Quotes from Anthony Everitt

According to Dio, he promised not to "take any cruel action simply because I have conquered

At Rome, the price of goods soared.

Antony's children were provided with additional names about this time

with all the siege equipment for Phraata) travel at its own speed with a relatively light guard.

now called Alexander Helios (Greek "Sun") and Cleopatra Selene ("Moon").

While external factors may influence our actions, they cannot control them, for that would be to negate free will. To say "what will be, will be" is not to imply that the future is predetermined.

and am able to say exactly what I like without being called to account, and have complete freedom to do whatever I choose.

Cicero's central concern is the contradiction between virtue and the inevitable expediencies that divert human agents from the path of right conduct.

Mardonius was in the best of humors. Like the Great King at Salamis, he misinterpreted what he saw as disunity, low morale, and incompetence, and ordered an immediate general advance across the Asopus.

Caesar remarked that Cicero had won greater laurels than those worn by a general in his Triumph, for it meant more to have extended the frontiers of Roman genius than of its empire.

Perhaps a third of the population of Italy were slaves in the late Republic—as many as three million people.

Straightforward, direct, and loyal, he was the finest general and admiral of the age.

Beneath the Moon there is nothing that is not mortal and doomed to decay, except for the souls which, by the grace of the gods, have been conferred on humankind. But above the Moon everything is eternal.

The Republic is nothing," he said crossly, "a mere name without form or substance.

The war against Sextus Pompeius would not have been won without him

UNFINISHED BUSINESS 46–44 B.C.

and he had been discreetly invaluable in Illyricum.

he was also convinced that a strong executive authority should replace the incompetent competitive cockpit of Senatorial government.

WHAT NOW TOOK PLACE FLOWED from a mismatch of expectations between the dictator and the political nation

in which the muse of epic poetry, Calliope, appears to him and gives him some advice: Meantime the paths which you from earliest days did seek, Yes, and when Consul too, as mood and virtue called, These hold, and foster still your fame and good men's praise.

Completely trusted, he became (in effect) Octavian's deputy—nearly his equal, but always a step behind when on parade.

A great center for gladiatorial combats, it boasted a fine amphitheater

the ruins that can be seen today are of a later building), where Spartacus once fought.

yet eager to command others;