Lucan (c. 39-65)
“[W]hat did their children
or their grandchildren do to deserve to be born
under a despot? Were we the cowards in battle?
Did we hide our throats? For the fear of others
the penalty sits on our necks. If you were planning
to give a master to those born after the battle.
Fortune, you should have also given them a war.”
- From Lucan’s Civil War (Book 7, approximately line 645), translated by Matthew Fox (Penguin Classics, 2012).
