Dio's Rome, Volume 6: An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English FormCassius Dio Cocceianus
History
Dio's Rome, Volume 6: An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English Form
Cassius Dio Cocceianus
Rome -- History
[Frag. LI]
[Sidenote: B.C. 219 (_a.u._ 535)] ¶ Demetrius, elated by his position as
guardian of Pineus and by the fact that he had married the latter's
mother Triteuta (Teuta was dead), was hateful to the natives and injured
the property of neighboring tribes. So they summoned him before them
(since it appeared that it was by misusing the friendship of the Romans
that he was able to wrong those peoples) as soon as they heard of it.
When he refused compliance and actually assailed their allies, they made
a campaign against Issa, where he was. (Valesius, p.593. Zonaras, 8,
20.)
[Frag. LII]
1. ¶The Romans were at their prime in equipment for war and enjoyed
absolute harmony among themselves. Whereas the majority of persons are
led by unmixed good fortune to audacity but by a tremendous fear to
proper behavior, they had quite a different experience at that time in
those matters. The more successes they had the more sober it made them;
against their enemies they displayed the kind of boldness that partakes
of bravery, while toward one another they employed that right dealing
which is closely connected with good order. [Footnote: The word for
"good order" is conjectured by van Herwerden.] They held their power
with a view to the practice of moderation and kept their orderliness for
the acquirement of a true bravery: they did not allow their good fortune
to develop into wantonness, nor their right dealing into cowardice. They
believed that in case of such laxity temperance might be ruined by
bravery and boldness by boldness; but that when people exercised care,
as they did, moderation was made more secure by bravery and good fortune
rendered surer by discipline. This was the reason for their vast
superiority over the enemies that encountered them and for their
excellent administration of both their own affairs and those of the
allies. (Mai, p. 186.)
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