Laudator Temporis Acti

NBC News:

Amid the celebration surrounding the opening of George W. Bush's presidential library, his mother and former first lady Barbara Bush is brushing aside talk of a Jeb Bush run for the White House.

Appearing in an interview Thursday on NBC's "Today" show, Mrs. Bush was asked how she felt about Jeb, the former governor of Florida, seeking the presidency in 2016.

"We've had enough Bushes," she said.

She still called her son "by far the best-qualified man," but went on to say she thought there were many worthy candidates.

"It's a great country. There are a lot of great families and it's not just four families," she said.

Valerius Maximus 4.1.5 (tr. D.R. Shackleton Bailey):

Fabius Maximus, observing that the Consulship had been held five times by himself and often by his father, his grandfather, his great-grandfather, and his ancestors, at elections in which his son was by way of being chosen Consul by a full consensus, did his resolute best to persuade the people to give the Fabian clan a holiday from this office at long last; not that he lacked confidence in his son's fine qualities (for he was a man of distinction) but so that the highest authority should not be continuous in one family.

Fabius vero Maximus, cum a se quinquies et a patre avo proavo maioribusque suis saepenumero consulatum gestum animadverteret, comitiis, quibus filius eius summo consensu consul creabatur, quam potuit constanter cum populo egit ut aliquando vacationem huius honoris Fabiae genti daret, non quod virtutibus filii diffideret—erat enim illuster—, sed ne maximum imperium in una familia continuaretur.