"Saraceni tamen nec amici nobis umquam nec hostes optandi, ultro citroque discursantes, quicquid inveniri poterat momento temporis parvi vastabant, milvorum rapacium similes, qui si praedam dispexerint celsius, volatu rapiunt celeri, ac sitimpetraverint, non immorantur. <...> Apud has gentes, quarum exordiens initium ab Assyriis, ad Nili cataractas porrigitur, et confinia Blemmyarum, omnes pari sorte sunt bellatores, seminudi coloratis sagulis pube tenus amicti, equorum adiumento pernicium graciliumque camelorum per diversa reptantes, in tranquillis vel turbidis rebus; nec eorum quisquam aliquando stivam apprehendit, vel arborem colit, aut arva subigendo quaeritat victum, sed errant semper per spatia longe lateque distenta, sine lare sine sedibus fixis aut legibus; nec idem perferunt diutius caelum, aut tractus unius sol illis umquam placet. Vita est illis semper in fuga, uxoresque mercennariae conductae ad tempus ex pacto, atque (ut sit species matrimonii,) dotis nomine futura coniunx hastam et tabernaculum offert marito, post statum diem (si id elegerit,) discessura, et incredibile est quo ardore apud eos in venerem! uterque solvitur sexus. Ita autem quoad vixerint late palantur, ut alibi mulier nubat, in loco pariat alio, liberosque procul educat,? nulla copia quiescendi permissa. Victus universis caro ferina est, lactisque abundans copia qua sustentantur, et herbae multiplices, et siquae alites capi per aucupium possint, et plerosque nos vidimus frumenti usum et vini penitus ignorantes."
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Original Language: English
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Ammianus Marcellinus, Res gestae, XIV, iv, 1–6 (tr. John C. Rolfe)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Saracen
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Saracen
' was a term used both in Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia Petraea and Arabia Deserta. The term's meaning evolved during its history of usage. During the Early Middle Ages, the term came to be associated with the tribes of Arabia.
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