Looking back at how the Republic had ended up with an oligarchy that polarized and destabilized Roman society, Sallust (who lived from 86 to 35 BC) quoted a letter from Mithridates to Arsaces, king of the Parthians:
In fact, the Romans have one inveterate motive for making war upon all nations, peoples and kings: namely, a deep-seated desire for dominion and for riches. . . . Do you not know that the Romans . . . have possessed nothing since the beginning of their existence except what they have stolen – their home, their wives, their lands, their empire? . . . no laws, human or divine, prevent them from seizing and destroying allies and friends, those near them and those afar off, weak or powerful, and from considering every government which does not serve them, especially monarchies, as their enemies. . . . it is by audacity, by deceit, and by joining war to war that they have grown great. Following their usual custom, they will destroy everything or perish in the attempt.