J. AJ 7.249 (wst)

who said he was a good messenger. A little while after, he informed him that another messenger followed him; whereupon the king said that he also was a good messenger: but when the watchman saw Ahimaaz, and that he was already very near, he gave the king notice that it was the son of Zadok the high priest who came running. So David was very glad, and said he was a messenger of good tidings, and brought him some such news from the battle as he desired to hear.

Plut. Dion 1.27.2 (prr)

When news of this was brought to Dion as he lay encamped near Acrae, he roused up his soldiers while it was still night and came to the river Anapus, which is ten furlongs distant from the city. There he halted and sacrificed by the river, addressing his prayers to the rising sun, and on the instant the soothsayers declared that the gods promised him victory. When, too, the audience beheld Dion with a wreath on his head for the sacrifice, with one impulse they all crowned themselves with wreaths.

Plut. Pel. 1.10.2 (prr)

Phillidas, too, who stood by, approved of this, and after leading Archias back, got him to drink hard, and tried to protract the revel with hopes of a visit from the women. But Charon, when he got back home, and found the men there disposed, not to expect safety or victory at all, but to die gloriously after a great slaughter of their enemies, told the truth only to Pelopidas himself, while for the rest he concocted a false tale that Archias had talked with him about other matters.[8]

Plut. Cam. 1.24.1 (prr)

Rumour quickly carried news of this exploit to the neighbouring cities, and called to arms many of those who were of age for service, particularly the Romans who had made their escape from the battle on the Allia, and were in Veii. These lamented among themselves, saying: “Of what a leader has heaven robbed Rome in Camillus, only to adorn Ardea with his victories! The city which bore and reared such a hero is dead and gone, and we, for lack of generals, sit pent up within alien walls, and see Italy ruined before our very eyes.

Hdt. 1.83.1 (mcly)

Such was the condition of things at Sparta when the herald from Sardis arrived asking them to come to the assistance of Croesus, who was being besieged. And they notwithstanding their own difficulties, as soon as they heard the news from the herald, were eager to go to his assistance; but when they had completed their preparations and their ships were ready, there came another message reporting that the fortress of the Lydians had been taken and that Croesus had been made prisoner. Then (and not before) they ceased from their efforts, being grieved at the event as at a great calamity.

Plut. Cic. 1.15.3 (prr)

Cicero, accordingly, after deliberation, convened the senate at break of day, and carrying the letters thither gave them to the persons to whom they had been sent, with orders to read them aloud. All the letters alike were found to tell of a plot. And when also Quintus Arrius, a man of praetorian dignity, brought word of the soldiers who were being mustered into companies in Etruria, and Manlius was reported to be hovering about the cities there with a large force, in constant expectation of some news from Rome,

Dio 54.25.2 (cy)

Now it chanced that the news of his coming reached the city during those days when Cornelius Balbus was celebrating with spectacles the dedication of the theatre which is even to -day called by his name; and Balbus accordingly began to put on airs, as if it were he himself that was going to bring Augustus back,—although he was unable even to enter his theatre, except by boat, on account of the flood of water caused by the Tiber, which had overflowed its banks,—and Tiberius put the vote to him first, in honour of his building the theatre.

Suet. Aug. 47.1 (r)

The stronger provinces, which could neither easily nor safely be governed by annual magistrates, he took to himself; the others he assigned to proconsular governors selected by lot. But he changed some of them at times from one class to the other, and often visited many of both sorts. Certain of the cities which had treaties with Rome, but were on the road to ruin through their lawlessness, he deprived of their independence; he relieved others that were overwhelmed with debt, rebuilt some which had been destroyed by earthquakes, and gave Latin rights or full citizenship to such as could point to services rendered the Roman people. I believe there is no province, excepting only Africa and Sardinia, which he did not visit; and he was planning to cross to these from Sicily after his defeat of Sextus Pompeius, but was prevented by a series of violent storms, and later had neither opportunity nor occasion to make the voyage.

Dio 36.18.1 (cy)

. . . [Metellus] spared. In his eagerness for power he attacked even the Cretans who had come to terms with the other [Pompey], and heedless of their claim that there was a truce, hastened to do them injury before Pompey should come up. Octavius, who was there, had no troops and so kept quiet; in fact he had not been sent to do any fighting, but to take over the cities. Cornelius Sisenna, the governor of Greece, did, to be sure, when he heard the news, come to Crete and advise Metellus to spare the towns, but on failing to persuade him offered no active opposition.

