Truth-loving Persians do not dwell upon The trivial skirmish fought near Marathon. - Robert Graves

All civil wars are dynastic wars, my lord King; all overseas wars are trade wars,” agreed the portly Hyrian

I do not love the Sabbath, The soapsuds and the starch, The troops of solemn people Who to Salvation march. I take my book, I take my stick On the Sabbath day, In woody nooks and valleys I hide myself away. To ponder there in quiet God's Universal Plan, Resolved that church and Sabbath Were never made for man.

I have watched your career with fascination, Sejanus. It's been a revelation it's been to me! I've never fully realized before how a small mind, allied to unlimited ambition and without scruple, can destroy a country full of clever men. I've seen how fragile is the structure of a civilization before the onslaught of a gust of really bad breath! But I suppose you are not really the destroyer. No, we must look elsewhere for that. You are merely the putrefaction that spreads after death - the outward and visible signs of its presence! You're a lesson in history to me, Sejanus, proving that, above all, Mankind needs its sense of smell.