[42]
Wherefore, if you do require to be reminded at all by me, O judges, (which, in truth, you do
not,) it seems to me I may, without presuming too much on my authority, give you this gentle
hint,—that you ought to consider that those men are carefully to be preserved by
you, whose valour, and energy, and good fortune in military affairs have been tried and
ascertained. There has been a greater abundance of such men in the republic than there is now;
and when there was, people consulted not only their safety, but their honour also. What, then,
ought you to do now, when military studies have become obsolete among our youth, and when our
best men and our greatest generals have been taken from us, partly by age, and partly by the
dissensions of the state and the ill fortune of the republic? When so many wars are
necessarily undertaken by us, when so many arise suddenly and unexpectedly, do you not think
that you ought to preserve this man for the critical occasions of the republic, and to excite
others by his example to the pursuit of honour and virtue?
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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