Rome Quotes

• Imperator Caesar, son of the divine Julius, victor in the war he waged on behalf of the republic in this region [Nikopolis Inscription]
• preserve the Roman people pure, and untainted with a mixture of foreign or servile blood [Suetonius]
• Octavian spoke in praise of his subordinates, and conferred honours upon them as was his custom [Dio]
• The Ara Pacis Augustae celebrates the return of Augustus from his campaigns in Spain and Gaul and more generally Pax Augusta. 
• when I had extinguished the flames of civil war, after receiving by universal consent the absolute control of affairs, I transferred the republic from my own control to the will of the senate and the Roman people [Res Gestae]
• validity was restored to the laws, authority to the courts, and dignity to the senate; the power of the magistrates was reduced to its former limits [Velleius]
• The Turdetanians, however, and particularly those that live about the Baetis, have completely changed over to the Roman mode of life, not even remembering their own language any more [Strabo]
• seduced the soldiery with gifts, the people with corn, and everyone with the delights of peace [Tacitus]
• even many of the older men had been born during the civil wars. How few were left who had seen the republic! [Tacitus]
• For Augustus had had thoughts of putting the Roman state under Germanicus, his sister's grandson, whom all men esteemed, but yielding to his wife's entreaties he left Germanicus to be adopted by Tiberius and adopted Tiberius himself… [Tacitus]
• Tradition says that Tiberius as often as he left the Senate-House used to exclaim in Greek, "How ready these men are to be slaves" [Tacitus]
• He [Caligula] even demanded that Tiberius, whom he called grandfather, should receive from the senate the same honours as Augustus [Dio]
• he exclaimed, "I wish the Roman people had but one neck." [Suetonius]
• The bystanders recalled the words once addressed by him to the populace, "Would that you had but one neck", and they showed him that it was he who had but one neck, whereas they had many hands. [Dio]
•  these actions, though delighting the rabble, distressed sensible people [Dio]
• But I deprecate the appointment of a high priest to me and the building of temples, for I do not wish to be offensive to my contemporaries, and my opinion is that temples and such forms of honor have by all ages been granted as a prerogative to the gods alone [Letter of Claudius to the Alexandrians]
• that he who was a single person, one either already or hereafter to be a member of their body, ought to yield to the senate [Josephus]
• he returned to Rome in less than six months from the time of his departure, and triumphed in the most solemn manner [Suetonius]
• One might say that everything Claudius did throughout his reign was dictated by his wives and freedmen: he practically always obeyed their whims rather than his own judgement [Suetonius]
• He had not even appointed Tiberius as his successor from affection or from concern for the republic but because, when he looked at his arrogance and cruelty, he hoped that the odious comparison would redound to his own greater glory. [Tacitus]
• Britannicus wore the dress of boyhood, Nero the triumphal robe [Tacitus]
• a stepmother's treacherous schemes were convulsing the whole imperial house [Tacitus]