[48]
Lastly, as I had always considered everything with reference to what was
becoming, and had never thought anything in life desirable if unaccompanied
by propriety, was I, a man of consular rank, who had performed such great
deeds, likely to be afraid of death, which even Athenian maidens, daughters
I fancy of king Erectheus, are said to have despised in the cause of their
country? Especially when I was a member of that city from which Mucius went
forth when he penetrated,—by himself, into the camp of king
Porsena, and endeavoured to slay him, at the imminent risk of his own life;
from which, in the first instance, Decius the father, and many years
afterwards his son, endowed with his father's virtue, went forth when, while
their armies were drawn up in battle array, they devoted themselves and
their own lives to ensure the safety and victory of the Roman army; from
which a countless host of others besides have gone forth, and with the
greatest equanimity have encountered death, some for the sake of gaining
glory, and some with the object of encountering disgrace; and while I,
myself, remember that in this city the father of this Marcus Crassus, a most
gallant man, put himself to death with that same hand with which he had
often scattered death among the enemy, that he might not live to see his
enemy victorious.
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