"Young men, hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young."
— Augustus
Young Men Hear An Old Man
Young men, hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when he was young.
About this quote
Preserved in Plutarch's Moralia (specifically the Sayings of Romans), this remark captures Augustus's self-awareness of his own exceptional career. He rose to power at eighteen after Julius Caesar's assassination, fought a generation-long civil war, and by middle age had been heeded by Rome's most senior statesmen. Plutarch collected such apophthegmata — pithy sayings — partly from a now-lost biography of Augustus, making the Moralia one of the few sources for his informal wit.
Source
Plutarch, Moralia, Sayings of Romans
