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Rome

capital and largest city of Italy
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Rome (Italian and Latin: Roma) is the capital city of Rome and of the Lazio region. According to legend, the city of Rome was founded by the twins Romulus and Remus on April 21, 753 BC.

Rome wasn't all built in a day.
What's Rome to me, what business have I there? I who can neither lie, nor falsely swear?~ Juvenal
The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth. ... Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins. ~ John the Evangelist

It has been nicknamed Caput mundi ("capital of the world"), la Città Eterna ("the Eternal City"), Limen Apostolorum ("threshold of the Apostles"), la città dei sette colli ("the city of the seven hills") or simply l'Urbe ("the City").

CONTENT: A-D , E-H , I-L , M-P , Q-T , U-Z , See also , External links

Quotes

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A - D

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  • Si fueris Romæ, Romano vivito more;
    Si fueris alibi, vivito sicut ibi.
    • If you are at Rome live in the Roman style; if you are elsewhere live as they live elsewhere.
    • St. Ambrose to St. Augustine. Quoted by Jeremy Taylor, Ductor Dubitantium, I. 1. 5. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 677.
  • When I am at Rome I fast as the Romans do; when I am at Milan I do not fast. So likewise you, whatever church you come to, observe the custom of the place, if you would neither give offence to others, nor take offence from them.
    • Another version of St. Ambrose's advice. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 677.
  • When I am at Rome, I fast on a Saturday: when I am at Milan I do not. Do the same. Follow the custom of the church where you are.
    • St. Augustine gives this as the advice of St. Ambrose to him. See Epistle to Januarius, II. 18. Also Epistle 36. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 677.
  • When in Rome do as the Romans
    • Common paraphrase of the above.
  • Now conquering Rome doth conquered Rome inter,
    And she the vanquished is, and vanquisher.
    To show us where she stood there rests alone
    Tiber; and that too hastens to be gone.
    Learn, hence what fortune can. Towns glide away;
    And rivers, which are still in motion, stay.
    • Joachim du Bellay, Antiquitez de Rome (third stanza of this poem taken from Janus Vitalis). Translation by William Browne, from a Latin version of the same by Janus Vitalis, In Urbem Romam Qualis est hodie. See Gordon Goodwin's ed. of Poems of William Browne. Translation also by Spenser, in Complaints. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 677.
  • Looking back on Rome's success, it is all too easy to conclude that its victories were preordained. It is almost as if Rome arose with consummate certainty from the seven hills, gaining such a height that seemingly it could not be challenged. But in almost every phase of Rome's history there were crises.
  • Every one soon or late comes round by Rome.
    • Robert Browning, Ring and the Book, V, 296. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 677.
  • When they are at Rome, they do there as they see done.
  • You cheer my heart, who build as if Rome would be eternal.
    • Augustus Cæsar to Piso. See Plutarch, Apothegms. "Eternal Rome" said by Tibullus, II. 5. 23. Repeated by Ammianus Marcellinus—Rerum Gestarum, XVI, Chapter X. 14. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 677.
  • Cuando á Roma fueres, haz como vieres.
  • Y á Roma por todo.
  • Quod tantis Romana manus contexuit annis
    Proditor unus iners angusto tempore vertit.
    • What Roman power slowly built, an unarmed traitor instantly overthrew.
    • Claudianus, In Rufinum, II. 52. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 677.
  • Leave for a while thy costly country seat;
    And, to be great indeed, forget
    The nauseous pleasures of the great:
    Make haste and come:
    Come, and forsake thy cloying store;
    Thy turret that surveys, from high,
    The smoke, and wealth, and noise of Rome;
    And all the busy pageantry
    That wise men scorn, and fools adore:
    Come, give thy soul a loose, and taste the pleasures of the poor.

E - H

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It was the Italic inheritance of prudence and sobriety, of patience and persistence, of integrity and clean living that gave its stamp to the Roman character of the Republic. ~ Tenney Frank
  • It was the Italic inheritance of prudence and sobriety, of patience and persistence, of integrity and clean living that gave its stamp to the Roman character of the Republic.
  • Yes, I have finally arrived to this Capital of the World! I now see all the dreams of my youth coming to life... Only in Rome is it possible to understand Rome.
  • It was scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption. This long peace, and the uniform government of the Romans, introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military spirit evaporated. The natives of Europe were brave and robust. Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Illyricum, supplied the legions with excellent soldiers, and constituted the real strength of the monarchy. Their personal valour remained, but they no longer possessed that public courage which is nourished by the love of independence, the sense of national honour, the presence of danger, and the habit of command. They received laws and governors from the will of their sovereign, and trusted for their defence to a mercenary army. The posterity of their boldest leaders was contented with the rank of citizens and subjects. The most aspiring spirits resorted to the court or standard of the emperors; and the deserted provinces, deprived of political strength or union, insensibly sunk into the languid indifference of private life.
    • Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1838), chapter 2, third paragraph from the end, p. 32.
  • Veuve d'un peuple-roi, mais reine encore du monde.
    • [Rome] Widow of a King-people, but still queen of the world.
    • Gabriel Gilbert, Papal Rome. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 677.
  • Rome was ruined more by neglect of agriculture, and giving no attention to useful trade and commerce, than by the invasion of barbarians.
  • Rome, Rome, thou art no more
    As thou hast been!
    On thy seven hills of yore
    Thou sat'st a queen.
    • Felicia Hemans, Roman Girl's Song. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 677.
  • Omitte mirari beatæ
    Fumum et opes strepitumque Romæ    .
    • Cease to admire the smoke, wealth, and noise of prosperous Rome.
    • Horace, Carmina, III. 29. 11. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 677.

