Augustus

by John Williams

Julius Caesar had come to power in a world that was corrupt beyond your understanding. No more than six families ruled the world;

murder and civil war and merciless repression were the means toward the accepted ends of power, wealth, and glory.

Any man who had sufficient money could raise an army, and thus augment that wealth, thereby gaining more power,

authority became simply the force of ar...

Mankind in the aggregate I have found to be brutish, ignorant, and unkind, whether those qualities were covered by the coarse tunic of the peasant or the white and purple toga of a senator.

yet in the weakest of men, in moments when they are alone and themselves, I have found veins of strength like gold in decaying rock; in the cruelest of men flashes of tenderness and compassion; and in the vainest of men moments of simplicity and grace.

wealth beyond one’s comfort has always seemed to me the most boring of possessions,

It was destiny that seized me that afternoon at Apollonia nearly sixty years ago, and I chose not to avoid its embrace.

if it is one’s destiny to change the world, it is his necessity first to change himself.

The soldier who has chosen war for his profession in the midst of battle longs for peace,

Hitler d and fall of third r.

that kind of human friendship which is so ordinary that it is never spoken of, and thus is seldom cherished.

With Plato and the Pythagoreans, I floated through the mists where souls are supposed to wander in search of new bodies;

Ideas as souls

a sleeplessness of waiting, a long moment in which the soul prepares itself for a repose unlike any that mind or body has ever known before.

Death

that eternal darkness into which all men sink at last,

that boredom which presages carelessness

For more than forty years we have lived the Roman peace.

Pax romana

any citizen, whatever his birth, may become as rich as his endeavor and the accidents of the world allow him.

security from the tyranny of power or the corruption of greed;

the dictatorship of Rome was offered to me

Upon neither occasion did I accept,

And in the north the barbarian waits.

Italy lies unprotected by any natural barrier from the Germanic tribes.

The barbarian waits, and we grow weaker in the security of our ease and pleasure.

with that touching faith and completeness of the young, he sleeps, certain that he will awake in the morning.

Reflections of n old man

the Island of Pandateria, where for so many years my daughter suffered to live in her exile.

the laws did not accomplish the purpose for which they were intended.

perhaps there is but one god. But if that is true, you have misnamed him. He is Accident,

it might be possible to construct a system of theology or even a religion around the idea of love,

Christ

For the sake of Rome and my authority, I was to condemn my own daughter;

there is a variety of love more powerful and lasting than that union with the other which beguiles us with its sensual pleasure,

the Island of Pandateria.

My daughter was a member of the conspiracy that had as its end the assassination of her husband, and the murder of myself. And I invoked those marriage laws that had so long lain unused and condemned her to a life of exile, so that she might not be condemned to death

Jullus Antonius,

Son of marc antony

the Lucrine Lake, dredged once by honest Italian hands so that the Roman fleet might protect the people, furnishes oysters for the tables of the Roman rich;

Repeats himself. Dotage?

Tiberius will rule the world.

I cannot bring myself to do other than despise Tiberius.

my existence has been of more benefit than harm to this world

Roman order prevails.

if Rome does not fall to them, it will at last fall to that barbarian from which none escape—Time. Yet now, for a few years, the Roman order prevails.

Rome that I found built of crumbling clay and that now is made of marble.

Rome is not eternal; it does not matter. Rome will fall; it does not matter. The barbarian will conquer; it does not matter. There was a moment of Rome, and it will not wholly die;

A white ox, never yoked to the plough, was led to the altar by the attendants; its horns were gilded, and its head was garlanded by a wreath of laurel. The rope was slack; the ox came forward willingly, its head raised. Its eyes were blue, and they seemed to be looking at me, as if the beast recognized who was to be its executioner. The attendant crumbled the salt cake on its head; it did not move; the attendant tasted the wine, and then poured the libation between its horns. Still the ox did not move. The attendant said: “Shall it be done?”

What does it mean

Philippus of Athens to Lucius Annaeus Seneca, from Naples (A.D. 55)

devote myself to the quiet dignity of learning, and pass on to others what little knowledge I have gained through the years.

and I am as happy as you promised I would be in my retirement.

Most of the time the Emperor sat quietly, gazing at the sea, or at the Italian coast line to the east.

my memories. . . . They are of no use to me now.”

under Nero, Rome will at last fulfill the dream of Octavius Caesar.

Tragic Irony.