Augustus quotes

Augustus was the first Roman Emperor and the founder of the Roman Empire. Under his rule, Rome experienced a period of relative peace known as the Pax Romana. He transformed Rome and set the foundations for centuries of imperial stability. Here are 25 of his quotes:

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

Augustus

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

Augustus

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

Augustus

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

Augustus

At the age of nineteen, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army by means of which I restored liberty to the republic, which had been oppressed by the tyranny of a faction. For which service the senate, with complimentary resolutions, enrolled me in its order...

Augustus

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

Augustus

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.

Augustus

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

Augustus

I had a good mind to discontinue permanently the supply of grain to the city, reliance on which had discouraged Italian agriculture, but refrained because some politician would be bound one day to revive the dole as a means of ingratiating himself with the people.

Augustus

Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!

Augustus

Whatever is done well enough is done quickly enough.

Augustus

Goodbye, Livia; remember our marriage!

Augustus

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.

Augustus

Those who slew my father I drove into exile, punishing their deed by due process of law, and afterwards when they waged war upon the republic I twice defeated them in battle.

Augustus

He could boast that he inherited it brick and left it marble.

Augustus

He could not even stand up to review his fleet when the ships were already at their fighting stations, but lay on his back and gazed up at the sky, never rising to show that he was alive until Marcus Agrippa had routed the enemy.

Augustus

I declined to be made Pontifex Maximus in succession to a colleague still living, when the people tendered me that priesthood which my father had held. Several years later I accepted that sacred office when he at last was dead who, taking advantage of a time of civil disturbance, had seized it for himself, such a multitude from all Italy assembling for my election, in the consulship of Publius Sulpicius and Gaius Valgius, as is never recorded to have been in Rome before.

Augustus

My dear Tiberius, you must not give way to youthful emotion or take it to heart if anyone speaks ill of me; let us be satisfied if we can make people stop short at unkind words.

Augustus

He [Julius Caesar] learned that Alexander, having completed nearly all his conquests by the time he was thirty-two years old, was at an utter loss to know what he should do during the rest of his life, whereat Augustus expressed his surprise that Alexander did not regard it as a greater task to set in order the empire which he had won than to win it.

Augustus

He took a beating twice at sea, And threw two fleets away. So now to achieve one victory, He tosses dice all day.

Augustus

The whole of Italy swore allegiance to me.

Augustus

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

Augustus