The Agricola and The Germania Quotes

“They have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hunger… they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poor… They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace.”
― Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania

“Rarely will two or three tribes confer to repulse a common danger. Accordingly they fight individually and are collectively conquered.”
― Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania

“Step by step they were led to things which dispose to vice, the lounge, the bath, the elegant banquet. All this in their ignorance they called civilisation, when it was but a part of their servitude.”
― Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania

“Think of it. Fifteen whole years-no small part of a mans life.-taken from us-all the most energetic have fallen to the cruelty of the emperor. And the few that survive are no longer what we once were. Yet I find some small satisfaction in acknowledging the bondage we once suffered. Tacitus, The Agricola”
― Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania

“At length they gradually deviated into a taste for those luxuries which stimulate to vice; porticos, and baths, and the elegancies of the table; and this, from their inexperience, they termed politeness, whilst, in reality, it constituted a part of their slavery.”
― Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania

“To robbery, butchery, and rapine, they give the lying name of "government;" they create a desolation and call it peace.”
― Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania

“We have indeed left an impressive example of subservience. Just as Rome of old explored the limits of freedom, so have we plumbed the depths of slavery, robbed by informers even of the interchange of speech. We would have lost our memories as well as our tongues had it been as easy to forget as to be silent.”
― Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania

“They lived in rare accord, maintained by mutual affection and unselfishness; in such a partnership, however, a good wife deserves more than half the praise, just as a bad one deserves more than half the blame.”
― Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania

“Pigrum quin immo et iners videtur sudore adquirere quod possis sanguine parare.

(Nay, they actually think it tame and stupid to acquire by the sweat of toil what they might win by their blood.)”
― Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania

“The following winter passed without disturbance, and was employed in salutary measures. For, to accustom to rest and repose through the charms of luxury a population scattered and barbarous and therefore inclined to war, Agricola gave private encouragement and public aid to the building of temples, courts of justice and dwelling-houses, praising the energetic, and reproving the indolent. Thus an honourable rivalry took the place of compulsion. He likewise provided a liberal education for the sons of the chiefs, and showed such a preference for the natural powers of the Britons over the industry of the Gauls that they who lately disdained the tongue of Rome now coveted its eloquence. Hence, too, a liking sprang up for our style of dress, and the "toga" became fashionable. Step by step they were led to things which dispose to vice, the lounge, the bath, the elegant banquet. All this in their ignorance, they called civilization, when it was but a part of their servitude.”
― Tacitus Cornelius, The Agricola and The Germania

“The derivation of German is Wehr mann, a warrior, or man of war.”
― Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

“I concur in opinion with those who deem the Germans never to have intermarried with other nations; but to be a race, pure, unmixed, and stamped with a distinct character.”
― Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

“It is an instinct of human nature to hate the man you have wronged.”
― Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania

“We have country, wives, and parents to fight for; the Romans have nothing but greed and self-indulgence.”
― Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania

“It is no use trying to escape their arrogance by submission or good behaviour. They have pillaged the world: when the land has nothing left for men who ravage everything, they scour the sea. If an enemy is rich, they are greedy, if he is poor, they crave glory. Neither East nor West can sate their appetite. They are the only people on earth to covet wealth and poverty with equal craving. They plunder, they butcher, they ravish, and call it by the lying name of “empire”. They make a desert and call it “peace”.”
― Tacitus, The Agricola and the Germania

“Thus, by the Salic law, tit. xxxiii, 5, a fine of 600 denarii (about 9_l._) is imposed upon "every free man who shall accuse another of throwing down his shield, and running away, without being able to prove it.”
― Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

“The Vindili, to whom belong the Burgundiones, Varini, Carini, and Guttones; the Ingaevones, including the Cimbri, Teutoni, and Chauci; the Istaevones, near the Rhine, part of whom are the midland Cimbri; the Hermiones, containing the Suevi, Hermunduri, Catti, and Cherusci; and the Peucini and Bastarnae, bordering upon the Dacians.”
― Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

“Terror and dread alone are the weak bonds of attachment; which once broken, they who cease to fear will begin to hate.”
― Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

“He bore this calamity, not with the ostentatious firmness which many have affected, nor yet with the tears and lamentations of feminine sorrow; and war was one of the remedies of his grief.”
― Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

“He did not even court reputation, an object to which men of worth frequently sacrifice, by ostentation or artifice: equally avoiding competition with, his colleagues, [33] and contention with the procurators”
― Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

“For indolence itself acquires a charm; and sloth, however odious at first, becomes at length engaging”
― Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

“We read that when Arulenus Rusticus published the praises of Paetus Thrasea, and Herennius Senecio those of Priscus Helvidius, it was construed into a capital crime; [3] and the rage of tyranny was let loose not only against the authors, but against their writings;”
― Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

“Tacitus was son- in-law to Agricola; and while filial piety breathes through his work, he never departs from the integrity of his own character.”
― Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

“Adultery is extremely rare among so numerous a people. Its punishment is instant, and at the pleasure of the husband. He cuts off the hair [112] of the offender, strips her, and in presence of her relations expels her from his house, and pursues her with stripes through the whole village.”
― Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

“The name Cornelius was a common one among the Romans, so that from it we can draw no inference.”
― Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

“Not that I would reject those resemblances of the human figure which are engraven in brass or marbles but as their originals are frail and perishable, so likewise are they: while the form of the mind is eternal, and not to be retained or expressed by any foreign matter, or the artist's skill, but by the manners of the survivors.”
― Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania

“But there are no more nations beyond us; nothing is there but waves and rocks, and the Romans, more deadly still than these - for in them is an arrogance which no submission or good behaviour can escape. Pillagers of the world, they have exhausted the land by their indiscriminate plunder, and now they ransack the sea. A rich enemy excites their cupidity; a poor one, their lust for power. East and West alike have failed to satisfy them. They are the only people on earth to whose covetousness both riches and poverty are equally tempting. To robbery, butchery, and rapine, the give the lying name of "government"; they create a desolation and call it peace.”
― Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania

“The infliction of punishments was committed to the priests, in order to give them more solemnity, and render them less invidious.”
― Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

“Reason and riper years tempered his warmth; and from the study of wisdom, he retained what is most difficult to compass,—moderation.”
― Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus

“His mother was Julia Procilla, a lady of exemplary chastity.”
― Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus