To remember the deeds, words and ways of our ancestors, books, chronicles and histories should be read out at festivals, and also to remember the wicked deeds of wicked men and the brave deeds of brave men. For this reason great knowledge and great skill were shown by those who were first to write, and particularly by the authors who composed books and writings concerning the noble deeds and fine words of barons and lords in times gone by. They would have been consigned to oblivion had it not been for the degree of remembrance which writing creates for us and which recounts stories for us. There have been many cities with a great deal of wealth and power of which we would have known nothing, if we have not had these writings. Thebes has a great reputation and Babylon possessed great power; Troyes had great power and Nineveh was long and broad, but anyone who now went in search of these locations would scarcely find any trace of them. Nebuchadnezzar was king and he built a golden statue, sixty cubits high and six cubits broad;* if anyone wanted to see his body now, he would not, I believe, find anyone who could explain or state where one could find his bones or ashes. But through the good clerics who wrote things down and committed the deeds to books we can speak of ages past and tell of many great works. Alexander was a powerful king; in twelve years he captured twelve kingdoms. He had many lands and a great deal of wealth, and he was a king of great power. But if he made conquests, this did him little good; he was poisoned and died. (1–46)

Caesar, who did so much, had such ability and conquered and possessed the entire world – never has any man before or since, I believe, conquered so much – , was then, as we read, treacherously killed in the Capitol. Neither of these two men, who conquered so much, had so many lands and captured so many kings, had when he died any more of his own domain than his own length. What good has all this done them? What have they achieved by their fame and conquests?