Dominus Quotes

“Constantine said, ‘I am an emperor and a warrior, not a bishop or a martyr. A ruler by necessity must continue to sin until the very last day of his life.’ Eusebius tried to object, but Constantine silenced him. He said, ‘I have much to do in this life before I am ready to put sinning behind me.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“Practical, Dominus?” “Perhaps the Christians don’t have everything exactly right—they do seem always to be squabbling among themselves—but I think they can be made to reach a consensus. And once that happens, the basic idea is sound. Do you see? One empire, one people, one god. Everyone pulling together toward a single purpose, decided by their emperor, who shall be inspired by the Christian god. Everyone sharing the same morals and following the same rules, decided by the same rule book, which the Christians shall put together—likewise inspired by their god, of course. Everyone believing the same thing—again, we shall put it in writing. The simpler the rules, the morals, and the beliefs, the better, so that even a cowherd can understand. Everything will be so much easier for everyone”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“Amazing as it might seem, the emperors and the empire of Rome have been instruments of his will all along. With the final demise of the persecutors, and with power in the hands of divinely inspired men like Constantine and Licinius, the Roman Empire is now ready to assume a new role in the history of mankind.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“According to Apollonius, if a man is destined to be a carpenter, he will be one, even if you cut his arms off at birth. If destined to win the race at Olympia, so he will, even if you break both his legs the night before. And if meant to be a great painter, so he will be, even if you blind him. Ha! I should like to see any one of those examples tested in the real world. I can tell you how it would turn out. Oh, I know the counter-argument: if you do blind some poor fellow, that means he was not destined by the Fates to paint. So it’s just a circular argument, of no practical use to anyone. Fate is what happens. What happens is Fate. Put aside silly books, I say, and get along with the business of living. Show me the god who rewards a loyal follower, and tell me how to please him.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“As a historian, Titus saw a sad and bitter irony in such a twist of fortune, and he looked on the games themselves as yet another example of the futility of human affairs, the endless cycle of violence and larceny attended by empty promises, half-truths, and outright lies. The crowd, on the other hand, including his fellow senators, seemed merely to see the grand spectacle as it occurred in the moment.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“But surely, to ascribe certain events, clearly the outcome of deliberate human acts, to the Fates or the gods does the immortals a disservice as well—indeed, it approaches impiety. It is certainly not ‘truth’ in any meaningful sense. I might as well simply make it all up, as if I were writing a novel about imaginary people, set in some invented land!”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“Thus does the mob delight in the humiliation of powerful men,” Titus whispered. The scribe cocked his head, not quite catching the words. “Yes, write that down,” said Titus. He repeated the phrase, thinking it rather good. “Well, I think I can guess where your thoughts have taken you,” said Philostratus. “Pupienus and Balbinus.” Titus nodded.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“To write about long-dead people is one thing. To write about one’s own lifetime is different. And of course I must take care to avoid writing anything that gives offense to the emperor. Yes, I’m finding it difficult. But never fear, I shall finish it, and Philip will be impressed.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“Alexander proclaimed that he was not to be addressed as Dominus by his fellow Romans. He preferred to be called Imperator.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“Alexander—a Syrian boy with a Greek name, now Caesar and heir to the throne. I can hear my father say, ‘We are a long way from the days of the Divine Marcus.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“Like Cleopatra,” observed Philostratus, “they reached such a pinnacle by using their connection to men: Cleopatra through Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, Domna through Severus, Maesa and her daughter through the two young cousins—one or both of them said to be the son of Caracalla. And now those boys rule jointly, since Antoninus adopted him and made him Caesar.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“Amazing, isn’t it? In fact if not in name, the Roman Empire is being run by women. Legitimacy runs through the female line—from the emperor’s wife to her sister, thence to her daughters, and only then to the young emperor and his cousin. No woman has exercised such power since Cleopatra, and even she pales in comparison. Cleopatra had Egypt, and Asia for a while, but Maesa and her daughters rule every province of the Roman Empire.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“Tell me, Philostratus, do you subscribe to the school of philosophy that holds mankind is in a state of continual decline, beginning with the supermen of a long-ago Golden Age and descending to the present, so that each generation is a little less hardy, a little less touched with the original fire of creation than the last, so that we dwindle in vigor and lifespan from father to son? In that case, I shall be lucky to live as long as … as you.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“Nero wanted only to be an actor; Commodus, to be a gladiator; and young Antoninus … to be Venus!”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“The idea of new imperial commissions gave Gaius a feeling of well-being starkly at odds with the horror of watching the amphitheater burn. There was no disaster so universal that it did not bring good fortune to someone. Was it hubris, to think such a thing?”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“Jealousy and pride were equally vain.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“Severus said to him, “I have been everything—and gained nothing.” Everything and nothing: the remark had stopped Galen cold. In the end, did the material world and the realm of the senses amount to nothing, then? In the end, could it be that everything and nothing were the same?”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“They say there’s been no woman her equal since Cleopatra,” said Philostratus. “Ah, Cleopatra!” said Galen. “Always the standard against whom any strong female is compared.” “And not always as a compliment,” noted Gaius, “since Cleopatra was the enemy of Rome, and came to a bad end.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“Why every hundred and ten years?” “Because that is thought to be the longest possible length of a human life, and thus the schedule makes true the claim—any given man will see only one in his lifetime, if indeed he sees one at all. Thus the old joke: An athlete loses every competition at the Saecular Games, but he is comforted by a friend who tells him, ‘Cheer up! I’m sure you’ll win at the next Saecular Games!”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“It was only the most ignorant, the most unsophisticated, unlearned, untraveled people who thought their local god must be the best and highest and only god worth worshipping. What had Marcus Aurelius called such a person? Paganus, an old Latin word meaning an ignorant rustic, a country bumpkin. Yet here was the most powerful woman on earth, as paganus as you please, apparently leading the emperor down the same narrow path, determined to winnow the delight of worshipping many gods and settle on just one.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“In fact, I have quite a nice little library here in my gladiator’s cubby.” He reached into a basket and produced a scroll with ornately carved and gilded handles. “That must be quite a book, to justify such an elegant scroll,” said Gaius. “Oh, it is. This is a copy of my father’s private war journal, a daybook where he recorded his thoughts while he was stuck in darkest Pannonia. Marcus Aurelius, to Himself, I call it.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“impressed. Commodus was the first emperor to be born heir to the throne—“born in the purple” as it was called in countries that had kings and royal dynasties—and he seemed completely at ease, behaving as if he had been emperor all his life.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“Yes, indeed, Senator Pinarius. It’s because the author mentions his dealings with the late Marcus, blessed be his memory, and with Commodus, blessed be his reign. Anything to do with the imperial family is always guaranteed to sell, and with today’s awful news, people are hungry to read anything to do with the beloved Marcus.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“There was no reasoning with a mortal who believed the whole world was wrong about everything, and only he and a handful of others were right—and not merely right but absolutely sure of their rightness because of an imaginary authority that could not be questioned.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“Consider all the mortals that populated the earth before us, generation upon generation, extending back through countless centuries. All are dead, all turned to dust—so many, one wonders how the earth has room to hold them all.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“Stoics like Marcus had long recommended such a practice—to concentrate entirely and exclusively on the present moment, and if that moment contained no physical suffering, then to be content.”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

“The stakes are too high,’ he said. ‘High stakes, high rewards!’ I said. Or as my warrior brother likes to say, ‘No spirit, no splendor!”
― Steven Saylor, Dominus: A Novel of the Roman Empire