Laudator Temporis Acti

Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 19.169 (speech of Gnaeus Sentius Saturninus; tr. Louis Feldman):

For myself, though I cannot recall the former age of liberty because I was born after that era, yet, as I insatiably steep myself in our present liberty, I count those enviable who were born and brought up in it; and I hold worthy of honour not less than the gods these men here who at this late date and at this stage of our lives, have treated us to one sip of liberty that we may know its taste.

ἐμοὶ δὲ τῆς μὲν πρότερον ἐλευθερίας ἀμνημονεῖν ἔστι διὰ τὸ κατόπιν αὐτῆς γεγονέναι, τῆς δὲ νῦν ἀπλήστως πιμπλαμένῳ μακαριστούς τε ἡγεῖσθαι τοὺς ἐγγενηθέντας καὶ ἐντραφέντας αὐτῇ καὶ τῶν θεῶν οὐδὲν μειόνως ἀξίους τιμῆς τούσδε τοὺς ἄνδρας, οἳ ὀψὲ γοῦν κἀν τούτῳ τῆς ἡλικίας ἡμᾶς γεύσαντας αὐτῆς.

Id. 19.172:

Past history I know from tradition, but from the evidence of my own eyes I have learned with what evils tyranny infects a state. For it frustrates all the virtues, robs freedom of its lofty mood, and opens a school of fawning and terror, inasmuch as it leaves matters not to the wisdom of the laws, but to the angry whim of those who are in authority.

ἐγὼ γὰρ τὰ παλαιὰ οἶδα ἀκοῇ παραλαβών, οἷς δὲ ὄψει ὁμιλήσας ᾐσθόμην, οἵων κακῶν τὰς πολιτείας ἀναπιμπλᾶσιν αἱ τυραννίδες, κωλύουσαι μὲν πᾶσαν ἀρετὴν καὶ τοῦ μεγαλόφρονος ἀφαιρούμεναι τὸ ἐλεύθερον, κολακείας δὲ καὶ φόβου διδάσκαλοι καθιστάμεναι διὰ τὸ μὴ ἐπὶ σοφίᾳ τῶν νόμων, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπὶ τῇ ὀργῇ τῶν ἐφεστηκότων καταλιπεῖν τὰ πράγματα.

Id. 19.180:

This tyranny was fostered by nothing but indolence and our failure to speak in opposition to any of its wishes.

καὶ τέτροφε τὴν τυραννίδα οὐδὲν ἕτερον πλὴν ἥ τε ἀργία καὶ τὸ πρὸς οὐδὲν τῶν ἐκείνῃ θελομένων ἀντιλογίᾳ χρώμενον