The History of Rome, Book 3

"Still less was it the result of any lack of tenacity and idiosyncrasy of national feeling; on the contrary the Arameans defended their nationality with the weapons of intellect as well as with their blood against all the allurements of Greek civilization and all the coercive measures of eastern and western despots, and that with an obstinacy which no Indo-Germanic people has ever equalled, and which to us who are Occidentals seems to be sometimes more, sometimes less, than human."