Augustus Quotes

“Rome became a republic in 509 B.C., after driving out its king and abolishing the monarchy. The next two centuries saw a long struggle for power between a group of noble families, patricians, and ordinary citizens, plebeians, who were excluded from public office. The outcome was a apparent victory for the people, but the old aristocracy, supplemented by rich pledeian nobles, still controlled the state. What looked in many ways like democracy was, in fact, an oligarcy modified by elections.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“For him, bravery was not an assertion of collective defiance and solidarity among colleagues but a solitary, obstinate act of will.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“Livy’s worldview was moral and romantic, and most thinking people of his age shared it. In the preface to his magnum opus, he stated that writing history was a way of escaping the troubles of the modern world: “Of late years wealth has made us greedy, and self-indulgence has brought us, through every kind of sensual excess, to be, if I may so put it, in love with death both individual and collective.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“Turn not your country’s hand against your country’s heart!”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“He had become a well-loved figure in Apollonia and many of its citizens came to his house begging him to stay.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“Cleopatra took her time, but when she appeared she brought everything that was needed.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“they missed the opportunity not only to win a decisive victory but also to capture the triumvir.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“Octavian knew he had to save the fleet;”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“it must sail away as soon as possible, even if doing so meant risking battle with Sextus.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“Antony showed little interest in Sextus, but was irritated to find that he had offered his services to the Parthian king.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“In 35 B.C., Sextus Pompeius was executed, presumably with Antony’s approval.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“He was about twenty-six when he died”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“Antony and Cleopatra renewed their friendship at the respective ages of forty-five and thirty-three.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“Antony’s children were provided with additional names about this time,”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“now called Alexander Helios (Greek “Sun”) and Cleopatra Selene (“Moon”).”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“Her co-monarch, Ptolemy XV Caesar, was the son whom she claimed, almost certainly truthfully, to have had by Julius Caesar.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“Caesarion was the murdered god’s real, not adoptive, offspring;”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“He placed confidence in a senior Parthian defector, who was in fact spying for his king.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“Antony failed to impose garrisons and to take hostages from the Armenian king,”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“Antony’s final mistake was to let his slow baggage train”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“The well-informed Parthians turned up out of the blue with a force of fifty thousand mounted archers,”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“who set on fire all the siege equipment and destroyed it.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“it would no longer be possible to take Phraata, where Antony had intended to winter.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“(with all the siege equipment for Phraata) travel at its own speed with a relatively light guard.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“No, far better for the queen to be persuaded to do away with herself.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“Then an astonishing thing occurred. In the early afternoon, the wind shifted”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“The “palace” took up an entire fifth of the city,”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“Not long after her arrest, Octavian called on the queen.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“till it jumped out of a jar and bit her). She was thirty-nine.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor

“bite by an asp is not necessarily fatal, and even when it is, as much as two hours may pass before life is extinguished.”
― Anthony Everitt, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor