Note 61 — LIFE OF CAIUS MARIUS.

Robbery and piracy were in like manner reckoned honourable occupations by the old Greeks (Thucydides, i. 5). These old robbers made no distinction between robbery and war: plunder was their object, and labour they hated. So says Herodotus (v. 6). A Thracian considered it a disgrace to till the ground; to live by plunder was the mark of a gentleman. When people can live by plunder, there must be somebody worth plundering. One object of modern civilisation is to protect him who labours from the aggression of him who does not.