Lord_WayneY wrote:A bad peace is even worse than war.
It is said that this quote was from Tacitus. But when I tried to find its Latin version, I could not get any indications of its origin. I searched the fulltexts of Tacitus' English translation version books but still nothing matched. I now doubt it is not the same form of Tacitus' Latin sentence but some sort of "retell".
Is there any one pleased to help finding its origin?
I'm wondering if it's a paraphrase of this?
plus tamen ferociae Britanni praeferunt, ut quos nondum longa pax emollierit. nam Gallos quoque in bellis floruisse accepimus; mox segnitia cum otio intravit, amissa virtute pariter ac libertate... (Agricolae 11.5).
There is a similar thought in Caesar's De Bello Gallico:
Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae, propterea quod a cultu atque humanitate provinciae longissime absunt, minimeque ad eos mercatores saepe commeant atque ea quae ad effeminandos animos pertinent important... (1.3).
Still, it's not exactly the same thing, is it? I searched all the extant works of Tacitus under pax and found nothing (except the above), and will also look under pacem (you never know when indirect statement will rear its lovely head). I'll report back if I find anything else.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Cuncta mortalia incerta...