“Because they didn't know better, they called it "civilization," when it was part of their slavery.”

—  Tacitus , book Agricola

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)

Original

Idque apud imperitos humanitas vocabatur, cum pars servitutis esset.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

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Tacitus 42
Roman senator and historian 54–120

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