“It was the chain of jealous fate, and the speedy fall which no eminence can escape; it was the grievous collapse of excessive weight, and Rome unable to support her own greatness.”

— Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, book Pharsalia

Invida fatorum series summisque negatum
stare diu nimioque graves sub pondere lapsus
nec se Roma ferens.
Book I, line 70 (tr. J. D. Duff).
Pharsalia

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Marcus Annaeus Lucanus58

Roman poet 39–65

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“It was the chain of jealous fate, and the speedy fall which no eminence can escape; it was the grievous collapse of excessive weight, and Rome unable to support her own greatness.”

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Marcus Annaeus Lucanus58

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