Wednesday, May 17, 2023

 

Learning from the Past

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 10.51.3 (tr. Earnest Cary):
For that state is best governed which adapts itself to circumstances, and that man is the best counsellor who expresses his opinion without regard to personal enmity or favour but with a view to the public advantage; and those persons deliberate best concerning the future who take past events as examples of those that are to come.

κράτιστα γὰρ οἰκεῖται πόλις ἡ πρὸς τὰ πράγματα μεθαρμοττομένη, καὶ συμβούλων ἄριστος ὁ μὴ πρὸς τὴν ἰδίαν ἔχθραν ἢ χάριν, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὸ κοινῇ συμφέρον ἀποδεικνύμενος γνώμην· βουλεύονταί τ᾽ ἄριστα περὶ τῶν μελλόντων οἱ παραδείγματα ποιούμενοι τὰ γεγονότα τῶν ἐσομένων.
μὴ πρὸς τὴν ἰδίαν ἔχθραν ἢ χάριν reminds me of Tacitus' sine ira et studio.



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