If You Must Break The Law

Attributed to Caesar in Suetonius's Lives of the Twelve Caesars (Divus Julius), though no verbatim Latin source for this exact formulation has been confirmed by modern classical scholars. Suetonius, writing roughly 150 years after Caesar's death, compiled many anecdotes and sayings from earlier sources. The sentiment broadly accords with Caesar's documented willingness to bend legal and constitutional norms in pursuit of political supremacy, most dramatically demonstrated by his crossing of the Rubicon in 49 BC.