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Augustine is our contemporary. He has directly and indirectly shaped the way we understand our pursuits, the call to authenticity.

James K. A. Smith • On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts

Rome

Meredith • 4 cards

Vespasian in 79 CE was the only emperor in the first two dynasties to die without any rumours of foul play surfacing.

Mary Beard • SPQR

In a way reminiscent of the modern Catholic Church’s requirement of authenticated miracles in making a new saint, they claimed to ask for proof or witnesses; the appearance of a comet apparently demonstrated the apotheosis of Julius Caesar, but the stories of Livia’s suspiciously large cash reward to the senator who was prepared to say that he had

Mary Beard • SPQR

Augustus thought “nothing more derogatory to the character of an accomplished general than precipitancy and rashness.” To quash such impulses, Augustus trained his generals to instead make haste slowly and that “the cautious captain is better than the bold.”

Festina lente: A Roman emperor's guide to getting stuff done

CHAPTER ONE · CICERO’S FINEST HOUR SPQR: 63 BCE

Mary Beard • SPQR

What was at stake for the Romans was whether they could win in battle and then whether – by persuasion, bullying or force – they could impose their will where, when and if they chose. The style of this imperium is vividly summed up in the story of the last encounter between Antiochus Epiphanes and the Romans. The king was invading Egypt for the sec

Mary Beard • SPQR

and of Augustus too.” Yet

Jon Meacham • Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

The Res Gestae is a rich source of detail about Augustus’ career and the Roman world of his day. It starts with a delicately euphemistic description of his rise to power, which entirely omits any mention of the pogrom (‘I liberated the state oppressed by the power of a faction’ is how he refers to his clash with either Antony or Brutus and Cassius)