In the eyes of Tacitus, the most terrible result of the tyranny of the bad emperors was the fawning servility of a once proud order, and their craven treachery in the hour of danger.
"Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius"
Samuel Dill
Yet a study of the inscriptions of the Antonine age leaves the impression that, amid all the sharply drawn distinctions of rank, with all the petty ambition and self-assertion, or the fawning and expectant servility, there was also a genuine patriotic benevolence on the one hand, and a grateful recognition of it on the other.
"Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius"
Samuel Dill
Having lived himself through the reign of Domitian, and seen all the horrors of its close, having witnessed, in humiliating silence, the excesses of frenzied power and the servility of cringing compliance, Tacitus had little faith either in Divine benevolence or in tempted human virtue.
"Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius"
Samuel Dill