The Wolf Den Quotes
"Baths, wine and sex make fate come faster." - Roman maxim
"All other animals derive satisfaction from having mated; man gets almost none." - Pliny the Elder, Natural History
"Take one who through long years would slave for you; Take one who’d love with purest loyalty." - Ovid, Amores I.3
"Grab your slave girl whenever you want: it’s your right to use her" - Pompeii graffiti
"The whole place rang with their theatrical laughter, while we were still wondering why this sudden change of mood and looking now at each other, now at the women." - Petronius, The Satyricon: ‘Quartilla’s Brothel’
"If anyone wants a fuck, he should look for Attice; she costs 16 asses" - Graffiti near Pompeii’s Marine Gate
"Neither with care, dread Mistress, nor with anguish, Slay thou my spirit!"
"A small chance of seeing you is better than none."
"You didn’t have any choice. It’s not your fault."
"You’re lucky I took this one." He shrugs at Amara in apology. "No offence. She is more beautiful. You just have the sexier mouth. I like that."
"I suppose he gave you extra to have us thrown out last time," Amara says, still annoyed at the thought of being cheated.
"If I had any real virtue, I would have killed myself before allowing any man to touch me!"
"It’s the Vinalia! Girls are meant to be naked!" Quintus protests.
"I wish I could kill him for you," she says, her voice flat.
"I can’t bear any man touching me. They all feel like Felix."
"Of course, if you want the lyre as well," Felix replies. "That will be another twenty."
"I have to leave soon too." Menander looks at Amara. "Will you have one dance with me?"
"I hate and I love. How is this possible? Perhaps you ask. I don’t know. But I feel it, and I am tortured." - Catullus, Poem 85
"I like not joy bestowed in duty’s fee, I’ll have no woman dutiful to me." - Ovid, The Art of Love II
"You have never been with a man by choice? No. I never feel anything."
"I hate him," she tells the empty room. "I hate him."
"The man can never give it a rest," Beronice says, swiping the last of the chickpeas.
"You must have to do a lot of pretending," Salvius says. "You don’t have to pretend," he says. "Don’t feel you have to pretend."
"Would you marry him if he asked you to be wife number two?" "Yes, but that’s not love. I’d just rather be a freedwoman running an ironmonger’s than a slave working for Felix. Wouldn’t you?"
"Nobody gets what they deserve." He looks genuinely amused.
"I pawned earrings with Faustilla for 2 denarii. She has deducted an ass a month in interest" - Pompeii The graffiti
"It’s not your fault," she says. "I am still happy to be here with you."
"I pursue my research in odd hours, that is at night – just in case any of you think I pack up work then!" - Pliny the Elder, Natural History
"They must conquer or fall. Such was the settled purpose of a woman – the men might live and be slaves!" - Tacitus on Boudicca, Queen of the Icenii, Annals 14
"Thais: Me not speaking from my heart? That’s not fair! What have you ever wanted from me, even in fun, that you didn’t get?" - Terence, The Eunuch
"Perfumes are the most pointless of all luxuries … Their highest attraction is that, as a woman goes by, their use may attract even those who are otherwise occupied." - Pliny the Elder, Natural History
"No other part of the body supplies more evidence of the state of mind. This is the same with all animals, but especially with man; that is, the eyes show signs of self-restraint, mercy, pity, hatred, love, sorrow, joy; in fact, the eyes are the windows of the soul." - Pliny the Elder, Natural History
"Nobody helped, nobody cared. They were just angry she pushed an amphora of oil in the water. She didn’t matter. And now she’s gone, and it’s like she never lived at all. Like she was nothing."
"You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s alright. It’s not your fault."
"You can always speak to me. Always. And I know you have to look after yourself. I understand that."
"There is nobody like you. There is nobody else like you in my life."
"Please be careful. And don’t blame yourself."
"Her pain is over. It was her choice. We should respect that."
"Suns when they sink can rise again, But we, when our brief light has shone Must sleep the long night on and on."
"Now, my little love, entrust your happiness to the wind Trust me, the nature of men is fickle."
"He who does not know how to protect himself does not know how to live."
"Many who Fortuna has raised high, she suddenly throws down, and hurls them headlong."
"The love a master has for his slave," she says, "I suppose it's as much as any of us can hope to build a life on."
"When you’re young, they fuck you; when you’re old, they fuck you over."
"I can't wait to see what Gallus has bought me!"
"I love you too," Dido replies. She is on the verge of tears.
"We thus began to imprison animals to which nature had assigned the heavens as their element."
"You can't be like this when he comes for you," he said. "He planned that night for weeks, imagining all your joy, all the adulation."