Tuesday, May 07, 2024 Text is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.

Tacitus

« All quotes from this author
 

Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
--
Translation: To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace. Oxford Revised Translation (at Project Gutenberg)
--
Translation: They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace. — translation Loeb Classical Library edition
--
Translation: To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace. — translation by William Peterson
--
More colloquially: They rob, kill and plunder all under the deceiving name of Roman Rule. They make a desert and call it peace.
--
At the end of chapter 30.
--
This is a speech by the Caledonian chieftain Calgacus addressing assembled warriors about Rome's insatiable appetite for conquest and plunder. The chieftain's sentiment can be contrasted to "peace given to the world" which was frequently inscribed on Roman medals. The last part solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (they make a desert, and call it peace) is often quoted alone. Lord Byron for instance uses the phrase (in English) as follows,
--
Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease! He makes a solitude, and calls it — peace.
--
Lord Byron, Bride of Abydos (1813), Canto 2, stanza 20.

 
Tacitus

» Tacitus - all quotes »



Tags: Tacitus Quotes, Authors starting by T


Similar quotes

 

Nam qui dabat olim
imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se
continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat,
panem et circenses.

 
Juvenal
 

Nam petere imperium quod inanus nec datur umquam,
atque in eo semper durum sufferre laborem,
hoc est adverso nixantem trudere monte
saxa quod tamen e summo iam vertice rursum
volvitur et plani raptim petit aequora campi.

 
Lucretius
 

Circumretit enim vis atque iniuria quemque,
atque, unde exortast, at eum plerumque revertit.

 
Lucretius
 

Ac generosae quidem animae triumphatorum coelum nunc obambulant, et angelorum choris intersunt: eorum vero corpora non singula cujusque condunt monumenta, sed urbes et vici haec inter se partiti, animarum illos servatores corporumque medicos appellant, veneranturque tamquam urbium praesides atque custodies, et horum apud Deum universorum interventu divina per eos munera consequuntur. Sectis corum corporibus, integra et indivisa gratia perseverat: et tenues illae ac tantillae reliquiae integro nullasque in partes dissecto martyri parem habent virtutem.

 
Theodoret
© 2009–2013Quotes Privacy Policy | Contact