Quotes from The Annals of Imperial Rome

Quotations follow the Michael Grant translation (Penguin Classics, 2003) — our recommended edition.

1. 2

   The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.

2. 3

   Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.

3. 4

   What is to-day supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.

4. 5

   There was peace after all this, but it was a peace stained with blood.

5. 6

   To every man posterity gives his due honour.

6. 7

   When men of talents are punished, authority is strengthened.

7. 8

   Great empires are not maintained by timidity.

8. 9

   Every great example of punishment has in it some injustice, but the suffering of individuals is compensated by the public good.

9. 10

   The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

10. 11

    But Cassius and Brutus outshone them all, from the very fact that their likenesses were not to be seen.

11. 12

    A woman after having parted with her virtue will hesitate at nothing.

12. 13

    He upbraided Macro, in no obscure and indirect terms, with forsaking the setting sun and turning to the rising.