"The humble are in danger when those in power disagree"
About this Quote
A poet’s warning disguised as a moral proverb, Phaedrus sharpens his line by keeping the vulnerable deliberately vague: “the humble” aren’t merely modest people, but anyone without leverage - the poor, the dependent, the socially minor. The danger isn’t poverty itself; it’s proximity to a feud. When “those in power disagree,” conflict doesn’t stay at the top. It cascades downward, and the ones who get crushed are the bystanders who can’t choose sides or afford neutrality.
The phrasing does sly work. “Disagree” sounds civilized, almost salon-level. In a Roman context it’s a euphemism for factional struggle: patrons and rivals, imperial favorites, courts and accusations, property seized on technicalities. Phaedrus, a fabulist writing under the early Empire, knew how quickly a harmless person could become a useful example. Power disputes require proofs of dominance, and humble bodies are cheap currency.
The line also carries a quiet rebuke to the fantasy that virtue protects you. Humility, usually sold as a shield, becomes a liability; it marks you as someone unlikely to retaliate. That inversion is why the sentence sticks: it refuses to comfort the listener. It’s not a call to arrogance, but to realism - an instruction to read the weather of politics, to notice when elites are splitting into camps, and to understand that “not involved” is a privilege only the powerful can afford.
Underneath the compact moral is a survival guide from an era when a stray association could ruin you: beware the quarrels of giants, because their shadows fall on you first.
The phrasing does sly work. “Disagree” sounds civilized, almost salon-level. In a Roman context it’s a euphemism for factional struggle: patrons and rivals, imperial favorites, courts and accusations, property seized on technicalities. Phaedrus, a fabulist writing under the early Empire, knew how quickly a harmless person could become a useful example. Power disputes require proofs of dominance, and humble bodies are cheap currency.
The line also carries a quiet rebuke to the fantasy that virtue protects you. Humility, usually sold as a shield, becomes a liability; it marks you as someone unlikely to retaliate. That inversion is why the sentence sticks: it refuses to comfort the listener. It’s not a call to arrogance, but to realism - an instruction to read the weather of politics, to notice when elites are splitting into camps, and to understand that “not involved” is a privilege only the powerful can afford.
Underneath the compact moral is a survival guide from an era when a stray association could ruin you: beware the quarrels of giants, because their shadows fall on you first.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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