Tacitus, Agricola 30. The British chieftain Calgacus, facing Roman attack, is addressing his troops:

Infestiores Romani: quorum superbiam frustra per obsequium et modestiam effugeris. Raptores orbis, postquam cuncta vastantibus defuere terrae, et mare scrutantur: si locuples hostis est, avari; si pauper, ambitiosi: quos non Oriens, non Occidens, satiaverit. Soli omnium opes atque inopiam pari affectu concupiscunt. Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

Even more aggressive and violent are the Romans, whose arrogance you cannot escape by obedience and meekness. These world-rapers, after robbing every land of the earth with destruction and wastage, are rummaging through the ocean. If their enemy is rich -- they are greedy. If he is poor -- they seek to domineer over him. Neither East nor West will ever glut their ravening. Alone among nations they lust after wealth and poverty alike. To steal and to slaughter -- these they call "empire"; and where they make a desert, they call it "peace".


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