Ronald Syme - The Roman Revolution (1939)

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Security and aggression are terms of partisan interpretation.

Ronald Syme

In all ages, whatever the form and name of government, be it monarchy, republic, or democracy, an oligarchy lurks behind the façade....

Ronald Syme

... libertas [liberty], like regnum [kingship] or dominatio [despotism], is a convenient term of political fraud.

Ronald Syme

Without a party a statesman is nothing. He sometimes forgets that awkward fact.

Ronald Syme

The best party is but a kind of conspiracy against the Commonwealth.

Ronald Syme

The political cant of a country is naturally and always most strongly in evidence on the side of the vested interests. In times of peace and prosperity it commands a wide measure of acquiescence, even of belief. Revolution rends the veil.

Ronald Syme

Pietas prevailed, and out of the blood of Caesar the monarchy was born.

Ronald Syme