24 Quotes About Ancient Rome

A man leaves his great house because he's bored With life at home, and suddenly returns, Finding himself no happier abroad. He rushes off to his villa driving like mad, You'ld think he's going to a house on fire, And yawns before he's put his foot inside, Or falls asleep and seeks oblivion, Or even rushes back to town again. So each man flies from himself (vain hope, because It clings to him the more closely against his will) And hates himself because he is sick in mind And does not know the cause of his disease. Titus Lucretius Carus

Have I have played my part well in the comedy of life? If so, clap your hands and dismiss me from the stage with applause. Augustus

At the age of nineteen, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army by means of which I restored liberty4 to the republic, which had been oppressed by the tyranny of a faction. Augustus

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?" Cicero, Orator, 46 BCBy way of 'Dictator' by Robert Harris, 2015 Cicero

A twinge of fear entered Gwenwhyfar’s heart. It was the first she had heard of the sea farms lying in the path of danger. She wondered what had befallen a different Norseman of her acquaintance. Had her poor bodyguard, Finn, perished in one of those raids? Jennifer McKeithen

Far, far out on the open sea a platform of stone held firm against the tossing waves. At first sight, it appeared as nothing out of the ordinary, other than that it lay in the middle of nowhere. That was the view on the surface. Beneath the water existed an entirely alien world. Jennifer McKeithen

She ran. Deeper, deeper into the mysterious Broceliande forest... Jennifer McKeithen

In an empire as unruly as Rome, it is quite easy to get away with something as thespian as murder. Katlyn Charlesworth

Even freed men will do what they must in Rome. Katlyn Charlesworth

Hunting, bathing, gaming, laughing: that's living (venari lavare ludere ridere occest vivere). Mary Beard

Oblige me by taking away that knife. I can't look at the point of it. It reminds me of Roman history. James Joyce

A twinge of fear entered Gwenwhyfar’s heart. It was the first she had heard of the sea farms lying in the path of danger. She wondered what had befallen a different Norseman of her acquaintance. Had her poor bodyguard, Finn, perished in one of those raids? Jennifer McKeithen

No one tells you rome is ending until you're the last one standing alone in a coliseum where a city had been. Brandon Thomas DiSabatino

Do you have still the dye with which to turn your tunic red?’‘ The madder? Yes, I do.’‘ Enough of it for a century?’‘ Enough for the entire cohort, if you want it.’ He twitched a smile then; I was coming to know it, and to revel in the sight of it. I was his then, part of the XIIth, and he knew it.‘ Not the entire cohort yet, Demalion. The century will do. Henceforth we are the Bloody First. And I fancy we might have a mule’s tail on our standard. See to it on our return. M.C. Scott

I remember Cannae, " she said, raising her head, "when we thought all was lost. Carthage had defeated us, and there were those who gave up hope. Yet we survived, by our fortitude, and by believing that we should endure. There are times, Marcus, when courage is all you have." I looked down at the stone floor, chastened into silence by her cold, stern words. This was her way, as it had always been. It was the Roman way. Grief was an indulgence; and though she surely suffered, her suffering was for her alone. It seemed hard, but she had come from a hard family, brave men and brave women who through the generations had survived by facing down hardship and loss. Of all her long line of ancestors, she was not going to be the one to break. And nor, I decided, was I. . Paul Waters

But sometimes..sometimes I wake with a mad thought in my head: What if that boy's life mattered as much as anyone else's, even Caesar's? What if I were offered a choice: to doom that boy to the misery of his fate, or to spare him, and by doing so, to wreck all Caesar's ambitions? I'm haunted by that thought - which is ridiculous! It's self-evident that Caesar matters infinitely more than that Gaulish boy; one stands poised to rule the world, and the other is a miserable slae, if he even still lives. Some men are great, others are insignificant, and it behooves those of us who are in-between to ally ourselves with the greatest and to despise the smallest. To even begin to imagine that the Gaulish boy maters as much as Caesar is to presume that some mystical quality resides in every man and makes his life equal to that of any other, and surely the lesson life teaches us is quite the opposite! In stength and intellect, men are anything but equal, and the gods lavish their attention on some more than on others. Steven Saylor

The failure of the roman system to furnish decent minimal standards for the mass of people was a fundamental cause of instability, both political and economic. H.J. Haskell

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

Marcus turned his back to her. He feared that if he saw her face, it might weaken his resolve. Love was indeed a madness. Jennifer McKeithen

It was no wonder they thought us to be immortal——our nightly celebrations put Olympus to shame. Katlyn Charlesworth

They think they are invincible. But, the truth is, Nova——gods fall just as hard as mortals. The only difference is... gods do not see the fall coming until it is too late. Katlyn Charlesworth

The wheel of Rome spins constantly. Gods rise and fall, mortals live and die, and round and round we go. We all play a part in that wheel... And I make sure the wheel never stops spinning. You see, if the wheel stops, balance is lost. Katlyn Charlesworth