An solum emendatione dignum, ne Syracusis spectacula largius ederentur: cetera per omnes imperii partes perinde egregia, quam si non Nero, sed Thrasea regimen eorum teneret? Quod si summa dissimulatione transmitterentur, quanto magis inanibus abstinendum? Thrasea contra, rationem poscentibus amicis, non praesentium ignarum respondebat eius modi consulta corrigere, sed patrum honori dare, ut manifestum fieret magnarum rerum curam non dissimulaturos, qui animum etiam levissimis adverterent.
Or was it the one desirable reform, that shows at Syracuse should not be too liberal? and were all things else in all departments of the empire as entirely admirable as if not Neros, but Thraseas, hand were at the helm? But if the highest questions were to be slurred over by ignoring their existence, how much more was it a duty not to touch irrelevances! Thrasea, on the other side, as his friends pressed for his explanation, answered that it was not ignorance of existing conditions which made him amend decrees of this character, but he was paying members the compliment of making it clear that they would not dissemble their interest in great affairs when they could give attention even to the slightest.
final_alignments\Tacitus_Annals_Book13.json