The whole early part of the Roman history is very problematical. It is
hardly possible to suppose the Romans could have made so conspicuous a
figure in Italy, and not be noticed by Herodotus, who finished his
history in Magna Græcia. Neither is Rome mentioned by Aristotle, though
he particularly describes the government of Carthage. Livy, a writer by
no means void of national prejudice, expressly says, they had never
heard of Alexander; and here we surely may say in the words of the poet,
“Not to know him, argues themselves unknown.”
Pliny, it is true, quotes a passage of Theophrastus, to show that a
certain Greek writer, named Clitarchus, mentions an embassy from the
Romans to Alexander; but this can never be set against the authority of
Livy, especially as Quintilian gives no very favourable opinion of the
veracity of the Greek historian in these words,--“Clitarchi, probatur
ingenium, fides infamatur.”[364]
[364] H. J. Pye.
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