Laudator Temporis Acti

Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), Zibaldone, tr. Kathleen Baldwin et al. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), p. 647 (Z 1361-1362):

Anyone wishing to grasp the difference between ancient love of country and modern, and between the ancient and modern condition of the nations, and between the idea one had in times past, and the idea one has at present of one's own country, etc., should consider the punishment of exile, a supreme and very frequently used punishment among the ancients, and the ultimate punishment for Roman citizens. And yet today it has almost fallen into disuse, and is always the least of punishments, and [1362] often ridiculous. Nor is it helpful to invoke the smallness of states. Among the ancients, being exiled from a single city, even if it were as small, poor, and unhappy as you like, was dreadful, if that was the exiled person's homeland.

In Italian:

Chi vuol vedere la differenza fra l'amor patrio antico e moderno, e fra lo stato antico e moderno delle nazioni, e fra l'idea che s'aveva anticamente, e che si ha presentemente del proprio paese ec. consideri la pena dell'esilio, usitatissima e somma presso gli antichi, ed ultima pena de' cittadini romani; ed oggi quasi disusata, e sempre minima, e [1362] spesso ridicola. Nè vale addurre la piccolezza degli stati. Presso gli antichi l'essere esiliato da una sola città, fosse pur piccola, povera, infelice quanto si voglia, era formidabile, se quella era patria dell'esiliato.