Tuesday, May 03, 2022
Inner Barbarian
Themistius, Orations 10.131c (tr. David Moncur):
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There is in each of us a barbarian tribe, extremely overbearing and intractable — I mean the temper and the insatiate desires, which stand opposed to the rational elements as the Scythians and Germans do to the Romans.
εἶναι γάρ τι καὶ ἐν ἑκάστῳ βάρβαρον φῦλον, λίαν αὔθαδες καὶ δυσπειθές, τὸν θυµὸν λέγω καὶ τὰς ἀπλήστους ἐπιθυµίας, ἀντικαθήµενα γένη τῷ λογισµῷ, καθάπερ Ῥωμαίοις Σκύθαι καὶ Γερμανοί.
