Quotes About Power

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'.

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; the exact amount needed to qualify is not known, but the implications are that it was set at the very top level of the census hierarchy, the so-called cavalry or equestrian rating. When the people came together to vote, the system of voting was stacked in favour of the wealthy.

Most Roman rulers spent longer at their desks than at the dinner table. They were expected to work at the job, to be seen to exercise practical power

The more power flaunts itself in your face, the more it risks undermining its claims to be taken seriously. Ancient viewers were not all naïve consumers of any message that was thrown at them. Even if some would have looked on these statues in awe and wonderment, it is a fair guess that others would have walked by and laughed, or even spat. In the end, images of power are only as powerful as those who view them allow them to be.

To ignore the Romans is not just to turn a blind eye to the distant past. Rome still helps to define the way we understand our world and think about ourselves, from high theory to low comedy. After 2,000 years, it continues to underpin Western culture and politics, what we write and how we see the world, and our place in it. The

shorthand slogan for the legitimate power of the Roman state, a slogan that lasted throughout Roman history and continues to be used in Italy in the twenty-first century CE. More widely still, the senate

They create desolation and call it peace' is

They called it, in their ignorance, "civilisation", but it was really part of their enslavement

years that is exactly what he did, before resigning the office, retiring to his country house on the Bay of Naples and dying in his bed in 78 BCE. It was a surprisingly peaceful

Temos de pensar melhor acerca do que é o poder, para que serve e como é medido. Por outras palavras, se as mulheres não são encaradas como estando completamente dentro das estruturas de poder, decerto é o poder que tem de ser redefinido e não as mulheres?

Autocracy represented, in a sense, an end of history.

Is it legitimate to eliminate 'terrorists' outside the due processes of law? How far should civil rights be sacrificed in the interests of homeland security? The Romans never ceased

It turned out to be a lesson for the patricians – learned the hard way – that the gods communicated with plebeians too.

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.

The basic rule of Roman history is that those who were assassinated were, like Gaius, demonised. Those who died in their beds, succeeded by a son and heir, natural or adopted, were praised as generous and avuncular characters, devoted to the success of Rome, who did not take themselves too seriously.

this period, they alone could elect the political officials of the Roman state; no matter how blue-blooded you were, you could only hold office as, say, consul if the Roman people elected you. And they alone, unlike the senate, could make law.

took no chances with Caesarion, given his supposed paternity. Now aged sixteen, he was killed.

They create desolation and call it peace' is a slogan that has often summed up the consequences

In short, as the last part of this chapter reveals, the empire created the emperors – not the other way round. Governors

Graecia capta ferum uictorem cepit. 'Fierce Rome', that is, 'had been captured by captive Greece.

There is nothing more important than claiming our power at this point in time because it will determine the future direction of our planet and our evolution.

It's the odious, insufferable people who usually get to the top.

Knowledge is power. Always pays to be nice until nice no longer serves you.