"Senators! You don't have to love me. My legions provide me with all the affection I need. Even camped outside Rome as they are, I can feel their fondness for me and how they would be angry should a misfortune befall me.

I have enough love. What I need, is money! A great deal of it. I have men to pay, the expenses of a war that you didn't act to prevent, and a number of civic projects that will make the people of Rome happy. And if I can't get it from such Republican patriots as yourselves, then I shall have to shake it out of those I can. Believe me you don't want me to do that."