Expert: Maria - 4/16/2008

Question
Desperately need the origin and context of the saying: "peace of Caesar," meaning that after war when there is nothing left there is a kind of ironic peace. Who said this?  I think it may be in Tacitus Agricola 30, but not sure if that was his meaning or not. In short, where did the idea that the peace of Caesar was a quiet of devastation?  Could you answer me at my email?  Thanks, Raymond

Answer
Hello,

You are right: there is  a quotation is from  Tacitus ‘Agricola’, chapter 30, where the Roman historian imagines that before the battle against the Romans under Agricola at Mons Graupius in northern Scotland in AD 83/84, Calgacus, Caledonian tribal leader, urges his troops to fight and tells  that the Romans are “brigands of the world“ (‘raptores orbis’, in Latin) who  rob, slaughter, plunder and  “where they make a desert, they call it peace” (“ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant”).

It is obvious that Tacitus looks at Empire with a critical eye and emphasizes  what is  often a  fault of  almost all the empires, i.e. an insatiable appetite for conquest, as well as the idea that conquest is a real state of tranquillity, though such a  peace is imposed.

In short, the so-called "peace of Caesar" is an ironic expression to  mean that such a peace is “a quiet of devastation”, as you say.

This English saying derives just from Tacitus and his disenchanted view of the Roman Empire which however was not always so deplorable, but on the contrary had often the great merit of providing  a stable framework of government for many peoples with widely different customs, for which the Romans usually showed great respect .

Hope this can be helpful to you.
Best regards,
Maria
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1-Around the year AD 84, Calgacus, a local tribal leader, united the tribes against the Romans, and fought the Roman army of Gnaeus Julius Agricola at the Battle of Mons Graupius in northern Scotland , where he  was defeated and probably killed in combat.
The battle of Mons Graupius has been  described by Tacitus , Agricola's son-in-law. He claimed that 30,000 Caledonii had faced Agricola's 5,000 legionnaires during the battle. Caledonii was the word Tacitus uses to describe the inhabitants of northern Scotland, although others have described them as 'Picti', 'painted men'.

2- Tacitus ‘Agricola’, chapter 30, lines 15-25-Calgacus'Speech:
“Raptores orbis, postquam cuncta vastantibus defuere terrae, mare scrutantur: si locuples hostis est, avari, si pauper, ambitiosi, quos non Oriens, non Occidens satiaverit: soli omnium opes atque inopiam pari adfectu concupiscunt. Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant”

[“Robbers of the world, having by their universal plunder exhausted the land, they rifle the deep. If the enemy be rich, they are rapacious; if he be poor, they lust for dominion; neither the east nor the west has been able to satisfy them. Alone among men they covet with equal eagerness poverty and riches. To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make a solitude and call it peace”].

3-Note that in the phrase "ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant"
UBI means 'where'; SOLITUDINEM means 'solitude/ desert; FACIUNT means 'they make'; PACEM means 'peace'; APPELLANT means 'they call'.