Yesterday I was reading — thrilling to, actually — Caesar's Commentaries and ran across this line, written about what he regarded as a treacherous Celtic tribe in 61 B.C.E., which initially triumphed over Roman forces:
They might boast of their glorious victory and of having for so long escaped retribution for their crimes; yet both of those facts led to one conclusion: when the immortal gods mean to punish guilty man they often grant him all the more prosperity, all the longer impunity, simply that he may suffer the more when his good fortune is reversed.
Remind you of any contemporary clan of treachery?