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[75]
No very
extended argument on this point seems necessary
when I recall—not the conduct of Lucius Brutus,
who was killed in liberating his country; nor that
of the two Decii who rode full speed to a voluntary
death; nor that of Marcus Atilius Regulus, who set out
from home to undergo torture and keep the faith
pledged to his foe; nor that of the two Scipios, who
with their bodies sought to stay the Punic march;
nor that, Scipio, of your grandfather Lucius Paulus
who, in the shameful rout at Cannae, gave his life to
atone for his colleague's folly; nor that of Marcus
Marcellus, to whom not even his most pitiless foe
denied the honours of a funeral—but rather when
I recall, as I have noted in my Antiquities, how our
legions have often marched with cheerful and
unwavering courage into situations whence they
thought they would never return. Then shall wise
old men fear a thing which is despised by youths,
and not only by those who are untaught, but by
those also who are mere clowns?
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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