Ancient Rome Quotes

• Military Action- Augustus, Triumphal Arch:

  “The Senate and the People of Rome (set this up) in honour of the Imperator Caesar…to commemorate the preservation of the state”
• Military Action- Tiberius, Tacitus:

  “He ought to have gone himself and confronted the rebels with his imperial majesty they would have yielded on seeing their emperor a leader of great experience and the supreme source of punishment or reward”
• Military Action- Tiberius, Velleius Paterculus

  “All this disturbance was soon quelled and suppressed by the ripe experience of the veteran commander”
• Military Action- Gaius, Suetonius:

  'He suddenly made them gather shells... calling them "spoils from the ocean"
• Military Action- Claudius, Arch of Claudius:

  “Conquered without loss” 
• Military Action- Claudius, Josephus:

  “provided Claudius with a triumph that cost him no personal exertion”  (Credit to Vespasian)
• Military Action- Claudius, Dio:

  "Had spent only sixteen days in Britain, and celebrated his triumph"
• Military Action- Nero, Dio:

  "The Jews revolted openly and he sent Vespasian against them. The inhabitants of Britain and of Gaul, likewise, oppressed by the taxes, experienced an even keener distress, which added fuel to the already kindled fire of their indignation."
• Consolidation of Power- Augustus, Dio:

  "A few of them knew his real intention and consequently kept applauding him enthusiastically."
• Consolidation of Power- Augustus, Dio:

  "They kept shouting, begging for a monarchical government…until they forced him, as it has made to appear."
• Consolidation of Power- Augustus, Dio:

  "Very first act was to secure a decree granting to the men who should compose his body guard double the pay."
• Consolidation of Power- Tiberius, Suetonius:

  "With a show of reluctance, and complaints they were forcing him to become a miserable slave, Tiberius accepted the principate."
• Consolidation of Power- Tiberius, Suetonius:

  "Oh, let him either hate it or leave it."
• Consolidation of Power- Tiberius, Suetonius:

  "Of the many hours voted him, he accepted none but a few unimportant ones."
• Consolidation of Power- Tiberius, Suetonius:

  "Refrained from using the name Augusts."
• Consolidation of Power- Tiberius, Suetonius:

  "Once, when addressed as ‘my Lord’ he gave warmly that not much insult may ever be again thrown at him."
• Consolidation of Power- Tiberius, Suetonius:

  "He let all affairs of state slide."
• Consolidation of Power- Tiberius, Suetonius:

  "Did not hesitate to exercise power."
• Consolidation of Power- Gaius, Dio:

  "He had seemed at first most democratic"
• Consolidation of Power- Gaius, Dio:

  "He took in one day all the honours which Augustus had with difficulty been induced to accept."
• Consolidation of Power- Gaius, Dio:

  "He immediately saluted Augusta… forced the former to seek death by their own hand."
• Consolidation of Power- Gaius, Dio:

  "Gaius had no more chance of becoming emperor than of galloping to and from over the golf of Baiae."
• Consolidation of Power- Nero, Suetonius:

  "He would rule according to princeps of the Emperor Augustus."
• Consolidation of Power- Nero, Tacitus:

  "At a hint from the prefect, he was greeted with cheers."
• Consolidation of Power- Nero, Tacitus:

  "Promised them the gratuity."
• Consolidation of Power- Nero, Tacitus:

  "Decision of the troops was supported by senate decree, nor was there any hesitation in the provinces."
• Traditional Roman Values- Augustus, Res Gestae:

  “It was the will of our ancestors”
• Traditional Roman Values- Augustus, Suetonius:

  “If there were shortages of candidates in senatorial ranks, he appointed knights”
• Traditional Roman Values- Augustus, Virgil:

  "Pious" "Father" "Devout" (Epithets of Aeneas)
• Traditional Roman Values- Augustus, Dio:

  “They forced him, as it was made to appear, to assume autocratic power”
• Traditional Roman Values- Augustus, Virgil:

  "Came down from the sky and struck the stubborn doors, bursting the iron-bound gates of war" (Temple of Janus)
• Traditional Roman Values- Augustus, Res Gestae:

  "I revised the roll of the senate three times"
• Traditional Roman Values- Augustus, Res Gestae:

  "The senate decreed that vows should be undertaken every fifth year by the consuls and priests for my health"
• Traditional Roman Values- Augustus, Res Gestae:

  "It was the will of our ancestors that the gateway of Janus Quirinus should be shut when victories had secured peace by land and sea throughout the whole empire of the Roman people... I was the leading citizen the senate resolved that it should be shut on three occasions. "
• Traditional Roman Values- Augustus, Res Gestae:

  "I built the Senate House, and the Chalcidicum adjacent to it, the temple of Apollo on the Palatine with its porticoes, the temple of the divine Julius, the Lupercal"
• Traditional Roman Values- Augustus, Suetonius:

  "Augustus twice considered restoring the Republic: firstly after the death of Mark Antony, when he recalled his rival’s often-repeated charge that the failure to do so was his fault; and again when, exhausted from persistent illness, he summoned the Senators and magistrates to his house, if authority were divided, he decided to retain power in his own hands"
• Traditional Roman Values- Tiberius, Suetonius:

  "Tiberius showed an almost excessive courtesy when addressing both individual senators and the Senate as a whole"
• Traditional Roman Values- Tiberius, Suetonius:

  "Once it happened that the Senate put a motion to the vote; Tiberius sided with the minority, and not a soul followed him. "
• Traditional Roman Values- Tiberius, Tacitus:

  "Ah! Men primed for Slavery" (Description of the Senate)
• Traditional Roman Values- Gaius, Dio:

  "His grandmother he immediately saluted as Augusta, and appointed her to be priestess of Augustus, granting to her at once all the privileges of the Vestal Virgins. To his sisters he assigned these privileges of the Vestal Virgins"