Discourses on Livy · Chapter
Endnotes explained
This chapter contains the endnotes for the book, including citations and references to classical and historical sources such as Dante, Virgil, Tacitus, Sallust, Procopius, Juvenal, Suetonius, and Flavio Biondo, among others.
What happens
This chapter contains the endnotes for the book, including citations and references to classical and historical sources such as Dante, Virgil, Tacitus, Sallust, Procopius, Juvenal, Suetonius, and Flavio Biondo, among others.
Key passages
“Rade volta risurge per li rami L’umana probitatee questo vuole Quei che la dà, perchè da lui si chiami.”
Rarely does human virtue rise again through the branches, and this is willed by the one who gives it, so that it may be called from him.
Dante, Purgatorio, Canto VII, lines 121-123.
“Residesque movebit Tullus in arma viros.”
And Tullus will rouse the sluggish men to arms.
Virgil, Aeneid, Book VI, line 814.
“Proclivius est injuriae quam beneficio vicem exsolvere, quia gratia oneri, ultio in quastu habetur.”
It is easier to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden, while revenge is considered profitable.
Tacitus, Histories, Book IV, chapter 2.
“Quod omnia mala exempla ex bonis initiis orta sunt.”
That all bad examples have arisen from good beginnings.
Sallust, Bellum Catilinae, 51.
“Tum pietate gravem ac meritis si forte virum quem Conspexere, silent, arrectisque auribus adstant.”
Then if they see a man grave with piety and merits, they fall silent and stand with ears pricked up.
Virgil, Aeneid, Book I, line 154.
“Nos Maurusii qui fugimus a facie Jesu latronis filii Navae.”
We are the Moors who flee from the face of Jesus, the son of the robber Navae.
Procopius, De Bello Vandalico, Vol. II.