United States or Madagascar ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Take the example of Tacitus, who begins his history of Rome by these words: 'Urbem Roman a principio reges habuere'. They form a very poor Latin hexameter, which the great historian certainly never made on purpose, and which he never remarked when he revised his work, for there is no doubt that, if he had observed it, he would have altered that sentence.
Understand "Thy people shall offer themselves willingly in the day of conflict in holy clothing, in their best array, in their best arms and accoutrements. As the dew from the womb of the morning, in number and brightness like dew-drops, so shall be thy youth, or the youth of thee, the young volunteer warriors." "He shall shake," concuss, concutiet reges die irae suae.
¶ Here we see what a band of calamities doo accompanie and waite vpon warre, wherein also we haue to consider what a traine of felicities doo attend vpon peace, by an equall comparing of which twaine togither, we may easilie perceiue in how heauenlie an estate those people be that liue vnder the scepter of tranquillitie, and contrariwise what a hellish course of life they lead that haue sworne their seruice to the sword. We may consider also the inordinat outrages of princes, & their frantike fiersenes, who esteeme not the losse of their subiects liues, the effusion of innocent bloud, the population of countries, the ruinating of ample regions, &c.: so their will may be satisfied, there desire serued. [Sidenote: M. Pal. in suo Capric.] And therefore it was aptlie spoken by a late poet, not beside this purpose: Reges atque duces dira impelluntur in arma, Imperiúmque sibi miserorum cæde lucrantur. O cæci, ô miseri, quid? bellum pace putatis Dignius aut melius? nempe hôc nil terpius, & nil Quod magis humanâ procul
"But is it possible that I should be made to suffer for a defeat on the battle-field?" asked Blanka. "H'm! Quidquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi," returned the advocate, sententiously; and he hurried away without explaining that the quotation meant, Whenever kings fall to quarrelling, the common people suffer for it. Such was the old Greek usage.
Strange things, however, had yet to happen before he was gone. Fashionable society was equally furious, and the three allies went by the name of Dynasts, or "Reges Superbi." After resistance had been abandoned, Cicero came back to Rome to make cynical remarks from which all parties suffered equally.
And Tacitus, in reference to this, speaking of Cogidunus, king of England, gives us, by a marvellous touch, an instance of that infinite power: the Romans, says he, were from all antiquity accustomed to leave the kings they had subdued in possession of their kingdoms under their authority. "Ut haberent instruments servitutis et reges."
"Quam pulchrum spectaculum Deo, cum Christianus cum dolore congueditur? cum adversus minas, et supplicia, et tormenta componitur? cum libertatem suam adversus reges ac Principes erigit." Disappointed of a fellowship at Cambridge, he turned actor; failed upon the stage, but prospered as a writer for it. His career as a dramatist began with 'Nero', in 1675, and he wrote in all eleven plays.
But the epic muse exacted from Kinglake, as from Virgil long before, the portrayal not only of generals and of battles, but of two great monarchs, each in his own day conspicuously and absolutely prominent the Czar Nicholas and the Emperor Napoleon: "dicam horrida belia, Dicam acies, actosque animis in funera REGES." His handling of them is characteristic.
Poor deluded wretches! Their democratic deluders, conscious of their own guilt, and fearful of the public vengeance, are most active in bringing them to punishment. "Quicquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi"! Two important facts have been established by the witnesses on the different trials.
The country was divided into Duchies and Marches; military service was exacted from the population, and the laws of the Lombards, asininum jus, quoddam jus quod faciebant reges per se, as the jurists afterwards defined them, were imposed upon the descendants of Roman civilization.