I - L

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A thousand roads lead men forever to Rome.
  • Never before has any city in the world had so a wonderful adventure. Its history is so big that even the huge crimes it is littered with look tiny. Maybe one of the troubles of Italy is exactly this: to have a capital city that is disproportionate, for name and past history, to the modesty of a people that, when shouting "go for it, Rome!", is only referring to a football team.
  • The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth. ... Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. ... In her heart she boasts, ‘I sit enthroned as queen. I am not a widow; I will never mourn.’
  • In tears I tossed my coin from Trevi's edge.
    A coin unsordid as a bond of love—
    And, with the instinct of the homing dove,
    I gave to Rome my rendezvous and pledge.
    And when imperious Death
    Has quenched my flame of breath,
    Oh, let me join the faithful shades that throng that fount above.
  • Tous chemins vont à Rome; ainsi nos concurrents
    Crurent, pouvoir choisir des sentiers différents.
    • All roads lead to Rome, but our antagonists think we should choose different paths.
    • Jean de La Fontaine, Le Juge Arbitre, Fable XII. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 677.
  • What's Rome to me, what business have I there?
I who can neither lie, nor falsely swear?
Nor praise my patron's undeserving rhymes,
Nor yet comply with him, nor with his times?
  • A thousand roads lead men forever to Rome.
    • Alaine de Lille in Liber Parabolarum (1175).

M - P

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  • Rome, old lady of the world, in the name of our glorious dead who gave their life to make wonderful days possible, we salute you!
  • Exaudi, regina tui pulcherrima mundi,
      inter sidereos Roma recepta polos,
    exaudi, genetrix hominum genetrixque deorum,
      non procul a caelo per tua templa sumus.
    • Listen, O fairest queen of thy world, Rome, welcomed amid the starry skies, listen, thou mother of men and mother of gods, thanks to thy temples we are not far from heaven.
    • Rutilius Claudius Namatianus, De Reditu Suo, 47 (tr. J. W. Duff)
  • Rome was not built in a day.
    • Latin in Palingenius (1537). Beaumont and Fletcher, Little French Lawyer, Act I, scene 3. Same idea "No se ganó Zamora en una hora.—Zamora was not conquered in an hour." Cervantes, Don Quixote, II. 23. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 677.
  • See the wild Waste of all-devouring years!
    How Rome her own sad Sepulchre appears,
    With nodding arches, broken temples spread!
    The very Tombs now vanish'd like their dead!
    • Alexander Pope, Moral Essays, Epistle to Addison. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 677.

Q - T

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The story of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf is not a meaningless fable. ~ Henry David Thoreau
  • In any case, an alternative to summit meetings was emerging. For centuries it had been customary to send envoys on specific, short-term missions. But by the mid–fifteenth century the tightly knit but feuding city states of northern Italy—Venice, Florence, Milan and Rome—kept permanent ambassadors in key cities in order to gather intelligence and foster alliances. In due course their governments created chanceries to manage the mounting mass of paper. From 1490 the great powers of Europe followed suit, led by Spain. It became normal to have at each of the major courts a resident “ambassador”—a word defined by the English poet and diplomat Sir Henry Wotton in a punning epigram as “a man sent to lie abroad for his country’s good.” Given the time required for travel, and the hazards en route—especially in an age of dynastic and religious warfare—permanent ambassadors offered a convenient substitute for personal summitry. And their detailed reports required the attention of specialist secretaries who oversaw foreign affairs, such as Francis Walsingham in Elizabethan London or Antonio Perez at the court of Philip III. Day-to-day diplomacy tended to slip out of the hands of rulers.
    • David Reynolds, Summits: Six Meetings that Changed the Twentieth Century (2007), p. 17
  • I am in Rome! Oft as the morning ray
    Visits these eyes, waking at once I cry,
    Whence this excess of joy? What has befallen me?
    And from within a thrilling voice replies,
    Thou art in Rome! A thousand busy thoughts
    Rush on my mind, a thousand images;
    And I spring up as girt to run a race!
    • Samuel Rogers, Rome. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 677.
  • I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon,
    Than such a Roman.
  • New Rome will be destroyed by the attacks of new vandals.
    • Dejan Stojanovic in Circling, ”New Vandals,” Sequence: “A Warden with No Keys” (1993).
  • Utinam populus Romanus unam cervicem haberet!
    • Would that the Roman people had but one neck!
    • Suetonius. Life of Caligula ascribes it to Caligula. Seneca the Younger and Dion Cassius credit it to the same. Ascribed to Nero by others. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 677.
  • The story of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf is not a meaningless fable. The founders of every State which has risen to eminence have drawn their nourishment and vigor from a similar wild source. It was because the children of the Empire were not suckled by the wolf that they were conquered and displaced by the children of the Northern forests who were.
  • From the dome of St. Peter's one can see every notable object in Rome... He can see a panorama that is varied, extensive, beautiful to the eye, and more illustrious in history than any other in Europe.
  • The teacher reminded us that Rome's liberties were not auctioned off in a day, but were bought slowly, gradually, furtively, little by little; first with a little corn and oil for the exceedingly poor and wretched, later with corn and oil for voters who were not quite so poor, later still with corn and oil for pretty much every man that had a vote to sell—exactly our own history over again.
    • Mark Twain, "Purchasing Civic Virtue," Mark Twain in Bernard DeVoto, ed., Eruption (1940), p. 68–69.
  • Rome wasn't all built in a day.
    • Li Proverbe au Vilain (ca. 1190).

U - Z

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  • Sit Romana potens Itala virtute propago

See also

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