Lindsay Powell > Quotes

“called Vergil a superstitious child of Maecenas, that inventor of a new kind of affected language, neither bombastic nor of studied simplicity, but in ordinary words and hence less obvious.”
― Lindsay Powell, Marcus Agrippa: Right-Hand Man of Caesar Augustus

“While Agrippa never ruled in his own right his genes were intermingled in the blood of the Domus Augusta and it was his descendants who were destined for prominence. His daughter Vipsania Agrippina married Augustus’ step-son Tiberius, and through her Agrippa was grandfather to Drusus the Younger. As son-in-law to Augustus, his other daughter, Agrippina the Elder, married Germanicus, the son of Drusus the Elder (Nero Claudius Drusus), and through her Agrippa was the grandfather both of the future emperor Caligula and Agrippina the Younger, the mother of Emperor Nero – Agrippa’s great-grandson. Iulia also bore Agrippa three sons who were adopted by Augustus himself as his heirs, all of whom met tragic ends while still young men. Had they lived, and one of these succeeded him as emperor, the story of the Roman Empire may have taken a very different course.”
― Lindsay Powell, Marcus Agrippa: Right-Hand Man of Caesar Augustus

“order of things, including loyalty to one’s country; prudentia, the foresight and wisdom gained from personal experience or that of others; salubritas, the belief in wholesomeness and cleanliness; severitas, the ability to maintain self-control; and veritas, the belief in the value of truth over falsehood. Roman citizens were also expected to live up to a set of publicly shared virtues, among which were aequitas, the belief that it was morally right to act fairly within government and with the people; fides, that in all dealings a man should act in good faith; iustitia, that citizens should expect justice and fair treatment before the law; libertas, the belief in freedom for all citizens; and nobilitas, the expectation that a Roman should strive for excellence in all he did.”
― Lindsay Powell, Germanicus: The Magnificent Life and Mysterious Death of Rome's Most Popular General