Peter Heather Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 27 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Peter Heather.
Famous Quotes By Peter Heather
With ancient history writers most immediately in view, the author indicates tendency to look to the virtues and vices of individuals when seeking causes. — Peter Heather
When all the bullshit about rational, divinely inspired social order is put to one side, Roman law was all about defining and protecting property rights ... — Peter Heather
It was not the military prowess of the Germani that kept them outside the Empire, but their poverty.11 — Peter Heather
That the regime was willing to hit itts chief political constituency in the pocket was a clear sign of desperation. — Peter Heather
The author describes the attitude of some on the frontier at Rome's twilight as exhibiting a kind of London-in-the-blitz determination to carry on being more Roman than usual. — Peter Heather
Having sliced Odovacar in half in early spring 493, Theoderic ruled his Italian kingdom for the next thirty-three years, until his own death on 30 August 526. — Peter Heather
To reach Greenland, turn left at the middle of Norway, keep so far north of Shetland that you can only see it if the visibility is very good, and far enough south of the Faroes that the sea appears half way up the mountain slopes. As for Iceland, stay so far to the south that you only see its flocks of birds and whales. So, ROUGHLY PARAPHRASED, run the navigational directions in an Icelandic manual of the Middle Ages, — Peter Heather
Charisma often flows from total self-confidence. — Peter Heather
The cornerstone of the Roman legionnaires' astonishing fighting spirit can be attributed to their training. — Peter Heather
The factor that made him so powerful was also his greatest liability. — Peter Heather
By virtue of its unbounded aggression, Roman imperialism was ultimately responsible for its own destruction. — Peter Heather
Such was the quasi-religious fervour surrounding the concept of the nation that politicians were ready to use identifications of the ancient spread of 'peoples' as evidence for claims about the present. — Peter Heather
Author describes one monarch's impressive table but conveys a contemporary's observation, "the weightiest thing at dinner was the conversation". — Peter Heather
Claiming to be a unique divinely guided state, destined by the Almighty to bring Christian civilization to the entire globe, lost most of its force after two-thirds of the empire had been conquered by the standard-bearers of a different religion. Fortunately, Judaeo-Christian texts offered another, now more apposite model. From divinely ordained world conquerors, emperors were able to use the Old Testament to morph themselves into the leaders of a Chosen People, riding the Constantinopolitan Ark of salvation through besetting tempests towards final Salvation and Triumph, with apocalypse a recurrently popular genre. — Peter Heather
A victorious line of march had been prolonged above a thousand miles from the rock of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire; the repetition of an equal space would have carried the Saracens to the confines of Poland and the Highlands of Scotland; the Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet. — Peter Heather
These exchanges are reported without comment by the East Roman historian Theophylact Simocatta (charmingly, his surname means 'the one-eyed cat'). — Peter Heather
Never base motivation or fear, entirely. — Peter Heather
Reality confounds image. — Peter Heather
One answer to the transitory nature of imperial rule, in short, is that there is a Newtonian third law of empires. The exercise of imperial power generates an opposite and equal reaction among those affected by it, until they so reorganize themselves as to blunt the imperial edge. — Peter Heather
A handsome dowry went to the Vandal king Thrasamund along with his new bride, Theoderic's sister Amalafrida, — Peter Heather
Foreign policy often involved nothing more than the decision whom to make war upon. — Peter Heather
The most important thing for morale was to maintain a united front among the officers. — Peter Heather
An emphasis on reading individual texts with a view to understanding the ideological visions of the world that underlie them has also had a dramatic impact. This type of interpretation requires historians to treat ancient authors, not as sources of fact, but rather like second-hand-car salesmen whom they would do well to approach with a healthy caution. — Peter Heather
The way to a landowner's heart was to tax gently. — Peter Heather
But in the fourth century, as in any other, 'no plan survives first contact with the enemy'. — Peter Heather
He was a stylist, not a thinker. He spent time trying to say things in as complicated a way as possible. — Peter Heather