Quotes

Who said what in which context according to whom?

For instance, most people know that Julius Caesar said “I came, I saw, I conquered.” But who reported it? If you do a search on the web, the name that pops up the most is Shakespeare! Yes, Shakespeare uses it Love's Labours Lost IV.1.67-8*, but he plagiarises it from Suetonius (Divine Julius 37) or Plutarch (Mor 206E), and without reference to Caesar.

Then there are the quotes you know exist, but you cannot find a source or the speaker or the context. My goal is on put up my database on this site. It includes ancient and modern quotes on matters about the Classical world. In the meantime, I'm only going to put up this hodge-podge table.

If you are looking for quotes only from Augustus, I have an exclusive page.

Original	English translation	Author/Speaker	Source(s)	Context	Notes
[in Greek]	I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.	Augustus	Cassius Dio 56.30.3		Suetonius Div Aug 28: Marmoream se relinquoere, quam latericiam accepisset
Ita mali salvam ac sospitem rem p. sistere in sua sede liceat atque eius rei fructum percipere, quem peto, ut optimi status auctor dicar et moriens ut feram mecum spem, mansura in vestigio suo fundamenta rei p. quae iecero.	May it be my privilege to have the happiness of establishing the commonwealth on a firm and secure basis and thus enjoy the reward which I desire, but only if I may be called the author of the best possible government; and bear with me the hope when I die that the foundations which I have laid for its future government, will stand firm and stable.	Augustus	Suetonius Div Aug 28
Laudandum adulescentem, ornandum, tollendum	The young man should be praised, honoured, and immortalised.*	Cicero?	Cicero Ad Fam. 11.20.1	Of Octavian, who replied: Non committal ut tolli possim!	*using Pat Southern's translation. Cicero denied saying that (Ad. Fam. 11.21).
	To seek to keep the established constitution unchanged argues a good citizen and a good man.	Augustus	Macro. 2.4.18	Of Cato
	I’m saying nothing. It’s not easy to inscribe lines against a man who can proscribe.	Asinius Pollio	Macro. 2.4.20	Of Octavian
	Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.	Jesus	Matthew 22:17-21 RSV
o puer, qui omnia nomini debes	You, boy, owe everything to a name.	Mark Antony	Cicero, Philippics 13.11.24-25	Of Octavian
	they preferred the safety of the present to the dangerous past.	Tacitus	Tacitus Annals 1.2	refering to Augustus' reign
nullo adversante	wholly unopposed	Tacitus	Tacitus Annals 1.2	refering to Augustus' reign
	He was a man of distinguished character, unconquerable by toil, loss of sleep or danger, well disciplined in obedience, but to one man alone, yet eager to command others; whatever he did he knew no such thing as delay, but with him action went hand in hand faith conception.	Velleius Paterculus	Velleius Paterculus, History of Rome, II.lxxix	Of Marcus Agrippa.
pace parta terra marique	peace had secured on land and sea		On Octavian's campsite memorial in Nikopolis
	Bronze jaw-beaks, ships’ voyage-loving armour, we lie here as witnesses to the Actian War. Behold, the bees’ wax-fed gifts are hived in us, weighted all around by a humming swarm. So good is the grace of [Augustus] Caesar’s law and order; he has taught the enemy’s weapons to bear the fruits of peace instead.		Phil. Anth. Pal. 6.236		as cited in Murray 1989
	Make haste slowly	Augustus	Suetonius Div Aug 25; Aulus Gellius Attics Nights X.11.5
	Well done is quickly done	Augustus	Suetonius Div Aug 25
	Give me a safe commander, not a rash one	Augustus	Suetonius Div Aug 25
pro libertate eos occubuisse	They died for liberty	citizens of Nursia	Suetonius Div Aug 12	After the battle of Mutina
iacta alea est	The die is cast	Julius Caesar	Suetonius Div Julius 32	Upon crossing the Rubicon	Also written as "Alea iacta est". According to Plutarch, these words were actually Greek - Anerriphtho kubos. The Classics-List has a discussion on this quotation: IACTA ALEA EST questions in Apr 2004 and continued on to May. Follow the "next in thread" links. The useful discussions are mainly by Prof. James Butricia, esp. this.
oderint dum metuat	Let them hate, as long as they fear.	Atreus? From Accius' play	Suetonius Gaius 30
veni, vidi, vici	I came, I saw, I conquered.	Julius Caesar	Suetonius Div Julius 37; Plutarch Mor 206E	In his Pontic triump	These words were not written by Shakespeare.
Livia, ostri coniugii memor vive, ac vale.	Livia, keep our marriage alive, and farewell.	Augustus	Suetonius Div Aug 99	Augustus' last words
