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Virtue and Fortune, who have often engaged in
many great contests, are now engaging each other in
the present contest, which is the greatest of all; for
in this they are striving for a decision regarding
the hegemony of Rome, to determine whose work it
is and which of them created such a mighty power.
For to her who is victorious this will be no slight
testimonial, but rather a defence against accusation.
For Virtue is accused of being a fair thing, but
unprofitable; Fortune of being a thing inconstant,
but good. Virtue's labours, they say, are fruitless.
Fortune's gifts untrustworthy. Who, then, will not
declare, when Rome shall have been added to the
achievements of one of the contestants, either that
Virtue is a most profitable thing if she has done such
good to good men, or that Good Fortune is a thing
most steadfast if she has already preserved for so
long a time that which she has bestowed?
The poet Ion1 in his prose works observes that
Fortune is a thing very dissimilar to Wisdom, and yet
she becomes the creator of things very similar : they
both bring increase and added honours to men, they
lead them on to high repute, to power, to dominion.
What need to be tedious by enumerating the many
examples? Even Nature herself, who creates and
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produces all things for us, some think to be Fortune,
others Wisdom. Wherefore our present discourse
does, in a measure, bestow a fair and enviable dignity
upon Rome, if we raise the question over her, even
as we do over earth and sea, heaven and stars, whether
she has come to her present state by Fortune or by
Forethought.2