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"It is not without good reason that gods and men chose this place to build our city: these hills with their pure air; this convenient river by which crops may be floated down from the interior and foreign commodities brought up; a sea handy to our needs, but far enough away to guard us from foreign fleets; our situation in the very center of Italy. All these advantages shape this most favored of sites into a city destined for glory." - Livy, Roman History (V. 54.4)
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"Roma Invicta (Unconquered Rome)"
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Semi-legendary founder of the Roman Republic, and traditionally one of its first consuls. He was responsible for the expulsion of Roman king, Tarquinius Superbus. "First of all, by swearing an oath that they would suffer no man to rule Rome, it forced the people, desirous of a new liberty, not to be thereafter swayed by the entreaties of bribes of kings."
- Livy (The oath of Brutus) -
"Ridding yourself of the disease of monarchy can take generations, but sometimes all it takes is a single sharp shock. For the people of Rome, Tarquin the Proud was that shock." https://www.headstuff.org/culture/history/terrible-people-from-history/tarquin-the-proud-last-king-of-rome/
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"There is a lure in power. It can get into a man's blood just as gambling and lust for money have been known to do. This is a Republic. The greatest in the history of the world. I want this country to continue as a Republic. Cincinnatus and Washington pointed the way. When Rome forgot Cincinnatus, its downfall began. When we forget the examples of such men as Washington, Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson, then we start down the road, to ruin."
- Cincinnatus and the Citizen-Servant Ideal -
Lucius Junius Brutus, with the support of the Roman aristocracy, the people and the Roman army expelled the king and his family and to institute a republic -
"Senatus Populusque Romanus (Senate and People of Rome)"
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"Pledge me your solemn word that the adulterer shall not go unpunished."
- Livy -
"Conducted his enterprise with consummate judgement; for he had accurately ascertained the excellent nature of the country in which he was to arrive, and the hostile disposition of its inhabitants towards the Romans; and he had for guides and conductors through the difficult passes which lay in the way of natives of the country, men who were to partake of the same hopes with himself."
-Polybius -
"Remember these Romans, Hannibal. For the time being, we must ally with them. But the day will come when we will have our vengeance upon them, as we will upon the demons of Harappa. Never forget that." The boy's voice was grave, "I'll remember." -Jennifer Mckeithen, Atlantis: On the Tides of Destiny
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Sulla was the first man of the republic to seize power through force. Setting a dangerous precedent to future political leaders like Julius Caesar.
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"He was triumphantly elected and at once began to raise troops. Contrary to law and custom he enrolled in his army poor men with no property qualifications, a class of people who used not to be accepted by commanders in the past, who gave arms, like other honors, only to those in the right income groups - the idea being that the possession of property guaranteed a man's loyalty to the state." - Plutarch
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To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome:
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks,
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores?
And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood? Be gone!
- Shakespeare in Julius Caesar -
"The character of Cicero is not difficult to estimate. No one could follow in the footsteps of virtue with greater dignity than he when attended by the popular applause; but he was weak enough to yield to the depraved spirit of the times and to act according to his convictions only when they were not discordant with his interests. Few men possessing such talents have been so tterly-deid of anything approaching to heroism." - Seutonius
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"...the rule of Caesar, although during its establishment it gave no little trouble to its opponents, still, after they had been overpowered and had accepted it, they saw that it was a tyranny only in name and appearance, and no cruel or tyrannical act was authorized by it; nay, it was plain that the ills of the state required a monarchy, and that Caesar, like a most gentle physician, had been assigned to them by Heaven itself." - Plutarch
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"Some have said that it is not the business of private men to meddle with government - a bold and dishonest saying, which is fit to come from no mouth but that of a tyrant or a slave. To say that private men have nothing to do with government is to say that private men have nothing to do with their own happiness or misery that people ought not to concern themselves whether they be naked or clothed, fed or starved, deceived or instructed, protected or destroyed."
