Caesar Quotes

“It is common for those who flourish under any system to feel that the failure of others is deserved.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Napoleon was later to comment that it was better to have one bad commander than two good ones with shared authority.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Roman laws tended to be long and complex - one of Rome's most enduring legacies to the world is cumbersome and tortuous legal prose.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“As Cicero would later declare, `For what is the life of a man, if it is not interwoven with the life of former generations by a sense of history?"3”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Although he paid attention to the effectiveness of the Roman military system, Polybius believed that Rome's success rested far more on its political system. For him the Republic's constitution, which was carefully balanced to prevent any one individual or section of society from gaining overwhelming control, granted Rome freedom from the frequent revolution and civil strife that had plagued most Greek city-states. Internally stable, the Roman Republic was able to devote itself to waging war on a scale and with a relentlessness unmatched by any rival. It is doubtful that any other contemporary state could have survived the catastrophic losses and devastation inflicted by Hannibal, and still gone on to win the war.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Caesar declared that an orator should `avoid an unusual word as the helmsman of a ship avoided a reef'.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Caesar was a serial seducer of married women.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Chosen fathers of the Senate, all men who decide on difficult issues ought to free themselves from the influence of hatred, friendship, anger and pity. For when these intervene the mind cannot readily judge the truth, and no one has ever served his emotions and his best interests simultaneously. When you set your mind to a task, it prevails; if passion holds sway, it consumes you, and the mind can do nothing.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“(Sulla gave the slave his freedom and then had the man thrown to his death”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“The tribune was betrayed by one of his own slaves and killed.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Tradition maintained that Rome had been founded in 753 BC. For the Romans this was Year One and subsequent events were formally dated as so many years from the `foundation of the city' (ab urbe condita).”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Pompey contented himself with repulsing the attack and made no attempt to assault Caesar's line. This was widely felt to have been a mistake... and Caesar declared that the enemy 'would have won today, if only they were commanded by a winner.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Yet what would history say of me in six hundred years time? For that is a thing which I fear more than the idle chatter of men alive today’–Cicero, April 59 BC2.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Cato `in the best spirit and with unquestionable honesty ... does harm to the State: the resolutions he puts forward are more fitting for Plato's ideal Republic, than the cess-pit of Romulus'.'°”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Republic, citizens, the lives of you all, your property, your fortunes, your wives and your children, together with this heart of our glorious empire, this most blessed and beautiful of cities, have, as you see, on this very day been snatched from fire and the sword. The great love that the immortal gods hold for you has combined with the toil and the vigilance that I have undertaken, and with the perils that I have undergone, to bring them out of the very jaws of destruction and restore them to you safe and sound.’–Cicero, 3 December 63 BC.1”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Murena fue absuelto. Haciendo caso omiso de los cargos, se burló de los motivos de la acusación, describiendo a Catón como un ingenuo idealista, que intentaba imponer principios filosóficos poco prácticos en el mundo real.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, César; la biografía definitiva

“He whom many fear, must therefore fear many”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“But fortune, which has great power in all matters and most of all in war, causes great shifts in human affairs with just a little disturbance.’ – Caesar.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“At the heart of the system was the desire to prevent any one individual from gaining too much permanent power. Fear of a revival of monarchic rule was widespread and most deeply entrenched among the aristocracy, who monopolised high office. Therefore power within the Republic was vested in a number of different institutions, the most important of which were the magistrates, the Senate and the Popular Assemblies. Magistrates had considerable power, the most senior formally holding imperium, the right to command troops and dispense justice, but this was essentially temporary and lasted only for the twelve months of office.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Lists of proscribed people were posted not only in Rome, but in every city in Italy. There was nowhere that remained free from the stain of bloodshed–no god’s temple, no guest-friend’s hearth, no family home. Husbands were butchered in the arms of their wives, sons in the arms of their mothers. Only a tiny proportion of the dead were killed because they had angered or made an enemy of someone; far more were killed for their property, and even the executioners tended to say that this man was killed by his large house, this one by his garden, that one by his warm springs.’ – Plutarch, early second century AD.1”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Mothers, especially those like Aurelia who conformed so closely to the ideal of motherhood, were greatly admired by the Romans. One of their most cherished stories was told of Coriolanus, the great general who, mistreated by political rivals, had defected to the enemy and led them against Rome. On the point of destroying his homeland he withdrew his army, moved less by a sense of patriotism than by a direct appeal from his mother.11”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“«Salíos con la vuestra, quedaos con él, pero sabed que este hombre, que con tanto afán deseáis incólume, llegará un día en que acabará con la nobleza por la que habéis luchado conmigo; pues en César hay muchos Marios».”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, César; la biografía definitiva

“A specially trained slave known as a nomenclator usually stood behind the candidate, ready to whisper the names of anyone they approached, so that his master could greet them properly.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Ultimately, most of the Roman elite preferred to allow some of the major problems facing the Republic to go unanswered rather than see someone else gain the credit for dealing with them.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Caesar had worked for years for the opportunity of high command and when he was given it in 58 BC he seized the chance with both hands, exploiting every opportunity for conflict and conquest. In the campaigns that followed he proved himself to be a general of genius, ranking amongst the finest Rome had ever produced. His command style was typically Roman, controlling a battle from close behind the fighting line, ordering up reserves and encouraging the men while observing their conduct. His strategy was aggressive, seizing and maintaining the initiative, and never doubting his ultimate success regardless of the odds ranged against him.”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus

“Desde”
― Adrian Goldsworthy, César; la biografía definitiva