Quotes from Anthony Everitt

it must sail away as soon as possible, even if doing so meant risking battle with Sextus.

fresco of an actor's mask from a room in Augustus' house on the Palatine Hill, which may have been his bedroom. The princeps enjoyed theater and, to judge by his last words, saw himself as a performer. He asked the people around his bedside: "Have I played my part in the farce of life well enough?

Philippic (the seventh) in which he defended his record as a peacemaker but said that any compromise with Antony would be dishonorable. "I do not reject peace," he said, "but I am afraid of war disguised as peace.

More than twenty thousand men, one third of the army, were lost in the month it took to march

Several times he prepared for suicide, asking his sword bearer to be his executioner.

Bessus's moment came too late, for the Fates had already cut the empire's thread with their shears.

Messengers had been sent ahead to ask Cleopatra to bring money and clothing for the soldiers.

The same may be said for excessive delight, lust and fear. The way forward, Cicero wrote, was to distance oneself from the cares and desires of life.

You must show yourself a man now and consider what you ought to do, and implement your plans as fortune and opportunity allow.

Cleopatra took her time, but when she appeared she brought everything that was needed.

Letters to His Friends).

Caesar ordered his soldiers, all passionately loyal to him, to invade Italy.

Antony and other supporters of Caesar fled to their commander, who was waiting at the little

An eloquent man, my child, an eloquent man, and a patriot.

river Rubicon in northern Italy, which separated his province of Cisalpine Gaul from Roman territory proper.

Warships had brass battering rams on their prows, and the usual tactic was to ram the side of an enemy ship.

Romans tended to fight sea battles as if they were on land.

A soldier's basic pay was nine hundred sesterces a year, entailing an aggregate expenditure of 140 million sesterces.

the cavalry was better paid than ordinary infantrymen; and officers

The most important personage who came to light was Oxyathres, a younger brother of Darius, to whom Oxyathres had been devoted.

and he captured and eventually executed the official incoming governor, Mark Antony's brother Gaius.

Antony, who had spent the winter at Athens, agreed to return to Italy in the spring or early

37 B.C.; it was in his interest to ensure that the west was quiet before he set off against Parthia

met it with calm decisiveness.