Came by this while reading

[TheGreatBear]

.....

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Eric]

Thats a bold statement.

 

[Russ H]

Sheesh, Bear . . . you're reading Dickson's translation of Theodor Mommsen's book on the History of Rome, Vol III?

He wrote this statement about the Roman republic more than 150 years ago!

Your quote was Mommsen's concluding statement about the Romans, in his chapter "Faith and Manners":

http://books.google.com/books?id=Cs...that+he+does+not+become+a+criminal"#PPA127,M1

Makes a lot more sense when you read it in context.

More on Mommsen's History of Rome:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Rome_(Mommsen)

Interesting stuff.

Mommsen compared ancient Rome to what was going on in his homeland (Germany) in the 1850s.

Bear, are you comparing today's society and business structures to ancient Rome's?

It is said those that do not learn from the past will repeat it.

So I appreciate the study of history, and correlations to the modern day.

But I think your quote, while fascinating, is a bit misleading when taken out of the context in which it was originally written.

-Russ H.

-For those not familiar w/Mommsen, he is one of very few people to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (in 1902) for a non-fiction work.

Attachments ("picture .pdf") below are screen shots of the concluding paragraphs in the book where this quote was used.

.