All ancient history was written with a moral object; the ethical interest predominates almost to the exclusion of all others.
TacitusThis I regard as history's highest function, to let no worthy action be uncommemorated, and to hold out the reprobation of posterity as a terror to evil words and deeds.
TacitusThey have plundered the world, stripping naked the land in their hungerโฆ they are driven by greed, if their enemy be rich; by ambition, if poorโฆ They ravage, they slaughter, they seize by false pretenses, and all of this they hail as the construction of empire. And when in their wake nothing remains but a desert, they call that peace.
Tacitus