Reasons For Suicide
It has been thought that Otho's suicide was committed in order to steer his country from the path to civil war. Just as he had come to power, many Romans learned to respect Otho in his death. Few could believe that a renowned former companion of Nero had chosen such an honourable end. The soldiers were so moved and impressed that some even threw themselves on the funeral pyre to die with their Emperor.
Writing during the reign of the Emperor Domitian (AD 81–96), the Roman poet Martial expressed his admiration for Otho's choice to spare the Empire from civil war through sacrificing himself:
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- "Although the goddess of civil warfare was still in doubt,
- And soft Otho had perhaps still a chance of winning,
- He renounced fighting that would have cost much blood,
- And with sure hand pierced right through his breast.
- By all means let Cato in his life be greater than Julius Caesar himself;
- In his death was he greater than Otho?"
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Famous quotes containing the words reasons for, reasons and/or suicide:
“Youth does not require reasons for living, it only needs pretexts.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)
“The source of Pyrrhonism comes from failing to distinguish between a demonstration, a proof and a probability. A demonstration supposes that the contradictory idea is impossible; a proof of fact is where all the reasons lead to belief, without there being any pretext for doubt; a probability is where the reasons for belief are stronger than those for doubting.”
—Andrew Michael Ramsay (1686–1743)
“Nothing shall warp me from the belief that every man is a lover of truth. There is no pure lie, no pure malignity in nature. The entertainment of the proposition of depravity is the last profligacy and profanation. There is no scepticism, no atheism but that. Could it be received into common belief, suicide would unpeople the planet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)