confused mass of materials. 3. I have
softened some extravagant hyperboles and pared away some
superfluities of the original. 4. I have developed some
observations which were insinuated rather than expressed.
With these allowances my version will be found, not literal
indeed, but faithful and exact.