Quotes from Lindsey Davis

He listened with the mild demeanour of a man who had waited eight years for his town council to draw up a specification for emergency repairs.

Emperors may come and go, bringing more or less chaos, but the bureaucrats keep the wheels turning.

Some men are born lucky. Others are born Marcus Didius Falco.

I had been right in the first place. Getting involved with politicians is complete stupidity.

Have any sheep been seen walking out of the Library with seagoing adventurers clinging to their wool?

Free time, time to do whatever you liked, or to do absolutely nothing, alone or in company you valued: of all the luxuries in the Empire, perhaps this was the greatest.

She called me a rat.' 'Oh yes, I gathered you two were very close!

popular men who laugh at your jokes pose a threat which blatant villains can never command.

But, remember, a tyrant hates to admit he is one,' Faustus said quietly. 'The worse he is, the more he claims – and even believes – that traditional religion and democracy matter to him deeply and determine all his actions.

Dictators love to talk. It is remarkable how men who wield excessive sole power will be consistent in this: Given a captive audience, they all drone on for hours. And hours. The human brain can only concentrate for twenty minutes, ask any teacher. Dictators have rarely been despatched on a training course to learn that simple fact. Many dictators are completely untrained; tyranny comes to them naturally.

It struck me there might be a reason why Helena Justina whipped along at such a cracking pace: she did not want to be stuck in the wilderness with my corpse. I thanked Jove for her ruthless good sense. I did not want my corpse to be stuck with her in any case.

Hello, still waiting for an unexpected development? There was none. It happens. It happens all the time.

There was one good side to my male relations. Since they were married to my sisters, they had all learned to be swiftly subdued by sarcasm.

Even the impetuous Helena Justina was an advocate of traditional family councils. However, every Roman matron knows that domestic councils were devised by our foremothers purely so the views of the matron of a household may prevail.

They were not beggars; well, not in the usual sense. They were Christians, who wanted not just my nephew's money but their souls.

I would rather see Rome ruled by a man who once had to ask his accountant tricky questions before his steward could pay the butcher's bill than by some mad limb like Nero, who was brought up believing himself the son and the grandson of gods, and who thought wearing the purple gave him free rein to indulge his personal vanities, execute real talent, bankrupt the Treasury, burn half of Rome – and bore the living daylights out of paying customers in theatres!

The grander the temple, the lousier its hangers-on.

I like my women in a few wisps of drapery: then I can hope for a chance to remove the wisps.

We managed to make a good night of it, in the desperate way people do when the choice is between dogged survival or sliding under the morass.

He had the kind of personality that makes you think a boy will grow up to be a public torturer. However

It is possible to take against someone, then continue to loathe them out of pure prejudice.