Arrogance and insolence have been the cause of our misfortunes while sobriety and self control have been the source of our blessings. Isocrates. On The Peace. Speech 8. Section 119.
Image: The Roman emperor Honorius by Jean-Paul Laurens, 1880, at the Chrysler Museum of Art, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
A story about Honorius recorded by Procopius:
"At that time they say that the Emperor Honorius in Ravenna received the message from one of the eunuchs, evidently a keeper of the poultry, that Rome had perished. And he cried out and said, 'And yet it has just eaten from my hands!' For he had a very large cock, Rome by name; and the eunuch comprehending his words said that it was the city of Rome which had perished at the hands of Alaric, and the emperor with a sigh of relief answered quickly: 'But I thought that my fowl Rome had perished.' So great, they say, was the folly with which this emperor was possessed."
—Procopius, The Vandalic War (III.2.25–26)
Although Edward Gibbon did not believe this tale, his opinion of Honorius' capabilities was equivocally negative.
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