Quotes from Anthony Everitt

He needed many new ships, but had neither money nor time to build them.

In feeling pudor, a Roman meditating self-destruction did not so much suffer from guilt at some bad thing he had done

Eventually, only one person was left beside the ashes—Julia Augusta, widow and now daughter of the dead princeps.

For some years he had been awarded tribunicia sacrosanctitas, or the immunity from physical attack

we have learned from them the beginnings of life and have gained the power not only to live happily but also to die with a better hope.

Now he decided to assume tribunicia potestas in perpetuity:

he would enjoy the power of a tribune without actually having to hold the post.

Livia died in A.D. 29 at the considerable age of eighty-six.

Has even a mediocre fighter ever let out a groan or changed the expression on his face? Who of them has disgraced himself, I don't just mean when he was on his feet, but when falling to the ground? And, once fallen, who has drawn in his neck when ordered to submit to the sword?

the two men agreed on a plan that employed speed and surprise to turn the tables on Antony and trap him.

Perhaps the most instructive aspect of Augustus' approach to politics was his twin recognition that in the long run power was unsustainable without consent, and that consent could best be won by associating radical constitutional change with a traditional and moralizing ideology.

Octavian made landfall on Sicily south of Tauromenium and disembarked his troops.

Fullers were the Roman equivalents of laundry and dry-cleaning firms: soap had not been invented and clothes were bleached with human and animal urine

Riding in parallel on the shore was his cavalry. Then up from the south marched Sextus' infantry.

The eastern half of the empire spoke Greek and boasted a culture that went back to Homer.

It was not long before Pisistratus fell from grace again. The problem was the arrangement with Megacles. He did not want to imperil the succession of his legitimate sons by new rivals, so, to avert the risks of pregnancy, he avoided ordinary sexual intercourse with his new wife and penetrated her up the anus.

Caesar's heir was now ready to pounce. Both consulships were vacant

The surprise was total.

Just as in the music of harps and flutes or in the voices of singers a certain harmony of the different tones must be maintained Ã¢â'¬Â¦ so also a state is made harmonious by agreement among dissimilar elements. This is brought about by a fair and reasonable blending of the upper, middle and lower classes, just as if they were musical tones. What musicians call harmony in song is concord in a state.

both Sextus' fleet and infantry held back. This was a serious error

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, for example, had been about twenty-nine

they missed the opportunity not only to win a decisive victory but also to capture the triumvir.

when he won the command to defeat Hannibal in the third century B.C.

virtue outweighs everything and even if the good man is not supremely happy, he is on balance happy.