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Juvenal and Tacitus have been referenced in book 1 of the fantine section of les miserables. in researching them for context, i find myself wondering... did the philosophers of the roman empire's wax, critique it similarily to those during it's wane? if so that would depict a center point where the power cruxed and fell, that work of that nature was ignored. thusly if we refuse right and valid critique of our own empires, then we doom ourselves to a parody of the historical arch.