Tuesday, May 18, 2010

This is NOT Cicero

There has been an abundance of places on the Internet quoting something supposedly written by Cicero, but not. Here's the quote:

Antonius heartily agreed with him [sc. Cicero] that the budget should be balanced, that the Treasury should be refilled, that the public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of the generals should be tempered and controlled, that assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt, that the mobs should be forced to work and not depend on government for subsistence, and that prudence and frugality should be put into practice as soon as possible.

It is actually from A Pillar of Iron by Taylor Caldwell; it can be found on page 483 of the 1965 edition published by Doubleday (Garden City, NY.)

Help stamp out the misattribution by posting this, or linking to it, or something. The whole concept expressed in the quote is not a classical idea, especially not a Ciceronian one! If enough people link to the correct attribution, Google will become our friend and the world will have peace—ok, not really, but I mean it about eliminating the bogus Cicero attribution

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