Καλλινίκου εἰς τὰ Πάτρια Ῥώμης. οὔτε ἡ καθʼ ὑμᾶς γῆ πρὸς ἕτερον οὐδὲν εὐαρμόστως εἶχε πλὴν βασιλείας οὔτε ἡ βασιλεία πρὸς ἄλλο χωρίον οὐδὲν πλὴν ταύτης ἐχώρησεν. ἡ δὲ τῶν φόρων σύνταξις οὔθʼ ὑμετέρα πλεονεξία γίγνεται οὔτε τῶν διδόντων ζημία, ἀλλʼ εἰς τὸ μάχιμον γένος δαπανωμένη διʼ ἐκείνων πάλιν εἰς τοὺς διδόντας ἐπάνεισιν, ὥστε δανείσμασι προσεοικέναι τὸ διδόμενον μᾶλλον ἢ φόρων ἀπαγωγή. Ἀλέξανδρος μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲν τῶν περὶ Κλέαρχον σεμνότερον διεπράξατο, ἀνδρῶν κρατήσας ἀνανδρίαι συντρόφων, ἐκκλίνας τοὺς εἰδότας νικᾶν, πρὸς δὲ Πέρσας ἀγωνισάμενος τοὺς παιδευθέντας ἡττᾶσθαι, ταὐτὸν παθὼν τοῖς ὄναρ εὐτυχοῦσιν, ἐν τῆι τῆς εὐτυχίας ἀκμῆι καταλύσας αὐτὴν καὶ τοσοῦτον ἄρξας τὸν ἅπαντα χρόνον ὅσος ὑμῖν οὐκ ἀρκεῖ τὴν ὑμετέραν ἐπελθεῖν. τοῖς μὲν οὖν πολλοῖς εἴρηται τυφλῶν εἶναι ζημίαν τὸ μὴ τὸν ἥλιον βλέπειν· ἐγὼ δʼ ἂν ἐπὶ τῶν θεωμένων φήσαιμι τὴν ἴσην εἶναι ζημίαν, εἴ τις μὴ ταύτην θεάσαιτο. καὶ τῶν παρελθόντων εἰς φῶς ὅσοι μὲν ἀπείρατοι τῆς ὑμετέρας ἔμειναν, νόθον τινὰ βίον ὡς εἰπεῖν διαντλοῦσιν, ὅσοι δὲ ἐν πείραι γεγένηνται, γνήσιοι τοῦ βίου μέτοχοι, καὶ πλέον τῶν ἑτέρων διαλλάττουσιν ἢ τῶν βεβήλων οἱ τελεσθέντες.
On the Origins of Rome is a lost rhetorical treatise by the 3rd-century CE Greek sophist Callinicus of Petra. Composed in Attic Greek during the Roman Imperial period, the work explored the foundation myths of the city. No complete manuscript survives; knowledge of the text depends entirely on two later excerpts preserved under the title Apospásmata, or Extracts. These fragments present contrasting narratives of Rome's beginnings. One recounts the traditional Roman legend of the twins Romulus and Remus. The other offers a Hellenized alternative, attributing the city's foundation to a figure named Rhomos, described as a son of the Greek hero Odysseus and the enchantress Circe. This dual presentation is characteristic of the intellectual strategies of the Second Sophistic, a period during which Greek writers often sought to reconcile Roman history and power within a framework of Greek cultural heritage for an educated, bilingual audience. The work's transmission is indirect. It is cited by title in the 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia known as the Suda, and its extant fragments were preserved within the vast Constantinian Excerpts, a Byzantine compilation of historical texts commissioned by Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos.