Originally posted by seanD
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From Histories by the Roman historianTacitus:
The history on which I am entering is that of a period rich in disasters, terrible in battles, torn by civil wars, more foreign wars and often both at the same time. There was success in the East, misfortune in the West. Illyricum was disturbed, the Gallic provinces were wavering, Britain subdued and immediately let go. The Sarmarae and Suebi rose against us; the Dacians won fame for defeats inflicted and suffered; even the Parchians were almost roused to arms through the trickery of a pretended Nero. Moreover Italy was distressed by disasters unknown before or returning after the lapse of ages. Cities of the rich fertile shores of Campania were swelled up or overwhelmed. Rome was devastated by conflagrations, in which her most ancient shrines were consumed and the very Capital fired by citizens' hands. Sacred rites were defiled; there were adulteries in high places. The sea was filled with exiles, its cliffs were made foul with the bodies of the dead. In Rome there was awful cruelty.
Besides the manifold misfortunes that befell mankind, there were prodigies in the sky and on the earth, warnings given by thunderbolts, and prophecies of the future, both joyful and gloomy, uncertain and clear. For never was it more fully proved by awful disasters of the Roman people or by indubitable signs that gods care not for our safety, but for our punishment.
Besides the manifold misfortunes that befell mankind, there were prodigies in the sky and on the earth, warnings given by thunderbolts, and prophecies of the future, both joyful and gloomy, uncertain and clear. For never was it more fully proved by awful disasters of the Roman people or by indubitable signs that gods care not for our safety, but for our punishment.
How about two world wars during the 20th century; and more than 100,000,000 people killed by communist governments in Russia, China, and Indochina, as well as 6,000,000 Jews murdered by the Nazis in Europe ― not to mention the sufferings of countless more men, women, and children who endured imprisonment, torture, and homelessness during those times but ultimately survived.
Back to the time of Tacitus' Histories in the 1st century, in which the Jewish nation, its capital Jerusalem, and its very religion were completely devastated ― never to recover in the case of the latter, being temple-centric as it was: read Josephus' The Jewish War for an account of a time of sorrow as great as, or even greater than, any time or place in history, with mothers reduced to eating their own children during the Roman siege, among the many utter horrors of that time.
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