# Quote — Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars

> His wastefulness showed most of all in the architectural projects. He built a palace, stretching from the Palatine to the Esquiline, which he called…"The Golden House". The following details will give some notion of its size and magnificence. The entrance-hall was large enough to contain a huge statue of himself, 120 feet high…Parts of the house were overlaid with gold and studded with precious stones and mother-of pearl. All the dining-rooms had ceilings of fretted ivory, the panels of which could slide back and let a rain of flowers, or of perfume from hidden sprinklers, shower upon his guests. The main dining-room was circular, and its roof revolved, day and night, in time with the sky. Sea water, or sulphur water, was always on tap in the baths. When the palace had been decorated throughout in this lavish style, Nero dedicated it, and condescended to remark: "Good, now I can at last begin to live like a human being!"

- Author: [Suetonius](https://www.leafyquotes.com/suetonius.md)
- Book: [The Twelve Caesars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/suetonius/the-twelve-caesars.md)
- Original (la): Non in alia re tamen damnosior quam in aedificando domum a Palatio Esquilias usque fecit, quam…Auream nominavit. De cuius spatio atque cultu suffecerit haec rettulisse. Vestibulum eius fuit, in quo colossus CXX pedum staret ipsius effigie…In ceteris partibus cuncta auro lita, distincta gemmis unionumque conchis erant; cenationes laqueatae tabulis eburneis versatilibus, ut flores, fistulatis, ut unguenta desuper spargerentur; praecipua cenationum rotunda, quae perpetuo diebus ac noctibus vice mundi circumageretur; balineae marinis et albulis fluentes aquis. Eius modi domum cum absolutam dedicaret, hactenus comprobavit, ut se diceret quasi hominem tandem habitare coepisse.
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Suetonius#Nero) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/suetonius/the-twelve-caesars/his-wastefulness-showed

## More from this book

> A few months before the murder [of Domitian] a raven perched on the Capitol and croaked out the words: "All will be well!" – a portent which some wag explained in the following verse:
>
> There was a raven, strange to tell,
>
> Perched upon Jove's own gable, whence
>
> He tried to tell us "All is well!" –
>
> But had to use the future tense.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/suetonius/the-twelve-caesars/a-few-months.md)

> No one was allowed to leave the theatre during his recitals, however pressing the reason. We read of women in the audience giving birth, and of men being so bored with listening and applauding that they furtively dropped down from the wall at the rear, since the gates were kept barred, or shammed dead and were carried away for burial.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/suetonius/the-twelve-caesars/no-one-was.md)

> That he had love-affairs in the provinces, too, is suggested by another of the ribald verses sung during the Gallic triumph:
>
> Home we bring our bald whoremonger;
>
> Romans, lock your wives away!
>
> All the bags of gold you lent him
>
> Went his Gallic tarts to pay.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/suetonius/the-twelve-caesars/that-he-had.md)