Dio Cassius: Is it not dreadful that we become engaged in war after war?

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

Greek and Roman writers on war and peace

Dio Cassius: “How long are we to be waging war?”

Dio Cassius: Weeping and lamenting the fratricide of war

Dio Cassius: When peace was announced the mountains resounded

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Dio Cassius
Roman History
Translated by Earnest Cary

When Pertinax as a reward for his brave exploits obtained the consul­ship, there were nevertheless some who showed displeasure…and they quoted this line from tragedy:

“Such things accursed war brings in its train.” (Euripides)

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(Marcus Aurelius): “Fellow-soldiers: I have come before you, not to express indignation, but to bewail my fate. For why become angry at Heaven, which is all-powerful? But it is necessary, perhaps, for those who meet with undeserved misfortune to indulge in lamentations; and that is now my case. Is it not dreadful that we become engaged in war after war? Is it not horrible that we are even involved in civil war?…”

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Marcus, indeed, was so averse to bloodshed that he even used to watch the gladiators in Rome contend, like athletes, without risking their lives; for he never gave any of them a sharp weapon, but they all fought with blunted weapons like foils furnished with buttons. And so far was he from countenancing any bloodshed that although he did, at the request of the populace, order a certain lion to be brought in that had been trained to eat men, yet he would not look at the beast nor emancipate his trainer, in spite of the persistent demands of the spectators; instead, he commanded proclamation to be made that the man had done nothing to deserve his freedom.