HKB
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Often appears with: history and the writing of history · veteran dispute · sylla and marius · spain · repayment of benefits · reason and the intellect · prince of orange succession · preservation of historical evidence · population in europe · pompey assassination · political legitimacy and consent · monarchy and royal succession
Usually: detachment (3) · argument (2) · narrative (2) · skepticism (2) · reflection (1) · betrayal (1) · crisis of belief (1) · injustice endured (1) · the fall of the great (1) · censure (1)
“Time and custom give authority to all forms of government, and all successions of princes; and that power, which at first was founded only on injustice and violence, becomes in time legal and obligatory.” David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature · observation
Malthus shifts to civilized Europe, claiming population is higher than in Julius Caesar’s time because Europe produces more food, and he reviews criteria and errors about estimating ancient populations.
State of civilized nations--Probability that Europe is much more populous now than in the time of Julius Caesar--Best criterion of population--Probable error of Hume in one the criterions that he proposes as assisting in an estimate of population--Slow increase of population at present in most of the states of Europe--The two principal checks to population--The first, or preventive check examined with regard to Engla…
Hume addresses an objection about the loss of ancient historical evidence by arguing that identical transmission steps keep the vivacity of belief, contrasting this with the problem faced when each testimony link differs.
and must at last be utterly extinguished: And vice versa, if belief on some occasions be not capable of such an extinction; it must be something different from that vivacity. Before I answer this objection I shall observe, that from this topic there has been borrowed a very celebrated argument against the Christian Religion; but with this difference, that the connexion betwixt each link of the chain in human testimo…
Hume claims that even if the Prince of Orange’s title was once disputed, custom makes succession lawful over time, and later legitimacy is imagined as flowing backward to predecessors.
take advantage of such properties, and to chuse the magistrates either in or out of a line, according as the vulgar will most naturally attribute authority and right to them. Secondly, Though the accession of the Prince of Orange to the throne might at first give occasion to many disputes, and his title be contested, it ought not now to appear doubtful, but must have acquired a sufficient authority from those three …
The poem praises Julius Caesar after Pharsalia, laments Pompey’s end, recounts Caesar’s conspiracy and assassination by Brutus and Cassius, and then transitions to the rise and fall of Croesus.
*West By strength of hand or elles by treaty, And unto Rome made them tributary; And since* of Rome the emperor was he, *afterwards Till that Fortune wax’d his adversary. O mighty Caesar, that in Thessaly Against POMPEIUS, father thine in law, <23> That of th’ Orient had all the chivalry, As far as that the day begins to daw, That through thy knighthood hast them take and slaw,* slain* Save fewe folk tha…
Seneca recounts Julius Caesar and a veteran from Spain, using the story to argue that asking repayment should consider circumstances, legal and practical limits, and the tempering of speech to avoid offense.
bitterness, not in public, or in a reproachful manner, but so that he may think that he himself has remembered it rather than that it has been recalled to him. XXIV. One of Julius Caesar's veterans was once pleading before him against his neighbours, and the cause was going against him. "Do you remember, general," said he, "that in Spain you dislocated your ankle near the river Sucro [Footnote: Xucar]?" When Caesar …