Quotes · Quote card
Quotation from The Histories by Tacitus
“When he was a commoner he seemed too big for his station, and had he never been emperor, no one would have doubted his ability to reign.”
The Histories, Book I, ch. 49, trans. W. Hamilton Fyfe (1912)
The final sentence of the obituary of Galba, Fyfe's rendering of the famous capax imperii nisi imperasset.
Citation: "When he was a commoner he seemed too big for his station, and had he never been emperor, no one would have doubted his ability to reign." — Tacitus, The Histories, Book I, ch. 49, trans. W. Hamilton Fyfe (1912). (id tacitus-the-histories-q5)
Portrait: Tacitus, Cornelius (50 - 116), Unknown author, Public domain.
