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Quote by Mary Beard

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SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

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Mary Beard
Mary Beard

Mary Beard is a distinguished British classicist and television presenter. She is a professor of classics at the University of Cambridge and has made significant contributions to the field of Roman history. Beard has authored numerous books and articles on Roman history and culture, and has been a prominent figure in promoting classical education. more

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“This short history should have something to satisfy every taste and perversion: action, treachery, fratricide and regicide, corruption, and bloodshed. It contains thirteen murders, the victims being mostly of one family. It lists the ways in which a man or an Empire may be surrounded and destroyed; and contains a veritable catalog of subversions and finely wrought treacheries—which the reader may be able to make use of in his own life.”

“That freedom, the plunging back into the ancient past, appears always to have heightened his alienation from the present. To sure his love for classical Latin didn't lead him to idealize, as some of his contemporaries did Ancient Roman history, Poggio understand that history had it's full measure of full folly and wickedness. But he was aware that the city in which he lived was a pathetic shadow of it's past glory.”

“When we walk in the flesh, we try to win arguments with words, change people with pressure, and fight spiritual battles with carnal methods. But the kingdom of God operates differently. We can't silence demons and their agents with our temper or logic. Instead, we walk in the Spirit, relying on God's power and wisdom. In the Spirit, we speak with authority, not aggression, and trust in God's sovereignty. It's in the stillness and quiet confidence of the Spirit that we find true power and victory.”

“The Western Empire, supported generation after generation by half a hundred of the strongest and most remarkable men in history, from Stilicho to Charlemagne, died and disintegrated and left off being the Empire. The Eastern Empire, supported by fools and slaves and fops, and ruled by the worst and most incompetent of men and women, managed to endure and thrive for a thousand years more.”

“The Goths had trained bears and possibly, from one garbled account, trained seals. The dance is something with no survival, lacking verbal or pictorial record. The Goths may have had it. If they painted, it was not in a medium or on a material that has survived. Their history was unwritten. Their scientific speculation may not have gone beyond mead-table discussions and arguments. There is no record of their early philosophy. Since they were Germans, they must have constructed philosophical systems; and also, since they were Germans, these would have been erroneous.”