The First Man in Rome

He was talking now almost as if she didn’t exist, or as if she didn’t matter as an auditor, only as a presence who gave him an excuse to say aloud what he had long been thinking.

In love with one, married to another.

paused for a longer space of time, noting certain men: Scaurus and the unsuccessful consular candidate Catulus Caesar, Metellus Dalmaticus Pontifex Maximus, Gaius Memmius, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, Scipio Nasica, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus. Whichever way these men jumped, the senatorial sheep would follow.

“Those days are over, Conscript Fathers. I, Gaius Marius, consul of the Senate and People of Rome, am hereby serving notice upon the members of this House

Are we really replacing bad with good? Or are we merely replacing bad with worse?

Ask me no questions, Lucius Appuleius, and I’ll tell you no lies

What the eye don’t see and the ear don’t hear, the heart don’t grieve about

uncomfortably aware that his wife had lost a great deal of her original animation, but having insufficient intuition to see whose fault that was.

Dalmatica is young enough to think a grandfather exactly the right sort of husband

ambition allied to no talent is the most dangerous thing in the world.