1On the flank of the Chauci and the Chatti, the Cherusci, unprovoked, long nursed an excessive and enervating peace; 1and this was more pleasant than safe, because among the lawless and the strong you rest in a false security: where matters are decided by force, moderation and uprightness are names belonging to the stronger. 2So the Cherusci, who were once called good and just, are now called idle and foolish; 2for the victorious Chatti, good fortune has passed for wisdom. 3Dragged down by the ruin of the Cherusci, the Fosi too, a neighbouring people, are equal partners in their adversity, though in prosperity they had been their inferiors.
Tacitus · Germania
Germania 36
The decline of the Cherusci
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Tacitus, Germania. Latin text: H. Furneaux, Cornelii Taciti Opera Minora (Oxford, 1900), public domain; digital text from the Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA. Word analysis: drafted by our own tagger (trained on the hand-checked texts on this site), with every doubtful word checked by hand. English translation and section titles: written for this app, each checked against the Latin by a second reader.