The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic

by Mike Duncan

“Those who make themselves up for political competition or the race for glory, as actors do for the stage, must necessarily regret their action, since they must either serve those whom they think they should rule or offend those whom they wish to please.”

“A city for sale and doomed to speedy destruction if it finds a purchaser.”

But this was an age when a lie was not a lie if a man had the audacity to keep asserting the lie was true.

It was not a declaration of war. But it was an invitation for a declaration of war.

“just as fire not wholly extinguished bursts forth again into greater flames.”

“First learn to row, before you try to steer.”

“No friend ever surpassed him in kindness, and no enemy in wickedness.”

One of the reasons Sulla’s constitution fared so poorly was that those who supported it did so mildly, and those who hated it did so passionately.