Roman Empire

"Watson 1999, p. 115."

"Kienast, Eck & Heil 2017, p. 227."

"Watson 1999, pp. 109–110."

"Vagi 1999, p. 369."

"Kienast, Dietmar; Eck, Werner; Heil, Matthäus (C.E.2017) [1990|C.E.1990]. Römische Kaisertabelle: Grundzüge einer römischen Kaiserchronologie (in German) (6th ed.). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. ISBN 978-3-534-26724-8."

"Martindale, Jones & Morris 1971, p. 830."

"Vagi, David L. (C.E.1999). Coinage and History of the Roman Empire: c. 82 B.C.E. – C.E. 480. Volume I: History. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1138999077."

"Watson 1999, p. 116."

"Körner, Christian (C.E.2001). "Aurelian (C.E. 270-275)". De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers and Their Families. Retrieved November 17, C.E.2021."

"Vagi 1999, p. 366."

"Watson 1999, p. 112."

"Avaliani, Eka (C.E.2019). "Finding Meaning in the Past: Reinterpretation of the Late Roman Artifact, the Golden Ring with a Carnelian Intaglio from the Museum of Georgia". ΣΧΟΛΗ: Ancient Philosophy and the Classical Tradition. 13 (2): 503–512. doi:10.25205/1995-4328-2019-13-2-503-512. S2CID 200999390."

"Yale College (C.E.1863). Catalogue of the cabinet of coins belonging to Yale college, deposited in the College library. New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Printers."

"Yale College 1863, p. 137."

"Watson 1999, p. 114."

"Watson 1999, p. 113."

"Avaliani 2019, p. 510."

"Watson 1999, pp. 113–114."

"Körner 2001."

"Watson 1999, p. 109."

"Aqueducts were a combination of beauty and stability, quintessentially Roman, being practical and monumental at the same time."

"But let us now turn our attention to some marvels that, if justly appreciated, may be pronounced to remain unsurpassed... If we take into account the abundant supply of water to the public, for baths, ponds, canals, household purposes, gardens, places in the suburbs and country houses, and then reflect upon the distances that are traversed from the sources on the hills, the arches that have been constructed, the mountains pierced, the valleys leveled, we must perforce admit that there is nothing more worthy of our admiration throughout the whole universe."

"The extraordinary greatness of the Roman Empire manifests itself above all in three things: the aqueducts, the paved roads, and the construction of the drains."

"... the Roman prudence was more particularly employed on matters which had received but little attention from the Greeks, such as paving their roads, constructing aqueducts, and sewers, to convey the sewage of the city into the Tiber. In fact, they have paved the roads, cut through hills, and filled up valleys, so that the merchandise may be conveyed by carriage from the ports. The sewers, arched over with hewn stones, are large enough in some parts for waggons loaded with hay to pass through; while so plentiful is the supply of water from the aqueducts, that rivers may be said to flow through the city and the sewers, and almost every house is furnished with water-pipes and copious fountains."

"qui postea, cum in Etruriam primo uere transiret, in summo Appennino tempestate correptus, biduo continuo inmobiliter cum exercitu niuibus conclusus et onustus obriguit. ubi magnus hominum numerus, iumenta conplurima, elephanti paene omnes frigoris acerbitate perierunt."

"Romae ergo post urbem conditam anno CCLXL suspenso ad modicum bello grauis pestilentia, quae semper ibi raras indutias aut factas intercepit aut ut fierent coegit, per uniuersam ciuitatem uiolenter incanduit, ut merito praecedente prodigio caelum ardere uisum sit, quando caput gentium tanto morborum igne flagrauit."

"tunc etiam lex, quae ab Oppio tribuno plebi lata fuerat, ne qua mulier plus quam semunciam auri haberet neue uersicolori uestimento nec uehiculo per urbem uteretur, post uiginti annos abrogata est."

"The constitution of the Byzantine Empire was based on the conviction that it was the earthly copy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Just as God ruled in Heaven, so the Emperor, made in his image, should rule on earth and carry out his commandments ... It saw itself as a universal empire. Ideally, it should embrace all the peoples of the Earth who, ideally, should all be members of the one true Christian Church, its own Orthodox Church. Just as man was made in God's image, so man's kingdom on Earth was made in the image of the Kingdom of Heaven."

"The Byzantine Empire became a theocracy in the sense that Christian values and ideals were the foundation of the empire's political ideals and heavily entwined with its political goals."

