Two thousand years ago at the dawn of the first century the world was ruled from Rome, and Rome was in turmoil. Civil war had engulfed the empire’s capital city. Empires: The Roman Empire in the First Century I: Order From Chaos, PBS 2001
From the chaos the Roman Empire would rise stronger and more dazzling than before. ibid.
The land of the Pharaohs was formally annexed to the Roman Empire. ibid.
Augustus not only changed the empire, he expanded it. ibid.
Nine years into his exile Ovid died; he outlived Augustus. ibid.
But the peace of Augustus came at a price. By the end of his life Augustus had eclipsed the Senate, ruled as a monarch, and founded a dynasty that was fraught with troubles. Empires: The Roman Empire in the First Century II: Years of Trial
The decision to execute Jesus would launch a religion that would one day subsume the Roman empire. ibid.
In the years ahead Claudius would begin to lose his grip. ibid.
Near the middle of the first century a man named Seneca was banished for offending the Roman Emperor. He was a living reminder that absolute power could bring absolute ruin. Empires: The Roman Empire in the First Century III: Winds of Change
Rome creates a desert, Tacitus later wrote, and calls it peace. ibid.
In the twilight of the first century the Roman empire shook to its foundations ... Mount Vesuvius. Empires: The Roman Empire in the First Century IV: The Years of Eruption
As the first century passed its mid-point, civil war would be unleashed and despotism would once more stalk the capital city. ibid.
Vespasian’s forces won the day ... Vespasian, a rustic man of the camp, was now Emperor of Rome ... Pliny the Younger was a witness to his age. ibid.
Once again, the Army would control Rome’s future. ibid.
Civis Romanus sum [I am a Roman citizen] Cicero, 106-43 B.C.
The smoke and wealth and din of Rome. Horace, Odes
Everything in Rome has its price. Juvenal, Satires bk 3
Only two things does he anxiously wish for – bread and circuses. ibid. bk 10
The Romans said that their city was founded in the 8th century B.C. Tradition has it that the twins Romulus and Remus were abandoned in a crib that washed ashore on the Tiber River. Darius A Arya, American Institute for Roman Culture
Rome was being challenged by barbarian armies. And they [Romans] felt it was necessary to construct a massive defensive wall circuit – twelve miles in length ... The unthinkable happens – Rome was sacked. Darius A Arya
Rome was the dream of glory, the dream of success, the dream of ultimate power. But its history also contained the warning: empires will fall no matter how great, no matter how successful. Every superpower will eventually die. Darius A Arya
What millions died – that Caesar might be great! Thomas Campbell, Pleasures of Hope
Rome has spoken; the case is concluded. Augustine of Hippo
The Romans were tolerant of religion as long as it did nothing to disrupt the stability of the empire. But if you got involved in anything that seemed to threaten the stability of their system, then they could put their foot down and they could put their foot down hard. Byron R McCane, Wofford College
It was scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption. This long peace, and the uniform government of the Romans, introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military spirit evaporated. The natives of Europe were brave and robust. Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Illyricum, supplied the legions with excellent soldiers, and constituted the real strength of the monarchy. Their personal valour remained, but they no longer possessed that public courage which is nourished by the love of independence, the sense of national honour, the presence of danger, and the habit of command. They received laws and governors from the will of their sovereign, and trusted for their defence to a mercenary army. The posterity of their boldest leaders was contented with the rank of citizens and subjects. The most aspiring spirits resorted to the court or standard of the emperors; and the deserted provinces, deprived of political strength or union, insensibly sunk into the languid indifference of private life. Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ch2 p32
In elective monarchies, the vacancy of the throne is a moment big with danger and mischief. ibid. ch3
History ... is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind. ibid. ch3
In every age and country, the wiser or at least the stronger, of the two sexes, has usurped the powers of the state, and confined the other to the cares and pleasures of domestic life. ibid. ch6
Twenty-two acknowledged concubines, and a library of sixty-two thousand volumes, attested the variety of his [Gordian the younger] inclinations, and from the productions which he left behind him, it appears that the former as well as the latter were designed for use rather than ostentation. ibid. ch7
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind. ibid. ch14
Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty. ibid. ch21
In every deed of mischief he had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute. ibid. ch48 re Komnenos
Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery. ibid. ch49
Persuasion is the resource of the feeble; and the feeble can seldom persuade. ibid. ch68
All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance. ibid. ch71
I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps, the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind, by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the future day of my History, the life of the historian must be short and precarious. Edward Gibbon, on the completion of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
After the fall of ancient Rome before the rebirth ushered in by the Renaissance, centuries of history have long been neglected. These are the Dark Ages. When the Roman Empire crumbled, Europe was besieged by famine, plague, persecution and a constant state of war that was rarely interrupted by peace. The Dark Ages
24th August 410 A.D.: The Empire falls; Rome for so long the most powerful place on Earth was invaded by a band of brutal thugs – they were the Visigoths. ibid.
In Rome power and glory were rapidly being replaced by corpses and cannibalism. ibid.
The Mother of the World had been terminally ill for quite some time. ibid.
As early as the 3rd century A.D. the Empire had fallen into the hands of a series of inept Emperors whose obsession with personal gain threatened the welfare of their citizens and fostered civil war. During the 3rd century for a period of fifty years nearly all of the two dozen Emperors who seized power were brutally slain by rivals, rebels and subjects. ibid.
533 A.D.: The Empire strikes back. More than a century after the sacking of Rome an army of self-proclaimed Romans marched from the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. ibid.
From the beginning of his reign in 527 Justinian had regarded Theodora as an equal shareholder in sovereignty. ibid.
Justinian – the eastern Emperor who harboured dreams of a reunited Roman empire. ibid.
An invisible killer was making its way towards Constantinople with enough ammunition to wipe out not just the city but the entire continent. That killer was bubonic plague. ibid.
When a final tally was made, up to half of the Empire’s population – perhaps 100 million people – were struck down by the Plague of Justinian. ibid.
The whole idea about the Romans’ artistic incompetence is a myth. The Treasures of Ancient Rome I: Warts n All, BBC 2012
The Romans transformed art and defined the way we view the ancient world. ibid.
The Romans invented a new form of art – warts-n-all realism. ibid.
What icons of Roman art can we really trust? ibid.
What makes Pompeii so special is that exquisite and fragile works of art have been preserved in almost perfect condition. ibid.
Emperors like Trajan were the masters of this new type of strident declamatory art. They transformed their public monuments into big brash billboards boasting of their conquests. The Treasures of Ancient Rome II: Pomp and Perversion
This was an era of exuberance and great artistic triumphs. ibid.