Tacitus said WHAT??
Saturday, 29th April, 2023
5:52PM
Dear Reader,
It’s a heavy rainstorm here, and I’m enjoying the show from my balcony, laptop in hand.
Anyway,
I picked up a book called “The Birth of Britain”, the first volume of a book series called “The History Of the English Speaking Peoples” authored by the great Sir Winston Churchill, a former Prime Minister of England, and a very learned man.
Now, the reason I started this book was quite simply this — I wanted to learn how this little island, which was inhabited by barbarians upto the 9th-10th century (source: The Last Kingdom), somehow came to subdue the great Indian subcontinent.
A curious topic, isn’t it?
Well, I found out that hundreds of years before the Common Era, when Britain was inhabited by stone age tribes…it was conquered by the Romans.
They were the ones who first brought culture and civilization to this island, and made it a part of the much greater Roman Empire, thus linking it with the larger world.
While reading this book, I came upon an observation taken by a Roman historian, Tacitus, which I think is as relevant to us now as it was to the Britons then.
You see, as Britain was colonized, Roman culture spread throughout the island, and the British upper classes started following the Roman culture fashion, such as their famous toga, and more.
On this, Tacitus remarked — All this in their ignorance they called civilization, when it was but part of their servitude.
Hmm…
Sounds a lot like us now, does it not?
We too follow Western fashion, their language, their manner of speaking, their life philosophies even (thankfully not their food, no one can deny ours can’t be topped) — and sophistication, we call it.
We think highly of people who speak in English,or consume Western entertainment, or read Western literature and philosophy— and we equate it with being modern and civil.
Modern = More West-like.
Is what we seem to think now.
But it’s simply not the truth.
They’re different.
Not better. Not worse.
Just different.
Something to think about.
