Quotes from Mary Beard

Roman writers tended to take it for granted that the origins of the senate went back to Romulus, as a council of 'old men' (senes), and that by the fifth century BCE it was already a fully fledged institution operating much as it did in 63 BCE.

The first qualification for most political offices was wealth on a substantial scale. No one could stand for election without passing a financial test that excluded most citizens;

It was then that he gained the nickname adulescentulus carnifex: 'kid butcher' rather than enfant terrible.

Fabius took command after Cannae, avoided pitched battle with Hannibal and played a waiting game, combining guerrilla tactics with a scorched-earth policy, to wear down the enemy (hence 'delayer').

There is no earlier period in the history of the West that it is possible to get to know quite so well or so intimately (we have nothing like such rich and varied evidence from classical Athens). It is not for more than a millennium, in the world of Renaissance Florence, that we find any

As young Scipio Nasica found to his cost, the success of the rich was a gift bestowed by the poor. The rich had to learn the lesson that they depended on the people as a whole. An

the idea of being spoken about by posterity pushes me to some sort of hope for immortality

even the British left-wing Fabian Society adopted his name and example – the message being, 'if you want the revolution to be successful, you must, like Fabius, bide your time'.

The implications, however, were again revolutionary. In extending citizenship to people who had no direct territorial connections with the city of Rome, they broke the link, which most people in the classical world took for granted, between citizenship and a single city. In a systematic way that was then unparalleled, they made it possible not just to become Roman but also to be a citizen of two places at once:

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?

The simple reason that, in the 60s CE, Saint Peter was crucified while Saint Paul enjoyed the privilege of being beheaded was that Paul was a Roman citizen.

they redefined the word 'Latin' so that it was no longer an ethnic identity but a political status unrelated to race or geography. This set the stage for a model of citizenship and 'belonging' that had enormous significance for Roman ideas of government, political rights, ethnicity and 'nationhood'.

Roman military expansion drove Roman sophistication.

he saw to it that the greatest number did not have the greatest power – a principle that we should always stand by in politics.

Los emperadores romanos y sus consejeros nunca resolvieron el problema de la sucesión. Fueron derrotados en parte por la biología, en parte por las persistentes incertidumbres y desacuerdos sobre la mejor manera de transmitir la herencia. La

All those stories of Roman valour, heroism and self-sacrifice that he must have heard – told and retold around military campfires or at dinner tables – were not simply for amusement, he concluded. Their function was to encourage the young to imitate the gallant deeds of their ancestors; they were one aspect of the spirit of emulation, ambition and competition that he saw running right through Roman elite society.

Fear of the enemy, so this argument went, had been good for Rome; without any significant external threat, 'the path of virtue was abandoned for that of corruption

For the origin of literature at Rome was closely connected with Roman overseas expansion: 'The Muse imposed herself in warlike fashion on the fierce inhabitants of Rome,' as one second-century BCE author described it.

The most important upshot of this,' Polybius concludes, 'is that the younger generation is inspired to endure all suffering for the common good, in the hope of winning the glory that belongs to the brave.

If Caesar really did advocate life imprisonment in 63 BCE, then it was probably the first time in Western history that this was mooted as an alternative to the death penalty, without success.

Although we read of occasional Romans, usually the 'bad' ones in these stories, complaining that foreigners or the low-born are taking away their birthright, the overall message is unmistakeable: even at the very pinnacle of the Roman political order, 'Romans' could come from elsewhere; and those born low, even ex-slaves, could rise to the top. Rome

It was, Polybius argued, such balances across the political system that produced the internal stability on which Roman external success was built.

Cicero reflects exactly that when he sums up Servius Tullius' political objectives in approving tones: 'He divided the people in this way to ensure that voting power was under the control not of the rabble but of the wealthy, and he saw to it that the greatest number did not have the greatest power – a principle that we should always stand by in politics.

Cicero had the men summarily executed, with not even a show trial. Triumphantly, he announced their deaths to the cheering crowd in a famous one-word euphemism: vixere, 'they have lived' – that is, 'they're dead'.