The Annals and the Histories · Ann. 1.58
Segestes too was there in person, a stately figure, fearless in the remembrance of having been a faithful ally. His speech was to this effect. "This is not my first day of steadfast loyalty towards the Roman people. From the time that the Divine Augustus gave me the citizenship, I have chosen my friends and foes with an eye to your advantage, not from hatred of my fatherland (for traitors are detested even by those whom they prefer) but because I held that Romans and Germans have the same interests, and that peace is better than war. And therefore I denounced to Varus, who then commanded your army, Arminius, the ravisher of my daughter, the violater of your treaty. I was put off by that dilatory general, and, as I found but little protection in the laws, I urged him to arrest myself, Arminius, and his accomplices. That night is my witness; would that it had been my last. What followed…Read in context ›
Cornelius Tacitus · trans. Church & Brodribb, 1876
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