The Roman Empire Also Blamed Those They Invaded
The Roman general Cerialis gave this speech in Trier to the Treviri and the Lingones after their revolt. It has too many modern echoes:
“Roman commanders and general entered your land and the lands of the other Gauls from no desire for gain but because they were invited by your forefathers, who were wearied to death by internal quarrels, while the Germans whom they had invited to help them had enslaved them all, allies and enemies alike….We have occupied the banks of the Rhine not to protect Italy but to prevent a second Ariovistus from gaining the throne of Gaul….There were always kings and wars throughout Gaul until you submitted to our laws….For, if the Romans are driven out — which heaven forbid — what will follow except universal war among all peoples?” — Tacitus, Histories IV, 73f. cited in Klaus Wengst, Pax Romana and the Peace of Jesus Christ (London: SCM Press, 1987), 21.
For contrast, in Josephus’s account of King Agrippa’s speech against his rebels, he exhorts them to be like the Gauls and “put up with being a source of income for the Romans and allow the Romans to administer their riches.” — Josephus, Bellum Judaicum, II, 372 cited in Wengst, Pax, 31.
But the first account sells better on CNN/Fox.
The Wengst book is a bit hard to find, but it’s a great resource. I’m adding it to my “Worth-Reading List.”
Doug Jones
See also:
Unocal Got Its Country
Pre-9/11 Plans to Attack Afghanistan
Pentagon Still Fomenting Civil War in Iraq
Iraq Output: Little Electricity But Plenty of Oil
Why No Exit Strategy for Iraq