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"The first seven years of his life were spent at Cremona, whence he went to Mediolanum, now Milan, at that time the seat of the liberal arts, denominated, as we learn from Pliny the Younger, Nova Athenae. From this place he afterwards moved to Naples, where he applied himself with great assiduity to Greek and Roman literature, particularly to the physical and mathematical sciences.." - Suetonius -
"The whole of Italy swore allegiance to me"
-Res Gestae Divi Augusti -
"He [Caesar[ declared in Greek with loud voice to those who were present 'Alea iacta est (The die has been cast)' and led the army across." - Plutarch, Life of Pompey, 60.2.9
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With Caesar's victory over Pompey, Caesar overthrew the Roman Republic and proclaimed himself dictator till his death; which led to the establishment of the Roman Empire. Harvey: "When their enemies were at the gates, the Romans would suspend democracy and appoint one man to protect the city. And it wasn't considered an honor, it was considered a public service."
Rachel: "Harvey, the last person the Romans elected was named Caesar, and he never gave up his power."
- Dark Knight -
"Et tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar"
-Shakespeare -
"Thy evil spirit, Brutus: I shall see thee at Philippi." - Shakespeare "I sent into exile the murderers of my father, punishing their crimes with lawful tribunals, and afterwards, when they made war upon the Republic, I twice defeated them in battle." - Res Gestae -
"Now is come the last age of Cumaean song; the great line of the centuries begins anew. Now the Virgin returns, the reign of Saturn returns; now a new generation descends from heaven on high. Only do you, pure Lucina, smile on the birht of the child, under whom the iron brood shall at last cease and a golden race spring up throughout the world! Your own Apollow now is King!" - Eclogue IV -
"I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble" - Augustus
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"The classic of all Europe" - T.S. Eliot "It is generally supposed that the Aeneid was written at the particular desire of Augustus, who was ambitious of having the Julian family represented as lineal descendants of the Trojan Aeneas" - Suetonius -
"luravit in mea verba tota Italia (The whole of Italy swore allegiance to me)" - XXV, 3-4, Translation by Thomas Bushnell
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"I was born at Mantua, died in Calabria, and my tomb is at Parthenope: pastures, rural affairs, and heroes are the themes of my poems." - Inscription on Virgil tomb
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"The younger men had been born after the victory of Actium; most even of the elder generation, during the civil wars; few indeed were left who had seen the Republic. It was thus an altered world, and of the old, unspoilt Roman character not a trace lingered. Equality was an outworn creed, and all eyes looked to the mandate of the sovereign—with no immediate misgivings, so long as Augustus in the full vigour of his prime upheld himself, his house, and peace."
- Tacitus -
Plot by Roman senator Lucius Sergius Catilina to overthrow the consulship of Cicero and Hybrida "When, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now?" - Cicero, in Catilinan I - Against Catilina, Speech One
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"But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiation of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called ;Chrestians' by the populace." - Tacitus on the Christians
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"Rome will exist as long as the Coliseum does;
when the Coliseum falls, so will Rome;
when Rome falls, so will the world."
- Saint Venerable Bede, English Benedictine monk -
From wallsend on the River Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west, the 73 miles wall covered the whole width of the island. -
"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them." - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
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"Did you know that two thousand years ago a Roman citizen could walk across the face of the known world free of the fear of molestation? He could walk across the Earth unharmed, cloaked only in the protection of the words civis Romanus -- I am a Roman citizen. So great was the retribution of Rome, universally understood as certain, should any harm befall even one of its citizens."
-West Wing (Television show) -
"But most wonderful of all is the fact that we who have consecrated ourselves to him, honor him not only with our voices and with the sound of words, but also with complete elevation of soul, so that we choose to give testimony unto him rather than to preserve our own lives." Eusebius of Caesarea, Eusebius of Caesarea: Ecclesiastical History
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"This is certainly the Will of the Supreme God, who is the Author of this world and its Father, (through whose goodness we enjoy life, look up to heaven, and rejoice in the society of our fellow-men), that the whole human race should agree together and be joined in a certain affectionate union by, as it were, a mutual embrace."
-Letter of Constantine to the Numidian Bishops -
"He saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription, 'Conquer By This'. At this sight, he himself was struck with amazement, and his whole army also, which followed him on this expedition, and witnessed the miracle."
-Eusebius -
"that we might grant to the Christians and others full authority to observe that religion which each preferred; whence any Divinity whatsoever in the seat of the heavens may be propitious and kindly disposed to us and all who are placed under our rule." - Edict of Milan
