Laudator Temporis Acti

Cassius Dio 2.8 (tr. Earnest Cary):

[1] Marcius came to realize that it is not enough for men who desire peace to refrain from injuring others, and that inoffensiveness without aggressiveness is not a means of safety, but the more one strives after peace the more vulnerable does one become to the mass of mankind; and he accordingly changed his policy. He saw that the desire for quiet is not effective as a safeguard unless accompanied by equipment for war; he perceived also that the satisfactions of a policy of inoffensiveness very quickly and easily ruin those who carry it too far. [2] For this reason he concluded that war afforded at once a more honourable and secure guaranty of peace, both materially and morally; and so whatever he was unable to obtain from the Latins with their consent, and without injuring them, he took away against their will by force of arms.

[1] ὅτι συνεὶς ὁ Μάρκιος ὡς τοῖς βουλομένοις εἰρηνεῖν οὐκ ἐξαρκεῖ τὸ μηδὲν ἀδικεῖν, οὐδέ ἐστι τὸ ἄπραγμον ἄνευ τοῦ δραστηρίου σωτήριον, ἀλλ᾽ ὅσῳ τις αὐτοῦ ὀριγνᾶται, εὐεπιθετώτερος τοῖς πολλοῖς γίγνεται, μετεβάλετο: οὔτε γὰρ τὸ ἐπιθυμοῦν ἡσυχίας ἰσχυρὸν πρὸς φυλακὴν ἄνευ τῶν πρὸς τὸν πόλεμον παρασκευῶν ἑώρα ὄν, καὶ τὸ τῆς ἀπραγμοσύνης τάχιστα καὶ ῥᾷστα τοῖς πέρα τοῦ καιροῦ σπουδάζουσιν αὐτὴν ἀπολλύμενον ᾐσθάνετο. [2] καὶ διὰ ταῦτα καὶ καλλίω καὶ ἀσφαλεστέραν καὶ παρασκευὴν καὶ φροντίδα τῆς εἰρήνης τὸν πόλεμον νομίσας εἶναι, πάνθ᾽ ὅσα παρ᾽ ἑκόντων τῶν Λατίνων μηδέν σφας ἀδικῶν οὐκ ἠδυνήθη κομίσασθαι, παρὰ ἀκόντων στρατεύσας ἀπέλαβεν.

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