The Early History of Rome was written by Livy and was published around 24 BC It covers the history of Rome from the founding around 757 BC to the Gallic invasion in 386 BC. This book is worth reading as there are very many similarities between early Rome and our own country. Below are my favorite quotes. There are many! I'll just let the quotes speak for themselves.
"I would have [the reader] trace the process of our moral decline, to watch, first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them. The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind."
"No country has ever been greater or purer than ours or richer in good citizens and noble deeds; none has been free for so many generations from the vices of avarice and luxury; nowhere have thrift and plain living been for so long held in such esteem. Indeed, poverty, with us, went hand in hand with contentment. Of late years wealth has made us greedy, and self-indulgence has brought us, through every form of sensual excess, to be, if I may so put it, in love with death both individual and collective."
"The only true patriotism - comes slowly and springs from the heart: it is founded upon respect for the family and love of the soil."
"Political decisions, however, always have been, and always will be, influenced for ill by party spirit and concern for property."
"Shared danger is the strongest of bonds; it will keep men united in spite of mutual dislike and suspicion."
"Internal dissension was the poisonous disease of wealthy and powerful communities, the one destructive influence which brought mighty empires low."
"Tribunes on the one hand and the consuls on the other, each of whom were attempting to acquire complete control; the country was being torn two ways, and in the struggle for domination national security was lost sight of."
"The owners - or, rather, occupiers - of the land in question comprised most of the patrician families of Rome: they, by indignantly asserting that a leading officer of sate, allying himself with the party policies of the tribunes, was trying to be generous with other people's property in order to curry popular favor."
"Human nature, however, doe snot change: the mere fact that there was plenty for everyone blunted the edge of appetite and so few applied for a grant that Volscian families had to be included in order to bring the number of settlers to a satisfactory figure. The bulk of the plebeian families preferred to demand land in the neighborhood of Rome rather than to accept the offer of it elsewhere."
"A new enemy had to be invented; so a neighboring colony of know loyalty to Rome was accused of treachery. War had been declared, indeed, against the innocent Antiates; but the real enemy which the Senate meant to fight was the common people of Rome; they proposed to drive them, loaded with military equipment, helter-skelter out of the city, and by getting rid of as many of them as possible to revenge themselves upon their representatives, they tribunes."
"I warn you not to imitate those whom you hate."
"That if there must be excesses, it was better to have them practiced by their own party than by their opponents. True moderation in the defense of political liberties is indeed a difficult thing...our anxiety to avoid oppression leads us to practice it ourselves; the injustice we repel, we visit in turn upon others, as if there were no choice except either to do it or to suffer it."
"It seems to be a law of nature that a speaker who speaks only for himself is more popular with a crowd than one who has nothing in his mind but the public welfare."
"In the circumstances it was good news, for the nobility could look forward even to an unsuccessful war with greater complacency than to an ignominious peace."
"The greatest safeguard, he said, of those liberties was to see that great powers should never remain long in the same hands."
"Evidently there are occasions, as this story shows, when favour and promotion fall most readily into the lap of the man who does not seek them."
"Where, for instance, was the money to come from? If it came, as presumably it must, from a tax on the people then the Senate would merely have been generous at others' expense."
"There is, to speak generally, no such thing as work without gain or gain without work: toil and pleasure, though apparent opposites, are indissolubly linked."
"For more often than not the masses will take their cue from their leader."
One of my favorite stories is the siege of Falerii. The school master would take the young men of the leading families outside of the wall to exercise and play. One day he took his students right out to the Roman outpost and turned himself and the students over to be used as ransom. Camillus, who was leading the army, replied "Neither my people, nor I, who command their army, happen to share your tastes. You are a scoundrel and your offer is worthy of you. As political entities, there is no bond of union between Rome and Falerii, but we are bound together none the less, and always shall be, by the bonds of common humanity. War has its laws as peace has, and we have learned to wage war with decency no less than with courage..." The school master was then stripped and his hands tied behind his back, then the students were given sticks and chased him back to town. The city quickly surrendered to the Romans since they knew they would be treated with honor.
