"Those who imitate the shapes of bodies, setting the rest aside, figure the head before determining the lines of the other limbs. You might say they make their beginning at the very citadel of form. So I also will make my beginning with the "head" of the world, that is, the city of Rome, although the most learned authors have left nothing which may be newly spoken in her praise, and it may be almost superfluous to re-travel the course trodden over in so many chronicles."