[94]
For our ancestors,1 proving themselves to be men of this character, handed on the city to their descendants in a most prosperous condition and left behind them an imperishable memorial of their virtue. And from this we may easily learn a double lesson: that our soil is able to rear better men than the rest of the world2 and that what we call empire, though in reality it is misfortune,3 is of a nature to deprave all who have to do with it.