Quotes from Anthony Everitt

Mark Antony took the same line.

Bowing to this reality, the dying man handed Agrippa the symbol of his authority:

Many senators, even though they had been appointed by the dictator, were inclined to accept his removal as a fait accompli.

his signet ring bearing the head of Alexander the Great.

If I have pleased you, kindly signify Appreciation with a warm goodbye.

In his official memoir, he notes with satisfaction that he spent 600 million sesterces on land bought in Italy for his veterans

Near a place called Carrhae he came up against a force of about ten thousand mounted archers.

In fact, his silent foreknowledge of the conspiracy suggests that he was not without sympathy with them

Instead, he freed them all.

Only ten thousand of his men survived the debacle. Humiliatingly, many legionary standards were captured.

Clemency was to be "the new style of conquest.

Let your motto be, I lead. Strive to be best.

This was a massive blow to Rome's pride that would demand revenge

Thrace, a largely ungoverned territory to the east of Greece and Macedonia, stretched up to the river Danube

Senators will also have been pleased to witness the declining importance of the people—

War is glorious and, at the same time, a great evil.

Religion was about ritual rather than belief.

ILLYRICUM WAS A WILD AND savage place. It lay along much of the length of the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea

ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE features of the Augustan regime was that speech remained free.

Cicero asked the Senators if they wished to banish Catilina. This was an ill-judged intervention. Embarrassed by Catilina's presence, the majority said nothing. Cleverly retrieving the situation, Cicero then asked if they would order him to banish Quintus Lutatius Catulus, one of the House's most respected members. They roared back, "No." This allowed the Consul to claim that, by its silence, the Senate had in fact consigned the revolutionary to exile.

dozens of tribes and much given to piracy and brigandage.

Pompey, jealous of Caesar's military achievements in Gaul, became increasingly friendly with the optimates.

Caesar intended to return to Rome, a conquering hero, and stand for consul for 48 B.C.

Brutus was high-minded, an intellectual who took ideas seriously. He saw the assassination of Caesar as a sacrifice rather than a political act. He was a man with "a singularly gentle nature," who feared civil war almost (although not quite) as much as tyranny.