Quotes About Roman

if a gens died out, in theory its cults disappeared with it; but the state made efforts to preserve at least some of those whose celebration was important to the Roman people (who were always concerned to treat the most minor deities tactfully) by entrusting them to an association (sodalitas).

The Aurelii, or Sabine origin like the Claudii, had charge of the cult of the Sun, to whom they owed their name (Ausel which harked back in fact to the Etruscan Usil) and to whom the family sacrificed in the name of the Roman people

Plutarch (Num., 21, 3) makes the Pinarii descendants of a certain Pinus, son of Numa.

Cato warns people to be on their guard against every 'haruspex, augur, soothsayer and Chaldaean' (astrologer). Here we can recognise the old Roman who does not want to be hindered in his daily activities.

the Vestals also had custody of mysterious fetishes which were considered to be the sacred pledges of Roman hegemony (pignora imperii), hidden in the strongroom of the temple or penus Vestae.

A fine example of peace with the gods through peace among men . . . Goddesses were offered 'sellisternia', where they were seated, while the gods remained reclining (Val. Max., 2, 1, 2), in keeping with early Roman custom at family meals.

Rooted in the family, and having nothing to do with the complexes or inner struggles of the individual, Roman piety was put to the service of the city-state which embraced family hearths and homes.

When Christians faced oppression at the hands of Roman imperialists, they did what Jews had done when they faced oppression at the hands of Babylonian imperialists: dreamed of vengeance and enshrined the dream in theology.

Posthumous: It sounds like the name of a Roman gladiator, an unconquered gladiator. At least that's what poor Posthumous would like to believe. It gives him courage.

The Roman legions were formed in the first instance of citizen soldiers, who yet had been made to submit to a rigid discipline, and to feel that in that submission lay their strength.

Leave us our poor relics, Roman, and do not complete the work of your fathers. They came as conquerors; you come as a friend. What was barbarism on their part, would be sacrilege on yours.

The Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II (401–450) ordered that a great church be constructed in Myra, and it became known as the Church of St. Nicholas.

The ancient writer Suetonius tells the story that an inventor around 70 CE displayed to a Roman emperor a machine that could move columns, only to be dismissed with the objection that such labor-saving devices would cause the poor to starve by robbing them of employment.

Oh, can these men love, my Clodius? Scarcely even with the senses. How rarely a Roman has a heart! He is but the mechanism of genius—he wants its bones and flesh.

Eels from the Tiber are a traditional Roman delicacy, pan-cooked with soft onions, garlic, chiles, tomatoes, and white wine, but a much more common dish is baccalà , preserved salt-cured cod, which is fried in thin strips, then simmered in a tomato sauce flavored with anchovies, pine nuts, and raisins. For really good fresh fish, you are better off heading either up or down the coast, toward Civitavecchia to the north or Gaeta to the south.

Read a certain way, the Natural History is preposterous, full of erroneous assumptions and cast-off mythology. Read another way, it is a window into Roman understanding two millennia ago. Read another way, it is a tribute to wonder itself

Wine was served during the meal (rich and heavy, it was usually diluted with water), but the real drinking began once the food had been cleared away. This was the commissatio—a ceremonial drinking competition at which goblets had to be drained in a single gulp. Healths were drunk. This was the time for conversation and debate, which might last well into the evening, and was the Roman equivalent to the Greek symposium.

in Roman culture. There was a widespread belief that traditional values were being undermined by foreign immigrants. The decadence that was perceived to permeate the Republic

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.

The Roman month lasted either twenty-nine or thirty-one days;

Ides" was the name for the thirteenth or the fifteenth, depending on the month's length.)

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

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

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