Tacitus: Call

Tacitus was Roman senator and historian. Explore interesting quotes on call.
Tacitus: 84   quotes 50   likes

“To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.”
Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

Close of chapter 30 http://la.wikisource.org/wiki/De_vita_et_moribus_Iulii_Agricolae_%28Agricola%29#XXX, Oxford Revised Translation
Variant translations:
They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace.
Loeb Classical Library edition
To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace.
As translated by William Peterson
More colloquially: They rob, kill and plunder all under the deceiving name of Roman Rule. They make a desert and call it peace.
This is a speech by the Caledonian chieftain Calgacus addressing assembled warriors about Rome's insatiable appetite for conquest and plunder. The chieftain's sentiment can be contrasted to "peace given to the world" which was frequently inscribed on Roman medals. The last part solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (they make a desert, and call it peace) is often quoted alone. Lord Byron for instance uses the phrase (in English) as follows,
Agricola (98)

“Because they didn't know better, they called it "civilization," when it was part of their slavery.”
Idque apud imperitos humanitas vocabatur, cum pars servitutis esset.

Book 1, paragraph 21 http://www.slate.com/id/2180061/nav/tap3/
Variant translation: Step by step they were led to things which dispose to vice, the lounge, the bath, the elegant banquet. All this in their ignorance they called civilisation, when it was but a part of their servitude.
As translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/tacitus-agricola.asp
Agricola (98)