Hearing that Alexander the Great had been at a loss about what to do next after his vast conquests, the princeps remarked: “I am suprised the king did not realize that a far harder task than winning an empire is putting it into order once you have it.”
—Augustus Caesar, as quoted in Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor by Anthony Everitt
Perhaps the most instructive aspect of Augustus’ approach to politics was his twin recognition that in the long run power was unsustainable without consent, and that consent could best be won by associating radical constitutional change with a traditional and moralizing ideology.
—Anthony Everitt in Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor
—Augustus Caesar, as quoted in Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor by Anthony Everitt
Perhaps the most instructive aspect of Augustus’ approach to politics was his twin recognition that in the long run power was unsustainable without consent, and that consent could best be won by associating radical constitutional change with a traditional and moralizing ideology.
—Anthony Everitt in Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor