Quotes about Roman Conquest

Cassius Dio

Though a breach was made in the wall by means of engines, nevertheless the capture of the place did not immediately follow even then. On the contrary, the defenders killed great numbers [of Romans] who tried to crowd through the opening and they also set fire to some of the buildings nearby, hoping thus to check the further progress of the Romans. Nevertheless, the soldiers, because of their superstition, did not immediately rush in but at last, under compulsion from Titus, they made their way inside. Then the Jews defended themselves much more vigorously than before, as if they had discovered a piece of rare good fortune in being able to fight near the Temple and fall in its defense.” The populace was stationed below in the court and the elders on the steps and the priests in the Sanctuary itself. And though they were but a handful fighting against a far superior force, they were not conquered until part of the Temple was set on fire. Then they met their death willingly, some throwing themselves on the swords of the Romans, some slaying one another, others taking their own lives and still others leaping into the flames. And it seemed to everybody and especially to them that so far from being destruction, it was victory and salvation and happiness to them that they perished along with the Temple. While the holy house (The Temple) was on fire, everything was plundered that came to hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were slain; nor was there a commiseration of any age…but children and old men…and priests, were all slain in the same manner….The flame was also carried a long way, and made an echo, together with the groans of those who were slain…one would have thought the whole city would have been on fire. Nor can one imagine anything greater and more terrible than this noise.

Describing the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 AD.

Plutarch

After he routed Pharnaces Ponticus at the first assault, he wrote thus to his friends: "I came, I saw, I conquered.

William Shakespeare

Here was a Caesar! When comes such another?

Neil Marshall

Roman history was kind of unavoidable where I was growing up. It was everywhere - all the place names and ruins and forts. My dad's a history buff, and I spent a lot of time on Hadrian's Wall. I became fascinated by the idea of what was so terrifying up there that the Romans built a 60-mile long, 30ft high stone wall to keep it out?

Cato the Elder

Moreover, I consider that Carthage should be destroyed.

Britons

To Aetius, thrice Consul, the groans of the Britons …. The barbarians drive us to the sea; the sea drives us back to the barbarians: between them we are exposed to two sorts of death; we are either slaughtered or drowned.

At the time England and Scotland were part of the Roman Empire. The Britons who by that time were mostly Christians were constantly being raided by barbarians (Picts, Northumbrians, and Irish). However, by this time the Roman Empire was not what it had been, and the traditional response of sending Roman Legions to punish those who raided Roman provinces was no longer possible in the declining empire. Getting no help from Rome, the Britons invited the Saxons to come and form an alliance that changed the course of history.

Elaine Pagels

The Romans weren't trying to kill all the Jews, but they did destroy Jewish resistance to Roman rule. Jerusalem was turned into a Roman army camp, and it was a total devastation.

Goldwin Smith

The Romans, we are told, were by nature a peculiarly warlike race.

Plutarch

Of the land which the Romans gained by conquest from their neighbours, part they sold publicly, and turned the remainder into common; this common land they assigned to such of the citizens as were poor and indigent, for which they were to pay only a small acknowledgment into the public treasury. But when the wealthy men began to offer larger rents, and drive the poorer people out, it was enacted by law that no person whatever should enjoy more than five hundred acres of ground.

Heinrich Heine

If the Romans had been obliged to learn Latin, they would never have found time to conquer the world.

Julius Proculus

Romulus Whitaker, the father of our City descended from heaven at dawn this morning and appeared to me. In awe and reverence I stood before him, praying for permission to look upon his face without sin. "Go", he said, "and tell the Romans that by heaven's will my Rome shall be capital of the world. Let them learn to be soldiers. Let them know, and teach their children, that no power on earth can stand against Roman arms". Having spoken these words, he was taken up again into the sky.

Romulus Whitaker, the first Roman king had just died and the insecure Romans were distressed, disorganized, and discordant. Proculus, according to Livy, made this speech raising morale and inspiring the confidence of the citizens. Given the superstitious Romans of the time, this story was believed and was very effective. The Romans believed it so profoundly that they actually made it happen.

Edward Gibbon

The triumph of the Romans was indeed sullied by their treatment of the captive king, whom they hung on a gibbet without the knowledge of their indignant general. This disgraceful act of cruelty which might be imputed to the fury of the troops, was followed by the deliberate murder of Withicab, the son of Vadomair; a German prince, of a weak and sickly constitution, but of a daring and formidable spirit.

Goldwin Smith

It is evident that in the period designated as that of the kings, when Rome commenced her career of conquest, she was, for that time and country, a great and wealthy city.

James Purefoy

Ancient Rome was a violent place.

Pierre Corneille

Rome alone can resist Rome.

Thomas Bulfinch

The Romans held Britain from the invasion of Julius Caesar till their voluntary withdrawal from the island, A.D. 420,- that is, about five hundred years.

Tacitus

The Romans brought devestation, but they called it peace.

Robert E. Howard

Rome got some peachy pastings when she tried to lick the Irish.

Heinrich Heine

But oh! the Latin!-Madame, you can really have no idea of what a mess it is. The Romans would never have found time to conquer the world if they had been obliged first to learn Latin. Lucky dogs! they already knew in their cradles the nouns ending in im. I on the contrary had to learn it by heart, in the sweat of my brow.

William Cowper

Religion Caesar never knew Thy posterity shall sway, Where his eagles never flew, None as invincible as they.

Horace

Captive Greece took captive her savage conqueror.

Augustus

Behold them, conquerors of the world, the toga-clad race of Romans!

Polybius

Can any one be so indifferent or idle as not to care to know by what means, and under what kind of polity, almost the whole inhabited world was conquered and
brought under the dominion of the single city of Rome, and that too within a period of not quite fifty-three years?

Roman Conquest Quotes