Livy
Known as Livy in English, wrote a monumental history of Rome, Ab Urbe Condita, from its founding (traditionally dated to 753 BC) through the reign of Augustus.
The sun has not yet set for all time.
They are more than men at the outset of their battles; at the end they are less than the women.
No one wants to be excelled by his relatives.
Shared danger is the strongest of bonds; it will keep men united in spite of mutual dislike and suspicion.
We can endure neither our vices nor the remedies for them.
Law is a thing which is insensible, and inexorable, more beneficial and more profitious to the weak than to the strong; it admits of no mitigation nor pardon, once you have overstepped its limits.
It is when fortune is the most propitious that she is least to be trusted.
You know how to vanquish, Hannibal, but you do not know how to profit from victory.
The state is suffering from two opposite vices, avarice and luxury; two plagues which, in the past, have been the ruin of every great empire.
A fraudulent intent, however carefully concealed at the outset, will generally, in the end, betray itself.
For he considered that, in many cases, but especially in war, mere appearances have had all the effect of realities; and that a person, under a firm persuasion that he can command resources, virtually has them; that very prospect inspiring him with hope and boldness in his exertions.
Temerity is not always successful.
Nowhere are our calculations more frequently upset than in war.
I approach these questions unwillingly, as it wounds, but no cure can be effected without touching upon and handling them.
They lived under a just and moderate government, and they admitted that one bond of their fidelity was that their rulers were the better men.
Before anything else [Numa] decided that he must instill in his subjects the fear of the gods, this being the most effective measure with an ignorant, and at that time uncultured, people.
He will have true glory who despises it.
Notissimum [...] malum maxime tolerabile
There is nothing worse than being ashamed of parsimony or poverty.