	If I have played my part well, clap your hands, and dismiss me with applause from the stage.	Augustus	Suetonius Div Aug 99	Augustus' dying speech.	From a theatrical tag in Greek comedy
	I like treachery, but I cannot say anything good of traitors.	Augustus	Plutarch Mor 207A; Plutarch Romulus 17.3	Of Rhoemetalces, king of the Thracians About.com lists this as a quotation by Julius Caesar. That is not likely. Rhoemetalces reigned in Thrace from 11 BCE - 12 CE.	From the Loeb Classical Library, translated by Frank Cole Babbitt.
	No risk attends the meed that silence brings.	Augustus	Plutarch Mor 207C-D	to Athenodorus, his tutor	From the Loeb Classical Library, translated by Frank Cole Babbitt.
	Do you young men listen to an old man, to whom old men listened when he was young.	Augustus	Plutarch Mor 207E-F	to the young nobles who were causing an uproar	From the Loeb Classical Library, translated by Frank Cole Babbitt.
	You make my heart glad by building thus, as if Rome is to be eternal.	Augustus	Plutarch Mor 208A	to Piso who built his house with great care from the foundation to the roof-tree	From the Loeb Classical Library, translated by Frank Cole Babbitt.
Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume, labuntur anni, nec pietas moram, rugis et instanti senaectae, adferet indomitaeque morti.	Alas, Postumus, the fleeting years slip by, nor will piety give any stay to wrinkles and pressing old age and untamable death.	Horace	Horace, Carmina, II. xiv.I
Audentis Fortuna iuvat.	Fortune favours the brave.	Vergil	Vergil, Aeneid X.284
Summum ius summa iniuria.	More law, less justice.	Cicero	Cicero De Officiis I.10.33
Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres.	All Gaul is divided into three parts.	Julius Caesar	Julius Caesar, De bello Gallico, 1.1.1
Nil ego contulerim iucundo sanus amico.	While I am sane I shall compare nothing to the joy of a friend.	Horace	Horace, Satires I.v.44
O mihi praeteritos referat si Iuppiter annos.	If only Jupiter would restore me those bygone years.	Vergil	Vergil Aeneid VIII.560
Minus solum, quam cum solus esset.	Never less alone than when alone.	Cicero	Cicero De Officiis III.1
Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominis imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant.	To plunder, slaughter and rape they give the false name of empire, and where they make a solitude they call it peace.	Galgacus	Tacitus Agricola 30.
solitudinem eius placuisse maxime crediderim, quoniam importuosum circa mare et vix modicis navigiis pauca subsidia; neque adpulerit quisquam nisi gnaro custode. caeli temperies hieme mitis obiectu montis quo saeva ventorum arcentur; aestas in favonium ob	The solitude lends much appeal, because a sea without a harbour surrounds it. Even a modest boat can find few anchorage, and nobody can go ashore unnoticed by the guards. Its winter is mild because it is enclosed by a range of mountains which keeps out the fierce temperature; its summer is unequal. The open sea is very pleasant and it has a view of a beautiful bay.	Tacitus	Tacitus Annals IV.67	On Capri
	[H]istory’s highest function [is] to let worthy action by uncommemorated, and to hold out the reprobation of posterity as a terror to evil and deeds.	Tacitus	Tacitus Annals III.65
	For, you see, the death of Ti. Gracchus and indeed earlier the whole conduct of his tribunate divided one people into two parts.	Cicero	Cicero, de re publica i, 31	Of Tiberius Gracchus
	The people which once bestowed imperium, fasces, legions, everything, now foregoes such activities and has but two passionate desires: bread and circus games.	Juvenal	Juvenal X.78-81
	What is a god? Wielding of power. What is a king? Like a god.				Greek apothegms
neque enim Caesarem in dissensione civili sum secutus sed amicum ; quamquam re offendebar, tamen non deserui	It was not Caesar I followed in the civil conflict, but a friend whom, though I did not approve what he was doing, I refused to desert.	Gaius Matius	Cicero. Letters to Friends. 11.28 or Letter XCII
etenim si ille tali ingenio exitum non reperiebat, quis nunc reperiet?	If, for all his genius, Caesar could not find a way out, who will find one now?	probably Gaius Matius	Cicero. Letters to Atticus. 14.1 or Letter 355	Refering to Julius Caesar	Answer: Augustus.
oudeis gar houtô anoêtos esti hostis polemon pro eirênês haireetai: en men gar têi hoi paides tous pateras thaptousi, en de tôi hoi pateres tous paidas.	No one is so foolish as to choose war over peace. In peace sons bury their fathers, in war fathers bury their sons.	Croesus	Herodotus Book 1.87.1.4

*Thanks for the source, KL47.
**If some of the translations seem familiar, I translated them for the About.com's Ancient History site. Ling Ouyang