“In all ages, whatever the form and name of government, be it monarchy, republic, or democracy, an oligarchy lurks behind the façade; and Roman history, Republican or Imperial, is the history of the governing class. The marshals, diplomats, and financiers of the Revolution may be discerned again in the Republic of Augustus as the ministers and agents of power, the same men but in different garb. They are the government of the New State.”

—  Ronald Syme , book The Roman Revolution

Introduction: Augustus and History
The Roman Revolution (1939)

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Ronald Syme 7
New Zealand-born historian and classicist 1903–1989

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