Letter: Roman verdict

Roman verdict

Sir: I was skimming through the Latin proverbs and sayings in my dictionary of quotations when my eye was arrested by the word "Major". The quotation was from Tacitus (Hist, 1, 49): Major privato visus, dum privatus fuit, et omnium consensu capax imperii, nisi imperasset.

This was translated as: "He seemed greater than a private citizen while he was one, and by the consent of all would have been considered capable of government, if he had not governed." Nuff said!

NESTA ROSS

Prestwich, Manchester