Histories 1.3

1Yet the age was not so barren of virtues that it did not also produce good examples. 1Mothers accompanied their children in flight, wives followed their husbands into exile: kinsmen were bold, sons-in-law steadfast, and slaves showed a loyalty defiant even of torture; 1the final necessities of famous men were bravely endured, and their deaths matched the celebrated deaths of the ancients. 1Besides the manifold misfortunes of human affairs, there were portents in sky and earth, warnings of thunderbolts, and presages of the future, joyful and sad, ambiguous and clear; 1for never was it proved by more terrible disasters of the Roman people or by surer signs that the gods care not for our safety, but for our punishment.