Via Survival
"Nor was this the only form of lawless extravagance which owed its origin to the plague. Men who cooly ventured on what they had formerly done in a corner, and not just as they pleased, seeing the rapid transitions produced by persons in prosperity suddenly dying and those who before had nothing succeeding to their property. So they resolved to spend quickly and enjoy themselves, regarding their lives and riches as alike things of a day.
Perseverance in what men called honour was popular with none, it was so uncertain whether they would be spared to attain the object; but it was settled that present enjoyment, and all that contributed to it, was both honourable and useful. Fear of gods or law of man there was none to restrain them. As for the first, they judged it to be just the same whether they worshipped them or not, as they saw all alike perishing; and for the last, no one expected to live to be brought to trial for his offenses, but each felt that a far severer sentence had already been passed upon them all and hung over their heads, and before this fell it was only reasonable to enjoy life a little."
-- Thucydides The History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 2, Chapter 7, Section 53, translation by Richard Crawley; revised by R. Feetham, 1952, regarding the conditions during the Athenian plague during the Second Siege of Athens by the Spartans during the Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC.
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