Roman Quotes

[Antiochus III]

I would like to get an idea of some quotes that you guys like, especially from Roman writers, or military commanders of the time (not just Romans but other commanding officers of rival factions.) Also, who was the first to say "divide and conquer"?

 

Antiochus III

[Nephele]

One of my favorite quotes is by Seneca the Younger, from one of his letters to his friend Lucilius:

 

"Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than one's ability to stop just where one is and pass some time in one's own company."

 

It has always been my own belief that solitude -- even alienation -- isn't so much a thing to be endured, as it is a thing to be relished. Some think that the journey of life begins by understanding others. I think that the journey begins by first understanding oneself. And so that quote of Seneca's has special meaning for me.

 

-- Nephele

[Ursus]

"But I ask you, my lords, how can anyone live without an occasional snack?" - Emperor Claudius

 

"Money doesn't smell." - Emperor Vespasian

 

"Does it really matter where a man sticks his prick?" - Marc Antony

 

 

Who needs Greek philosophy with such wisdom?

[Horatius]

"brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio" -Horace ( I struggle to be brief and become obscure) Not sure why I like this quote but it has stuck with me since i first read it in grade school.

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

" is est non nex ut a vir should vereor , tamen is should vereor nunquam orsa ut ago "

"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."

 

Recipero res quibus fortuna redimio vos , quod diligo populus quicum fortuna addo vos una , tamen operor sic per totus vestri pectus pectoris "

"Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart."

 

Marcus Aurelius

Edited June 7, 2008 by Gaius Paulinus Maximus

[WotWotius]

Ah, I see that you are looking for phrases my Latin teacher has dubbed "wankers' Latin" - i.e. profound phrase, uttered only to give the impression of an individual's pensiveness/pomposity. I think he meant in a tongue-in-cheek way... Anyway, below is a selection of my favourites:

 

'natura semina nobis scientiae dedit; scientiam non dedit'. - Nature has given us the seeds of knowledge; it has not given us knowledge itself. (Seneca)

 

'humiles laborant, ubi potentes dissident'. - When powerful men disagree, the little man has a hard time. (Varro)

 

'solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.' - They make a desert and call it peace. (Tacitus)

Edited April 23, 2008 by WotWotius

[WotWotius]

Also, while not actually a quotation from an ancient source, it is still one of my favourites:

 

'Anything to get rid of this f**king hangover!' - The last words of Marc Antony in HBO's Rome.

Edited April 20, 2008 by WotWotius

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Divitarum et formae gloria fluxa atque fragilis; virtus clara aeternaque habetur

The glory that goes with wealth is fleeting and fragile; virtue is a possession glorious and eternal.

 

Sallust

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Ah, I see that you are looking for phrases my Latin teacher has dubbed "wankers' Latin" - i.e. profound phrase, uttered only to give the impression of an individual pensiveness/pomposity. I think he meant in a tongue-in-cheek way... Anyway, below is a selection of my favourites:

 

'natura semina nobis scientiae dedit; scientiam non dedit'. - Nature has given us the seeds of knowledge; it has not given us knowledge itself. (Seneca)

 

'humiles laborant, ubi potentes dissident'. - When powerful men disagree, the little man has a hard time. (Varro)

 

'solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.' - They make a desert and call it peace. (Tacitus)

 

The last quotation from Tacitus is also one of my favorites too but I prefer the longer and slightly different translation....

 

 

'Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium, atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant'

To rob, to ravage, to murder, in their imposing language, are the arts of civil policy. When they have made the world a solitude, they call it peace.

 

- Agricola (XXX),

 

Not sure which is the correct translation but I just think the second seems more Roman?

[Arduumresgestasscriber]

The fruit of too much liberty is slavery--- Cicero

[Klingan]

By some reason the first quote that comes to me is "Ide et amor." I cannot really explain why, but it has somehow been stuck on my mind lately.

 

On the funny side we have a few lines from Suetonius concerning Caesar:

 

"...he had a dream of raping his own mother, the soothsayers greatly encouraged him by their interpretation of it: namely that, he was destined to conquer the earth, out Universal Mother."

 

THATS what I call the bright side of things, I would be really scared by such a dream.

[M. Porcius Cato]

My favorite Latin comes from Spinoza's Ethica (Part 5, Prop. 42, Note): Sed omnia praeclara tam difficilia, quam rara sunt--All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.

[ASCLEPIADES]

Salve, Amici.

 

"Quorum id perfidia et periurio fiat, deos nunc testes esse, mox fore ultores."

 

"The gods were now the witnesses and would soon be the avengers of those through whose perfidy and perjury this had come about."

 

 

Titus Livius, AB URBE CONDITA, Liber III, cp. II, s. IV