""The Basileus"—for so he began— "Is a royal sagacious Mars of a man, Than the very lion bolder; He has married the stately widow of Thrace"— "Hush!" cried a voice at his shoulder. ... “The Porphyrogenita Zoe the fair Is about to wed with a prince much older, Of an unpropitious mien and look"— "Hush!" cried a voice at his shoulder. ... "The child of the Basileus," wrote the monk, “Is golden-haired, tender the Queen's arms fold her, Her step-mother Zoe doth love her so"— "Hush!" cried a voice at his shoulder. ... "The queen," wrote the monk, "rules firm this realm, For the king gets older and older; The Norseman Thorkill is brave and fair"— "Hush!" cried a voice at his shoulder."

"Constantinople was full of inventors and craftsmen. The "philosopher" Leo of Thessalonika made for the Emperor Theophilos (829–42) a golden tree, the branches of which carried artificial birds which flapped their wings and sang, a model lion which moved and roared, and a bejewelled clockwork lady who walked. These mechanical toys continued the tradition represented in the treatise of Heron of Alexandria (c. AD 125), which was well-known to the Byzantines."

"The Roman Empire was a world-wide confederation of aristocracies for the perpetuation of human servitude."

"The history of the Roman Empire is also the history of the uprising of the Empire of the Masses, who absorb and annul the directing minorities and put themselves in their place. [...] The epoch of the masses is the epoch of the colossal."

"Fecisti patriam diversis gentibus unam: profuit iniustis te dominante capi. dumque offers victis proprii consortia iuris, urbem fecisti quod prius orbis erat."

"Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch Of the ranged empire fall! Here is my space. Kingdoms are clay. Our dungy earth alike Feeds beast as man. The nobleness of life Is to do thus [Embracing]"

"The Roman Empire at its zenith collected taxes from up to 100 million subjects. This revenue financed a standing army of 250,000 - 500,000 soldiers, a road network still in use 1,500 years later, and theatres and amphitheatres that host spectacles to this day."

"To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire, and where they make a desert, they call it peace."

"Your task, Roman, and do not forget it, will be to govern the peoples of the world in your empire. These will be your arts – and to impose a settled pattern upon peace, to pardon the defeated and war down the proud."

"What an awful book the Corpus Juris is, this Bible of selfishness! I've always found the Roman code as detestable as the Romans themselves. These robbers want to safeguard their swag, and they seek to protect by law what they have plundered with the sword; hence the robber became a combination of the most odious kind, soldier and lawyer in one. Truly, we owe the theory of property, which was formerly a fact only, to these Roman thieves."

"Christians began organising widespread missionary activities aimed at all humans. In one of history's strangest twists, this esoteric Jewish sect took over the mighty Roman Empire."

"Rome has bequeathed us understandings of freedom and citizenship, as well as imperialist exploitation, along with today's political vocabulary from "senators" to "dictators." He has lent us his sayings — "fear the Greeks, even if they bring gifts" and "play the violin while Rome burns" and even "where there is life, there is hope". And he has evoked laughter, awe and fear to a more or less equal extent."

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

"The terror of the Roman arms added weight and dignity to the moderation of the emperors. They preserved peace by a constant preparation for war; and while justice regulated their conduct, they announced to the nations on their confines, that they were as little disposed to endure, as to offer an injury."

"The Romans introduced into all their provinces a system of law so fair and so strong, that almost all the best laws of modern Europe have been founded on it. Everywhere the weak were protected against the strong; castles were built on the coast with powerful garrisons in them; fleets patrolled the Channel and the North Sea. Great roads crossed the island from east to west and from north to south."

"But whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind."

""Alas!" he [Saturninus] said, "the republic has lost a useful servant, and the rashness of an hour has destroyed the services of many years. You know not," continued he, "the misery of sovereign power: a sword is perpetually suspended over our head. We dread our very guards, we distrust our companions. The choice of action or of repose is no longer in our disposition, nor is there any age, or character, or conduct, that can protect us from the censure of envy. In thus exalting me to the throne, you have doomed me to a life of cares, and to an untimely fate."

"The two Antonines (for it is of them that we are now speaking) governed the Roman world forty-two years, with the same invariable spirit of wisdom and virtue. ... Their united reigns are possibly the only period of history in which the happiness of a great people was the sole object of government."

"Such was the unhappy condition of the Roman emperors, that, whatever might be their conduct, their fate was commonly the same. A life of pleasure or virtue, of severity or mildness, of indolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; and almost every reign is closed by the same disgusting repetition of treason and murder."

"Fear has been the original parent of superstition and every new calamity urges trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of their invisible enemies."

"The influence of the clergy, in an age of superstition, might be usefully employed to assert the rights of mankind; but so intimate is the connection between the throne and the altar, that the banner of the church has very seldom been seen on the side of the people."