Sublime

In Seneca’s own generation there were other Stoics in the Roman government who stood up strongly against Nero and in favor of Republican principles: the most important of these was Thrasea, to whom we shall return.

And there was no end to his rash promises of debt relief (one of the most despicable forms of radicalism in the eyes of the Roman landed classes) or to his bold threats to take out the leading politicians and to put the whole city to flames.

It is from the mouth of Calgacus that we hear the immortal words about the Caledonians being ‘the last of the free . . . shielded before today by the very remoteness and the seclusion for which we are famed . . . Romans . . . Robbery, butchery, rapine . . . they create a devastation and call it peace’.

The truth is that the old parliamentary oligarchy abandoned their first line of trenches because they had by that time constructed a second line of defence. It consisted in the concentration of colossal political funds in the private and irresponsible power of the politicians,

Je vois le danger de ces armées civiles : il tient en un mot : l'établissement de routines. Ces rouages montés pour des siècles se fausseront si l'on n'y prend garde ; c'est au maître à en régler sans cesse les mouvements, à en prévoir ou à en réparer l'usure. Mais l'expérience démontre qu'en dépit de nos soins infinis pour choisir nos successeurs,

And in a much-quoted phrase that still hits home, he sums up the Roman imperial project: ‘they create desolation and call it peace’, ‘solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant