Vainly did reason expostulate that oppression could not long be exercised by hands which had lost their strength, and that peace imposed new and different labours on those who no longer triumphed in war; they would listen to nothing; and, as fatalistic when condemned to a state of peace as when they marched forth conquering and to conquer, they cowered down in magnificent listlessness, leaving the whole burden of their support on conquered peoples.

Like ignorant farmers, who exhaust fertile fields by forcing crops; they rapidly ruined their vast and rich empire by exorbitant exactions.

Inexorable conquerors and insatiable masters, with one hand they flogged their slaves and with the other plundered them.

Nothing was superior to their insolence, nothing on a level with their greed.

They were never glutted, and never relaxed their extortions.