Mistress Of Rome Quotes
"I opened my wrist with one firm stroke of the knife, watching with interest as the blood leaped out of the vein."
"The thought much brightened a life of minimum excitement."
"Maybe it’s my Jewish blood, we don’t usually find death amusing."
"As a gift I didn’t rank as high as the pearl necklace and the silver bangles and the half-dozen silk gowns she’d also received from her doting father, but she certainly liked having her own personal shadow."
"With a sword in his hand, everything had been so simple."
"He met the first guard in a savage joyful rush, swords meeting with a dull screech."
"I hadn’t even wept when I watched the gladiators and the poor bewildered animals slaughtered before my eyes. Why had I wept for a thug?"
"You’re going to be a gladiator. It’s a good life as they go—women, riches, fame."
"The applause of the games fans flickered uneasily through his mind."
"I felt sorry for her. A slave feeling sorry for a princess—I don’t know why."
"In the streets they're already calling you 'the Barbarian.'"
"Beauty is fate's gift—and every time I looked in my mirror, I knew Fortuna loved me."
"A proper shake. The unbloodied hand, that is."
"It was only then that he wept, standing alone in the great arena surrounded by the bodies of five women and a thousand downward-drifting rose petals."
"You're no Belleraphon, drinking up the applause."
"My father, killed. The village, burned. The rest of us... sold."
"Better to be dead than alive when the Romans came crashing in with their swords."
"I'm expensive," she said by way of introduction. "But I'll do you for free."
"Yes, Marcus is coming to dinner tonight, so leave out the yellow silk. Don’t bother with jewels; no need to look beautiful for Marcus."
"He’s nothing; he’s just a gladiator. Doesn’t he know who I am?"
"The God of the Jews is hard, merciless, a joker—but occasionally He relents."
"Gladiators are bad investments. They die too quickly."
"I love you so much I can’t say it out loud in the daylight."
"Who are you really killing when you put your sword through all those Greeks and Thracians and Gauls?"
"None before you," he whispered into her ear, "and none after."
"I love the way you make a dance out of death."
"I’ll live, and we’ll get out of Rome. Find ourselves a mountain in Brigantia—"
"He had never talked so long before, and underneath the harsh grate of his voice I heard for the first time the indefinable rhythms of his native language. And I wanted it: the green mountain, the half-dozen strong and russet-haired children, the sweet Brigantian air no Roman had ever breathed. And I wanted Arius."
"Hold me," I said, and his arms locked around my waist, soldering our bodies together until it was dawn.
"No! Words tumbled frantically out of my mouth. "My lady—I’ve served you well! Whatever I did, I’ll never do it again, I promise. What did I do?"
"I made another despairing lunge toward Mars Street, and was wrestled down to the ground. I drew breath to beg and got a mouthful of dust."
"The nameless dog gnawed on a corner of his pillow as Arius buried his face in the bedclothes and wept."
"I opened my wrist with one firm stroke of the knife, watching as the blood dripped out of the vein."
"No child of Arius the Barbarian would ever be scared away by a little blood."
"Don’t pander to the audience, Thea. Bring them in to you."
"I never, ever thought of his father anymore."
"He smiled back, and let her draw him into the warmth."
"Well—my friend Verus, he’s served palace duty. He didn’t believe any of the rumors, either, but he said—you could see Lady Julia shrink. Every time the Emperor came into the room. Like she was afraid of him."
"The slaves say she starves herself. The Emperor had to have her forcibly fed, and she collapsed into hysterics and tried to tear her own hair out."
"Your stepmother may look lovely and worldly, Paulinus, but she’s still very young. Her freedom went to her head, and she fell in with—well, a fast crowd."
"Oh, he tries to have everyone’s wives. Domitian likes anything in a stola. But unlike many of our previous Emperors, he doesn’t much mind if a woman—or her husband—says no."
"An Emperor, Paulinus, is a man accustomed to absolute and godlike power. A man who plans for the good of thousands too often to consider the good of one."
"I’d planned to start my new treatise," Marcus said mildly, but with a gleam in his eye. "I suppose it can wait."
"But the games are so thrilling. Why, just last week in the arena Arius the Barbarian lost a hand to a Turk. That must have been a sight."
