Status Updates From César (Masters of Rome, #5)

“Who is Caesar?” . . . “In any other place than Rome he’d be a king, great Queen. His family is ancient and august. He is, they say, descended from Aphrodite and Ares through Aeneas and Romulus.”

“No man functions at his best without opposition. I truly cannot bear the thought of being surrounded by sycophants! I’ll be the First Man in Rome the proper way—by constantly striving.”

“Let the dice fly high!” he cried out in the original Greek, kicked Toes gently in the ribs, and rode across the Rubicon into Italia and rebellion.

“What lies across the Rubicon!”

“It is here. I can still turn back. I have not yet abandoned legality, constitutionality. But once I cross this undistinguished river I pass from servant of my country to an aggressor against her. Yet I know all this.”

“. . . Caesar was like Ulysses; that his life strand was so strong it frayed through all those it rubbed against. Knock him down, and up he sprang again like the dragon’s teeth planted in the field of death.”