Augustus Quotes

Quintili Vare, legiones redde!

Aetati tuae, mi Tiberi, noli in hac re indulgere et nimium indignari quemquam esse, qui de me male loquatur; satis est enim, si hoc habemus ne quis nobis male facere possit.

Iuravit in mea verba tota Italia.

Young men, hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young.

En Romanos, rerum dominos, gentemque togatam!

I came to see a king, not a row of corpses.

Marmoream relinquo, quam latericiam accepi.

Wars, both civil and foreign, I undertook throughout the world, on sea and land, and when victorious I spared all citizens who sued for pardon. The foreign nations which could with safety be pardoned I preferred to save rather than to destroy.

I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.

To seek to keep the established constitution unchanged argues a good citizen and a good man.

May it be my privilege to have the happiness of establishing the commonwealth on a firm and secure basis and thus enjoy the reward which I desire, but only if I may be called the author of the best possible government; and bear with me the hope when I die that the foundations which I have laid for its future government, will stand firm and stable.

Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit.

Livia, nostri coniugii memor vive, ac vale!

Ah, never to have married, and childless to have died!

Αἴθ᾽ ὄφελον ἄγαμός τ᾽ ἔμεναι ἄγονός τ᾽ ἀπολέσθαι.