War

Quote from Letter 5,36 to Maurice, Augustus. June 595

And indeed, if the captivity of my land was not increasing every moment of every day, I should happily keep quiet about my being despised and laughed at. But this afflicts me strongly, that while I endure a charge of falsehood, so Italy is led captive each day beneath the Lombards' yoke, and while my suggestions are in no way believed, the forces of the enemy are increasing immensely.

Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, translated by John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMPS, 2004), II, 348