Plut. Marc. 1.14.2 (prr)

Hippocrates first sent a report to Syracuse that Marcellus was putting all of the men of Leontini to the sword, and then, when the city was in a tumult at the news, fell suddenly upon it and made himself master of it. Upon this, Marcellus set out with his whole army and came to Syracuse. He encamped near by, and sent ambassadors into the city to tell the people what had really happened at Leontini; but when this was of no avail and the Syracusans would not listen to him, the power being now in the hands of Hippocrates,

Cic. Phil. 6.6.1 (y)

Antonius is not that sort of man. For if he had been, he would never have allowed matters to come to such a pass, as for the senate to give him notice, as it did to Hannibal at the beginning of the Punic war not to attack Saguntum. But what ignominy it is to be called away from Mutina, and at the same time to be forbidden to approach the city as if he were some fatal conflagration! what an opinion is this for the senate to have of a man! What? As to the commission which is given to the ambassadors to visit Decimus Brutus and his soldiers, and to inform them that their excellent zeal in behalf of, and services done to the republic, are acceptable to the senate and people of Rome, and that that conduct shall tend to their great glory and to their great honour; do you think that Antonius will permit the ambassadors to enter Mutina? and to depart from thence in safety? He never will allow it, believe me. I know the violence of the man, I know his impudence, I know his audacity.

Plut. Galb. 1.13.3 (prr)

But this speech of Nymphidius did not convince his hearers; nay, they thought it a strange and unnatural thing to dictate to an aged emperor, as if he had been a youth just tasting power, what friends he was to have or not to have. Nymphidius therefore took another course, and wrote to Galba messages intended to alarm him—now, that there was much hidden distemper and unrest in the city, now, that Clodius Macer was holding back the grain supplies in Africa; again, that the legions in Germany were mutinous, and that like news came concerning the forces in Syria and Judaea.

Suet. Cal. 43.1 (r)

He had but one experience with military affairs or war, and then on a sudden impulse; for having gone to Mevania to visit the river Clitumnus and its grove, he was reminded of the necessity of recruiting his body-guard of Batavians and was seized with the idea of an expedition to Germany. So without delay he assembled legions and auxiliaries from all quarters, holding levies everywhere with the utmost strictness, and collecting provisions of every kind on an unheard of scale. Then he began his march and made it now so hurriedly and rapidly, that the praetorian cohorts were forced, contrary to all precedent, to lay their standards on the pack-animals and thus to follow him; again he was so lazy and luxurious that he was carried in a litter by eight bearers, requiring the inhabitants of the towns through which he passed to sweep the roads for him and sprinkle them to lay the dust.

Suet. Nero 1.1 (r)

Of the Domitian family two branches have acquired distinction, the Calvini and the Ahenobarbi. The latter have as the founder of their race and the origin of their surname Lucius Domitius, to whom, as he was returning from the country, there once appeared twin youths of more than mortal majesty, so it is said, and bade him carry to the senate and people the news of a victory, which was as yet unknown. And as a token of their divinity it is said that they stroked his cheeks and turned his black beard to a ruddy hue, like that of bronze. This sign was perpetuated in his descendants, a great part of whom had red beards.

Suet. Nero 35.5 (r)

Rufrius Crispinus, a mere boy, his stepson and the child of Poppaea, he ordered to be drowned by the child’s own slaves while he was fishing, because it was said that he used to play at being a general and an emperor. He banished his nurse’s son Tuscus, because when procurator in Egypt, he had bathed in some baths which were built for a visit of Nero’s. He drove his tutor Seneca to suicide, although when the old man often pleaded to be allowed to retire and offered to give up his estates, he had sworn most solemnly that he did wrong to suspect him and that he would rather die than harm him. He sent poison to Burrus, prefect of the Guard, in place of a throat medicine which he had promised him. The old and wealthy freedmen who had helped him first to his adoption and later to the throne, and aided him by their advice, he killed by poison, administered partly in their food and partly in their drink.