Pax by Tom Holland

"Their warriors rather than standing and fighting as legionaries did, like men, would instead wheel and wheel again on fast-galloping horses, firing arrows over their shoulders as they sped away. All more disgraceful, then, that twice the Parthians should have routed a Roman invasion force. The first, launched in the final decade of the free republic, had been annihilated outside a city called Carrhae. Crassus, its commander, had lost thirty thousand men, seven eagles, and his own head. Two decades later, when Mark Anthony led a second attempt to subdue the Parthians, he had managed to survive the ensuing debacle with his head still on his shoulders - but again lost thirty thousand men. Augustus, preferring diplomacy to war, had negotiated the return of Crassus' lost eagles and an enduring peace... All these factors, to a man of Trajan's fearless cast of mind, were bound to furnish matter for thought." - Pax: War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age

The above from Pax by Tom Holland. A very enjoyable book that detail the famous Roman Pax that lasted surprisingly much less time than may generally be thought. Times in Rome had always been tumultuous though much so during the Pax. Enjoyed the book and would recommend it.

Pax by Tom Holland

"The mines, the roads, the harbours, the vineyards, the estates anything that sustained the Roman peace, depended on the protection of the legions, and without it would be lost." - Pax by Tom Holland. 

Can't help but read that and think the same thig applies to the US military and the US and world economies today. The importance of a strong military. 

"People sleep peaceable in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - George Orwell

Pax by Tom Holland

"In 64 [AD] Rome had gone up in flames. That same year, Nero had sent out a new official to administer Judaea. Gossips claimed that Gessius Florus had secured his appointment thanks to his wife's friendship with Poppaea: but it was not long before he had begun to demonstrate a qualification that might have recommended him to Nero even more. 'He stripped bare whole cities: he ruined entire communities.' Wherever there were funds to be extorted, Florus would extort them... So it was that Florus continued with his depredations: and so it was, a mere two years after his appointment to the province, that Judaea had exploded." from Tom Holland's Pax: War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age.

That was some new history for me. Currently reading this and about halfway through it. Enjoying the book but all the Roman names and pronunciations are sometimes tough to take.