Caesar inserts an amazing statement in his Gallic War just before he begins the campaign against the Veneti, in which he describes why the maritime tribes revolted against Rome: “Human nature everywhere yearns for freedom and hates submitting to domination by another.” This kind of refreshing honesty is typical in Roman writers from the earliest days of the Republic to the fall of the empire. The Romans never pretended that they were bringing freedom or a better way of life to the peoples they conquered. They frankly admitted that they were only interested in increasing their own power,
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