« Dio 38.37 | Dio 38.38 | Dio 38.39 | About This Work »
38The later Romans, likewise, and our own fathers imitated them, not being satisfied with what they had nor content with what they had inherited, but regarding sloth as their sure destruction and hardship as their certain safety. They feared that if their treasures remained unaugmented they would waste away of themselves and wear out with age, and were ashamed after receiving so rich a heritage to add nothing to it; accordingly they effected much greater and more numerous conquests. 2But why mention individually Sardinia, Sicily, Macedonia, Illyria, Greece, Ionian Asia, Bithynia, Spain, and Africa? And yet the Carthaginians would have given them much money not to extend their voyages thither, and much would Philip and Perseus have given to keep them from making campaigns against them; Antiochus would have given much, his sons and grandsons would have given much, to have them remain in Europe. 3But those men in view of the glory and the greatness of the empire did not choose to be ignobly idle or to enjoy their wealth in security, nor did the older men of our own generation who even now are still alive; nay, as men who well knew that advantages are preserved by the same methods by which they are acquired, they made sure of many of their original possessions and also acquired many new ones. 4But here again, why catalogue in detail Crete, Pontus, Cyprus, Asiatic Iberia, Farther Albania, both Syrias, the two Armenias, Arabia, and Palestine? Countries whose very names we did not know precisely in former times we now rule, lording it over some ourselves and having bestowed others upon various persons, so that we have gained from them revenues and troops and honour and alliances.
« Dio 38.37 | Dio 38.38 | Dio 38.39 | About This Work »