A Murder on the Appian Way
by Steven Saylor
(London, Robinson, 1995)
When some men die, it’s like a grain of sand thrown into a river - there’s not even a ripple. With others, it’s like a great boulder. Waves splash onto the bank. And with a very few - like a meteor falling out of the sky.
Page 13.
To weep is one thing. To be distraught is another.
Page 42.
One never quite knows what some people are really up to.
Page 46.
Sometimes, uttering the impossible an suddenly make it seem quite possible after all.
Page 55.
Slaves can be very sentimental.
Page 56.
Why are two men usually enemies? Because they want the same thing.
Page 62.
Politics is the Roman disease.
Page 63.
The instinct of the young … craves adventure ahead of survival.
Page 84.
The tumult in the streets sparked a tumult in my own heart.
Page 85.
If a story has a hole in it, people will fill it up with anything that fits.
Page 105.
Gossip set like mortar in people’s heads. Once it’s hardened you have to chisel it out. Best to pour your own gossip into their ears first.
Page 105.
Knowledge is a fire.
Page 124.
To ridicule the dead is to mock the gods.
Page 154.
A sea of bodies is a solid, writhing thing that presses back against you, struggling, like you, to stay alive.
Page 157.
It seemed that the more prosperous I grew, the more costly it became to live - literally, to stay alive.
Pages 185-186.
Passionate young men can’t always be reached by reason. They can carry resentments for a long time.
Page 197.
I found little to admire in her, but I saw nothing to despise either.
Page 304.
If you already know so much, why do you ask? To find out what I don’t know.
Page 319.
People should remember the past … They should, and would more often … if they could spend less time fretting out the future.
Page 321.
Every man acts out of his own nature, and moves on a singular path towards his destiny.
Page 329.
A place is sacred or not depending on the judgement of the proper authorities.
Page 334.
A man’s greatness, or his smallness for that matter, is best left for posterity to determine. While he lives, a man’s acts speak for themselves.
Page 361.
Once a man is dead, what use is there in despising him?
Page 367.
Vigilance alone may not sve a man, but it may at least show him the face of his adversaries.
Page 375.
How ruthlessly imprisonment strips away a man’s dignity. How swiftly it reduces him to the status of an animal.
Page 389.
The simplest thing is often the true thing.
Page 463.
A woman’s grief is sometimes the only weapon she has.
Page 509.