[51]
And yet let me cite another: the famous
Publius Decius, son of Quintus, and the first of
that family to become consul, was military tribune
in the consulship1 of Marcus Valerius and Aulus
Cornelius while our army was being hard pressed
by the Samnites. When, because of his rushing
too boldly into the dangers of battle, he was
advised to be more cautious, he replied, according
to the annals, 'I dreamed that by dying in the
midst of the enemy I should win immortal fame.'
And though he was unharmed at that time and
extricated the army from its difficulties, yet
three years later, when consul, he devoted himself
[p. 281]
to death2 and rushed full-armed against the battle
line of the Latins. By this act of his the Latins
were overcome and destroyed; and so glorious was
his death that his son sought the same fate.
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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