because the barbarians require it

[daivid]

I encounterd the phrase “because the barbarians require it” being used to describe people defending an action which they knew to be stupid but which they considered essential to ensure some others would agree to do something they did consider important.

It sounds like a quote from a classical author. Does anyone recognize it?

[anphph]

Maybe this?

Cavafy’s Waiting for the Barbarians

[Shenoute]

Or this?

@Cicero

Sin hoc et ratio doctis, et necessitas barbaris, et mos gentibus, et feris etiam beluis natura ipsa praescripsit, - ut omnem semper uim, quacumque ope possent, a corpore, a capite, a uita sua propulsarent, - non potestis hoc facinus improbum iudicare, quin simul iudicetis omnibus, qui in latrones inciderint, aut illorum telis aut uestris sententiis esse pereundum.

[daivid]

@MiguelM

Maybe this?

Cavafy’s Waiting for the Barbarians

It does seem to catch the rough sense of the quote - maybe Cavafry was inspired to write his poam from some original quote. Or maybe I am wrong to assume that the person who I remember using the phrase was actually quoting anyone.

@Shenoute

Or this?

@Cicero

Sin hoc et ratio doctis, et necessitas barbaris, .

@Cicero

But if both reason has taught this lesson to learned men, and necessity to barbarians, and custom to all nations, and nature itself to the beasts, that they are at all times to repel all violence by whatever means they can from their persons, from their liberties, and from their lives, then you cannot decide this action to have been wrong, without deciding at the same time that all men who fall among thieves must perish, either by their weapons, or by your sentence.

I can’t read Latin but I assume that that is the correct translation. It seems to me that Cicero is saying something quite different rather than “we” are doing some stupid because the barbarians require it that the barbarians are doing the same thing as everyone else but merely from necessity.