“Mark! where his carnage and his conquests cease!
He makes a solitude, and calls it — peace!”
Canto II, stanza 20. Here Byron is using an adaptation of a quote from Agricola by the Roman historian Tacitus (c. 30). The original words in the text are Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (To robbery, slaighter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a wilderness, and call it peace). This has also been reported as Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant (They make solitude, which they call peace).
The Bride of Abydos (1813)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
George Gordon Byron227
English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement 1788–1824Related quotes
“Carnage added to carnage does not equal peace.”
Brian W. Aldiss (1925–2017) British science fiction author
“Basis for Negotiations” p. 152
Short fiction, Who Can Replace a Man? (1965)
“Lost in the solitude of his immense power, he began to lose direction.”
Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude
Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude
“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 <br class="br">Variant translations: <br class="br">They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace. <br class="br">Loeb Classical Library edition <br class="br">To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace. <br class="br">As translated by William Peterson <br class="br">More colloquially: They rob, kill and plunder all under the deceiving name of Roman Rule. They make a desert and call it peace. <br class="br">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, <br class="br">Agricola (98)
“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.
Attributed by Tacitus in Agricola (c. 98) <br class="br">Oxford Revised Translation (at Project Gutenberg) http://la.wikisource.org/wiki/De_vita_et_moribus_Iulii_Agricolae_%28Agricola%29#XXX <br class="br">Translation: They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace. — translation Loeb Classical Library edition<br>Translation: To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace. — translation by William Peterson
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi
Source: Letters and Papers from Prison (1967; 1997), Who Stands Fast?, p. 5.
“Where a man calls himself by a name which is not his name, he is telling a falsehood.”
William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher (1815–1899) British lawyer, judge and politician
Reddaway v. Banham (1895), L. R. 2 Q. B. D. [1895], p. 293.
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
“but he only found her in the image that saturated his private and terrible solitude.”
Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude
Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude
