The purpose of building up the record of unbroken national life was present to, though probably not realised by, the earliest annalists who preserved the line of magistrates, and kept account of the religious observances in the State: in the time of the expansion of Roman power, this purpose directed the attention of men of action to the composition of prose annals, and stimulated the productive genius of Naevius and Ennius: and when, in the Augustan age, the national destiny seemed to be fulfilled, the same purpose inspired the great epic of Virgil, and the 'colossal masterwork of Livy.
"The Roman Poets of the Republic"
W. Y. Sellar
"This book will be a masterwork, if your majesty will only take the pains to correct it properly?
"Berlin and Sans-Souci"
Louise Muhlbach
The spire itself is the masterwork of the entire structure, and, unlike those which surmount many another church, appears not to have suffered the dangers of fire.
"The Cathedrals of Northern France"
Francis Miltoun