Every civilization has a phrase for it. Succinctly put: "Be careful what you wish for. You may get it." It is one of the truths the Empress Livia expounds in her memoir "The Golden Race", where she is, in her own words, "condemned to repeat the scenes of my life for all eternity like the labors of Sisyphus rolling the boulder up the hill of Hades only to have it roll down again and again." Livia got exactly what she wanted and what she deserved. At long last her husband the Emperor Caesar Augustus, Father of the Fatherland and Father of His Country, died and made his wife Caesar --- in short, leaving her to rule alone. He even adopted her as his daughter Julia Augusta to keep it all in the family in this historical novel about ancient Rome by Linda Cargill.
Used availability for Linda Cargill's The Golden Race