Tom Holland · 464 pages
Rating: (11.7K votes)
“It was an article of faith to the Romans that they were the most morally upright people in the world. How else was the size of their empire to be explained? Yet they also knew that the Republic's greatness carried its own risks. To abuse it would be to court divine anger. Hence the Roman's concern to refute all charges of bullying, and to insist they had won their empire purely in self-defense.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
“Gain cannot be made without loss to someone else.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
“Honour, in the Republic, had never been a goal in itself, only a means to an infinite end. And what was true of her citizens, naturally, was also true of Rome herself. For the generation that had lived through the civil wars, this was the consolation history gave them. Out of calamity could come greatness. Out of dispossession could come the renewal of a civilised order.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
“Just like any electorate, they delighted in making candidates for their favors sweat.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
“This [for opposition leaders to claim royal lineage], in a world ruled by a republic, was what revolution had come to mean.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
“Enthusiasts for empire argued that Rome had a civilizing mission; that because her values and institutions were self-evidently superior to those of barbarians, she had a duty to propagate them; that only once the whole globe had been subjected to her rule could there be a universal peace.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
“The Roman character had a strong streak of snobbery: effectively, citizens preferred to vote for families with strong brand recognition, electing son after father after grandfather to the great magistracies of state, indulging the nobility’s dynastic pretensions with a numbing regularity.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
“The fish fanciers, sitting by their ponds and gazing into their depths, were tracing shadows darker than they understood.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
“Achievement was worthy of praise and honor, but excessive achievement was pernicious and a threat to the state.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
“The news, when it leaked out, caused outrage and horror in Rome. The Republic was never so dangerous as when it believed that its security was at stake. The Romans rarely went to war, not even against the most negligible foe, without somehow first convincing themselves that their preemptive strikes were defensive in nature.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
“Of all Rome’s seven hills, however, the Palatine was the most exclusive by far.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
“always been, and the safety of the Republic would be assured. This was a presumption buried deep in the soul of every Roman.”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
“More people worship the rising than the setting sun,”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
“Even when they have been felled, let alone when they are still standing and fighting, they never disgrace themselves,”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
“Achievement was worthy of praise and honor, but excessive achievement was pernicious and a threat to the state. However great a citizen might become, however great he might wish to become, the truest greatness of all still belonged to the Roman Republic itself”
― Tom Holland, quote from Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
Tom Holland
Born place: in near Oxford, The United Kingdom
Born date January 1, 1968
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“Small minds cannot grasp great ideas; to their narrow comprehension, their purblind vision, nothing seems really great and important but themselves.”
― James George Frazer, quote from The Golden Bough
“I sometimes think that we stand at sunset,' Eugenus said after a pause. 'It may be that the night will come close over us in the end, but I believe that morning will come again. Morning always grows again out of the darkness, though maybe not for the people who saw the sun go down. We are the Lantern Bearers, my friend; for us to keep something burning, to carry what light we can forward into the darkness and the wind.”
― Rosemary Sutcliff, quote from The Lantern Bearers
“I don’t know. I just feel all wicky-wacky. I’m just thrown for a loop and back. I can’t even think about what to do.”
― Fannie Flagg, quote from The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion
“Fiji, I’m betting you don’t drink a lot,” he said, trying to suppress a smile.
“I don’t,” she confessed. “How did you know?”
“Just a lucky guess.”
“You think he’d like my phone number?”
“Feej, that guy is tough as nails, and he’s not only been around the block, he’s run a marathon. He could eat you for breakfast,” Olivia said, half smiling.
“And wouldn’t that be a great way to wake up?” Fiji said, with a broad wink. Manfred laughed; he couldn’t help it.”
― Charlaine Harris, quote from Midnight Crossroad
“Taylor feels the Swifties are of a different and higher calibre. ‘I just feel so proud that my fans are always nice to other fans,’ she told the Digital Spy website. ‘They don’t say hateful things. They don’t say they’re going to set people on fire or anything. They’re not sending death threats to other people.’ The”
― quote from Taylor Swift: The Whole Story
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