What Have We Learned in 2065 Years?
“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”
– Cicero, 55 BC
Evidently nothing.
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1
May 23, 2010 at 17:12 -
Remind me, what happened to Cicero?
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2
May 23, 2010 at 17:21 -
I believe he died.
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3
May 23, 2010 at 17:52 -
So do I.
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4
May 23, 2010 at 17:53 -
He was assassinated by thugs who were followers of his opponents. They killed him then cut off his head and hands.
Once we (hopefully) get the economy back to how Cicero recommends it, this fate might encourage Chancellors to keep things that way.
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6
May 23, 2010 at 23:03 -
One tentative conclusion I’ve drawn after studying that period, is that most of the people alive in Cicero’s time are dead by now.
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8
May 23, 2010 at 17:31 -
EVERY MP ought to be required to recite that speech from memory at least once per year.
[Twice per year by every Chancellor of the Exchequer.]
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11
May 23, 2010 at 17:45 -
Gosh. So that’s what they meant about fiddling while Rome burned.
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12
May 23, 2010 at 19:12 -
A superb and timeless quotation. Well done TJ for reminding us of the wisdom of the Ancients.
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13
May 23, 2010 at 21:15 -
But people will NOT learn from history so what hope do we have of change
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14
May 23, 2010 at 22:30 -
nimiaque illa libertas et populis et privatis in nimiam servitutem cadit
Republics depend on who writes the rules ,who makes the speeches and
the ordinary knowing their place. We humans remember Kings and Emperors,
not dreamers nor poets. -
15
May 23, 2010 at 22:31 -
Twelve years later Cicero was murdered at the behest of … guess what : a coalition (the Second Triumvirate) ; a coalition in many ways like unto the Lib.-Con. one. (Although a triumvirate, it had only two principal members.)
It was said that Octavian — the future Augustus — argued against his proscription but in vain.
ΠΞ
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16
May 23, 2010 at 22:43 -
See Tim Worstall’s “Letter to the editor” (http://timworstall.com/2010/05/23/a-letter-to-the-editor/) on why “assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed”.
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17
May 24, 2010 at 08:36 -
We all know about SNAFU (situation normal all fouled up) which sort of describes 2008 and FUBAR (fouled up beyond all recognition) for 2009/10. Obviously “fouled” is pronounced differently from one region to another. We are now progressing smoothly to BOHICA.
Bend over, here it comes again.
Ivan – 23 May 21:15 has it in a nutshell.
I used to listen to his radio show all the time when I was a gal and I don’t remember anything awful like THAT happening to him! Poor Little Jimmy Cicero, The Cicero Kid. Or am I thinking of Jimmy Clitheroe?
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