[15]
If in this splendid fortune of yours your lenity had
not been as great as you of your own accord—of your own accord, I
say, (I know well what I am saying,) make it, that victory of yours would
have been pregnant with the bitterest grief to the state. For how many of
the conquering party must have been found who would have wished you to be
cruel, when some of even the conquered party are found to wish it! how many
who, wishing no one to be pardoned by you, would have thrown obstacles in
the way of your clemency, when even those men whom you yourself have
pardoned are unwilling that you should be merciful to others
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
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