Augustus: Quotes about people

Augustus was founder of Julio-Claudian dynasty and first emperor of the Roman Empire. Explore interesting quotes on people.

Augustus: 46 quotes54 likes

“My dear Tiberius, you must not give way to youthful emotion or take it to heart if anyone speaks ill of me; let us be satisfied if we can make people stop short at unkind words.”
Aetati tuae, mi Tiberi, noli in hac re indulgere et nimium indignari quemquam esse, qui de me male loquatur; satis est enim, si hoc habemus ne quis nobis male facere possit.

Suetonius, Divus Augustus, paragraph 51. Translation: Robert Graves, 1957.

“I had a good mind to discontinue permanently the supply of grain to the city, reliance on which had discouraged Italian agriculture, but refrained because some politician would be bound one day to revive the dole as a means of ingratiating himself with the people.”

The grain supply to the city of Rome was a contentious political issue; in Suetonius, Divus Augustus, paragraph 42. Translation: Robert Graves, 1957.

“I declined to be made Pontifex Maximus in succession to a colleague still living, when the people tendered me that priesthood which my father had held. Several years later I accepted that sacred office when he at last was dead who, taking advantage of a time of civil disturbance, had seized it for himself, such a multitude from all Italy assembling for my election, in the consulship of Publius Sulpicius and Gaius Valgius, as is never recorded to have been in Rome before.”

Augustus book Res Gestae Divi Augusti

Res Gestae Divi Augusti