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Justinus, who wrote Greek or rather foreign history in Latin, and
briefly, like Trogus Pompeius whom he followed, begins his work
thus: "In the beginning of the affairs of peoples and nations the
government was in the hands of kings, who were raised to the height of
this majesty not by courting the people, but by the knowledge good men
had of their moderation. The people were held bound by no laws; the
decisions of the princes were instead of laws. It was the custom to
guard rather than to extend the boundaries of the empire; and kingdoms
were kept within the bounds of each ruler's native land. Ninus king
of the Assyrians first of all, through new lust of empire, changed
the old and, as it were, ancestral custom of nations. He first made
war on his neighbors, and wholly subdued as far as to the frontiers of
Libya the nations as yet untrained to resist." And a little after he
says: "Ninus established by constant possession the greatness of the
authority he had gained. Having mastered his nearest neighbors, he
went on to others, strengthened by the accession of forces, and by
making each fresh victory the instrument of that which followed,
subdued the nations of the whole East." Now, with whatever fidelity
to fact either he or Trogus may in general have written, for that they
sometimes told lies is shown by other more trustworthy writers, yet it
is agreed among other authors, that the kingdom of the Assyrians was
extended far and wide by King Ninus. And it lasted so long, that
the Roman empire has not yet attained the same age; for, as those
write who have treated of chronological history, this kingdom endured
for twelve hundred and forty years from the first year in which Ninus
began to reign, until it was transferred to the Modes. But to make
war on your neighbors, and thence to proceed to others, and through
mere lust of dominion to crush and subdue people who do you no harm,
what else is this to be called than great robbery?
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