"Don’t despair, darling. If you don’t sulk too loudly then perhaps I’ll slip back into your room now and then. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?"
"But God, the cosmic joker, had said No. Never forget."
"Your cooperation. Your compliance. Your silence. That’s all."
"I wish you did." (In response to "You’re looking at me as if I had snakes for hair.")
"I’m not asking for pity. But one gets . . . tired."
"Of course there are more qualified men. They will all loathe you for jumping over their heads and try to undermine you at every turn. Accept that position, and you make a hundred mortal enemies. Do you want it?"
"Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to contradict an Emperor?"
"The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it?"
"Praetorian Prefect? One of the most important posts in the Empire. The Emperor’s eyes and ears. Watchdog, spymaster, commander of the Imperium’s private army."
"You’ve said that before, Thea. It always happens again."
"He’s waiting to apologize now, Dominus. He’s very sorry."
"I’ll be more careful this time, Dominus. I promise."
"Free after he died! With a little money to start a life of our own."
"A sea battle for the Saeculares games! Oh, won’t that draw the crowds."
"You’re not so young anymore, you know. You can’t afford to get complacent!"
"Not too old to heave you over the wall, dwarf."
"The gods give all dwarves extra inches below the belt."
"The crowd’s certainly panting for it. The only thing you haven’t done for them by now is die."
"He will die once by fire, once by the sword, and once as an old man."
"I’ve never seen it do a bit of good, but feel free."
"I’m not praising you. I’m praising the voice the gods placed in your throat."
"You’re a singer. An artist. Not a courtesan."
"She’s not either cheap! She’s very expensive! She’s the best! Your mother gives it away for FREE!"
"So if you’re the Emperor’s whore, when does it get good for me?"
"I used to value honesty in women. I’m beginning to reevaluate that opinion."
"Refrain, please, from pretending ecstasy. I find it distracting."
"I’d rather be on good terms with a viper than Lepida Pollia."
"I suppose it is. Trusting you with his wars and his women."
"A delightful summer companion. How shall I reward you?"
"I’m having such fun, ripping up this villa and putting it back together."
"I arrested Praetor Larcius on grounds of treason."
"I like to play games, you know. With my chamberlains, my senators, my guards. It’s easy to make them afraid of me."
"There is only one lord and god in Rome—and a goddess; I can put up with that, Athena."
"Oh, with the army; they think the world of him. But the Roman plebs just want a tax cut and lots of chariot races."
"I’m only a featherbrained Christian, my dear, but I do know how these things work."
"Even my wife’s afraid under that marble face of hers. But you aren’t. You and one other—you know who? He’s not even a human being. Just a slave, another animal like you."
"Traitors’ wills are nullified, and their possessions forfeit to the Imperium."
"No one will search this litter at the gate. I’m the Emperor’s niece."
"Political speculation encourages freethinking among the masses."
"I’m not worthy of it, Sabina. Not a good father to you, or Paulinus."
"We live in the age of enlightenment, and I won’t have you drinking gladiator’s blood."
"What would any decent man do for his children?"
"I am the grandson of the god Augustus. I will not be saddled all my life with that evil she-viper."
"Birdsong instead of hungry applause—this place might as well have been paradise."
"They don’t need us. They’ve created a whole world without us. A good world."
"Fight like a ten-year-old boy, you might be able to kill someone someday."
"Maybe swords and drills and practice bouts had gotten into his blood, like it or not."
"Her eyes were the last thing I saw before the colors crashed in around my head."
"People are idiots. Start drill number two, but twice as slow. Builds control."
"I suppose it's true enough, since I am Rome and you are my mistress, but I still dislike it."
"Whatever I say is believed wholly and absolutely, because as a priestess my word is sacred."
"I am safe wherever I travel, because those who attack a priestess risk the wrath of her goddess."
"If I meet a condemned prisoner on his way to execution, I can grant a divine pardon that not even the Emperor can revoke."
"I've told you a good deal about my brother, haven't I? Titus the Golden, the darling of the people, cut off so tragically in the prime of his youth... well, I killed him."
"You have lovely hazel eyes. Wearing a yellow stone so close will make them look gold."
"No shield at all marked a retiarius, a net-and-trident man—as far as Vix was concerned, the lowest of the low."