Todo lo ocurrido hoy me ha hecho recordar esto:

«Among the moralist and historians, however, we find the term [obnoxius] applied more widely to describe the predicament of anyone who depends on the will -or, as we say, on the goodwill- of someone else. Sallust, for example, complains in his Bellum Catilinae that, «ever since our republic submitted to the jurisdiction and control of a few powerful persons, the rest of us have been obnoxii, living in subservience to them (…) Tacitus frequently employs the term obnoxius to describe those who are exposed to harm and live at the mercy of others».

«With the rise of neo-roman theories of freedom, however, the term [obnoxius] came to be used instead to describe the slavish conduct to be expected of those who live under the thumb of princes and ruling oligarchies. We already find Bacon speaking with distaste in his Essays of 1625 about the eunuchs employed by kings in the role of spies as ‘obnoxious and officious servants».

Y un poema

«Although, I peradventure, may appear

On Some occasions, bitterly severe,

To those, in whom, I private-failing see,

Which, to the Publike may obnoxious be»

George Wither. To the Parliament and People of the Coomonwealth of England, 1652

Visto todo en: Liberty before Liberalism, Quentin Skinner. Cambridge University Press, 1998. Páginas 42-44 y 94

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