The Romans always looked ahead and took action to remedy problems before they developed. They never postponed action in order to avoid a war, for they understood you cannot escape wars, and when you put them off only your opponents benefit.

machiavelli, the prince, ch.3 p.11

At one time, Latin womenfolk would be kept pure

By humble fortune; and to stop vice tainting their small

Abodes they had to work, slumber brief, and hardened hands

Fretted with Tuscan fleece, and Hannibal beside

The city, and husbands standing on the Colline tower.

Luxury has set in, avenging the conquered globe.

Not one crime has been wanting or one act of lust

Since Roman poverty expired.

juvenal, satires 6. ll.287-295, in juvenal's sixteen satires upon the ancient harlot.

quoted in augustine's letter to marcellinus, pp.39-40

again, america.

So I hurried back to the place where Alypius was sitting. There I had put down the book fo the apostle when I got up. I seized it, opened it and in silence read the first passage on which my eyes lit: 'Not in riots and drunken parties, not in eroticism and indecendies, not in strife and rivalry, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in its lusts' (Rom 13:13-14).

I neither wished nor needed to read further. At once, with the last words of this sentence, it was as if a light of relief from all anxiety flooded into my heart. All the shadows of doubt were dispelled.

augustine, confessions, viii.29

like aeneas, augustine hears the messenger from God. mercury gets his attention (tole et lege) and then gives him the message from God. this done, dido (sexual lust) is no more than another creusa (manicheeanism perhaps?), and "tenuisque recessit in auras" (Aeneid, 2.791)

edit: of course, creusa is actually the woman he leaves in carthage. she bears him a son, but she's taken away by the counsel of monica (aphrodite, who shows augustine what it means to love). at another level, though, creusa could be platonism and dido manicheeanism, the first giving him actual knowledge of God, the second pretending to be the fulfillment of that knowledge and being therefore the worst kind of lie. i like both explanations.

"With Domitian, only forty years later, it had bcome a convention of polite speech to hail the emperor as dominus et deus, 'my lord and god.'"

christianity and classical culture by thomas cochrane, 142.

"And Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God!'"

john 20:28

we win. domitian was assassinated, and damnatio memoriae passed on him by the senate. our Dominus et Deus lives.

"Vae! Puto deus fio."

("Well what do you know. I think I'm becoming a god."

translation mine)

the roman emperor vespasian, on his death bed. vespasian was putting down revolts in judea the late 60s aD when another general, vitellius, marched on rome and was defeated. the senate named vespasian emperor to avert civil war. as emperor, he patroned the arts like few others, built the colosseum, and caused much scandal when it was reported that he took off his own boots. needless to say, he was rather dubious about the deification of emperors.

"the longer i ponder the question, the darker i think is the prospect of a solution."

simonides, as quoted by cicero in de natura deorum, i.60

the wicked flee when no one pursues,

but the righteous are bold as a lion.

proverbs 28:1

i feel like this is a pretty accurate diagnosis and solution of all my problems with making decisions.