centurions, ye soldiers, I appeal, in this hour of danger to the best of men, and bravest of citizens! While you are looking on, while you stand here with arms in your hands, and guard this tribunal, shall virtue like this be expelled, exterminated, cast out with dishonor By the immortal gods, I wish, (pardon me, O my country! for I fear, what I shall say, out of a pious regard for Milo, may be deemed impiety against thee) that Clodius not only lived, but were praetor, consul, dictator, rather than be witness to such a scene as this. Shall this man then, who was born to save his country, die any where but in his country? Shall he not, at least, die in the service of his country? Will you retain the memorials of his gallant soul, and deny his body a grave in Italy ? Will any person give his voice for banishing a man from this city, whom every city on earth would be proud to receive within its walls? Happy the country that shall receive him Ungrateful this, if it shall banish him! Wretched if it should lose him! But I must conclude-my tears will not allow me to proceed, and Milo forbids tears to be employed in his defence. You, my Lords, I beseech and adjure that, in your decision, you would dare to act as you think. Trust me, your fortitude, your justice, your fidelity, will more especially be approved of by him (Pompey,) who, in his choice of judges, has raised to the bench, the bravest, the wisest, and the best of men. SECTION IV. SPEECHES ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS. I.-Romulus, to the People of Rome, after building the City. IF all the strength of cities lay in the heighth of their ramparts, or the depth of their ditches, we should have great reason to be in fear for that which we have now built. But are there in reality any walls too high to be scaled by a valiant enemy? And of what use are ramparts in intestine divisions? They may serve for a defence against sudden incursions from abroad; but it is by courage and prudence, chiefly, that the invasions of foreign enemies are repelled; and by unanimity, sobriety and justice, that domestic seditions are prevented. Cities fortified by the strongest bulwarks, have been often seen to yield to force from without, or to tumults from within. An exact military discipline, and a steady observance of civil polity, are the surest barriers against these evils. But there is still another point of great importance to be considered. The prosperity of some rising colonies and the speedy ruin of others, have, in a great measure been owing to their form of government. Were there but one manner of ruling states and cities, that could make them happy, the choice would not be difficult. But I have learnt, that of the various forms of government among the Greeks and barbarians, there are three which are highly extolled by those who have experienced them; and yet, that no one of these is in all respects perfect, but each of them has some innate and incurable defect. Choose you, then, in what manner this city shall be governed. Shall it be by one man? Shall it be by a select number of the wisest among us? Or shall the leg. islative power be in the people? As for me, I shall submit to whatever form of administration, you shall please to establish. As I think myself not unworthy to command, so neither am I unwilling to obey. Your having chosen me to be the leader of this colony, and your calling the city after my name, are honors sufficient to content me; honors of which, living or dead, I can never be deprived. I.-Hannibal to Scipio Africanus, at their Interview preceding the Battle of Zama. SINCE fate has so ordained it that I, who began the war, and who have been so often on the point of ending it by a complete conquest, should now come of my own motion, to ask a peace-I am glad that it is of you, Scipio, I have the fortune to ask it. Nor will this be among the least of your glories, that Hannibal, victorious over so many Roman generals, submitted at last to you. I could wish that our fathers and we had confined our ambition within the limits which nature seems to have prescribed to it; the shores of Africa, and the shores of Italy. The gods did not give us that mind. On both sides we have been so eager after foreign possessions, as to put our own to the hazard of war Rome and Carthage have had each, in her turn, the enemy at her gates. But since errors past may be more easily blamed than corrected, let it now be the work of you and me, to put an end, if possible, to the obstinate contention.For my own part, my years, and the experience I have had of the instability of fortune, incline me to leave nothing to her determination which reason can decide. But much, I fear, Scipio, that your youth, your want of the like experience, your uninterrupted success, may render you averse from the thoughts of peace. Не, whom fortune has never failed, rarely reflects upon her inconstancy. Yet without recurring to former examples, my own may perhaps suffice to teach you moderation. I am the same Hannibal, who after my victory at Cannæ, became master of the greatest part of your country, and deliberated with myself what fate I should decree to Italy and Rome. And now-see the change! here, in Africa, I am come to treat with a Roman, for my own preservation and my country's. Such are the sports of fortune. Is she then to be trusted because she smiles? An advantageous peace is preferable to the hope of victory. The one is in your own power, the other at the pleasure of the gods. Should you prove victorious, it would add little to your own glory, or the glory of your country; if vanquished, you lose in one hour, all the honor and reputation you have been so many years acquiring. But what is my aim in all this? That you should content yourself with our cession of Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, and all islands between Italy and Africa. A peace on these conditions, wilt in my opinion, not only secure the future tranquillity of Carthage, but he sufficiently glorious for you, and for the Roman name. And do not tell me, that some of our citizens dealt fraudulently with you in the late treaty. It is I, Hannibal, that now ask a peace.-1 ask it, because I think it expedient for my country; and thinking it expedient, I will inviolably maintain it. III.-Scipio's Reply. I KNEW very well, Hannibal, that it was the hope of your return, which emboldened the Carthaginians to break the truce with us, and lay aside all thoughts of peace, when it was just upon the point of being concluded; and your present proposal is a proof of it. You retrench from their concessions, every thing but what we are and have been, long possessed of. But as it is your care, that your fellow citizens should have the obligation to you, of being eased from a great part of their burden, so it ought to be mine, that they draw no advantage from their perfidiousness. Nobody is more sensible than I am of the weakness of man, and the power of fortune, and that whatever we enterprise, is subject to a thousand chances. If before the Romans passed into Africa, you had, of your own accord, quitted Italy, and made the offers you now make, I believe they would not have been rejected. But, as you have been forced out of Italy, and we are masters here of the open country, the situation of things is much altered. And. what is chiefly to be considered, the Carthaginians, by the late treaty, which we entered into at their request, were, over and above what you offer, to have restored to us our prisoners without ransom, delivered up their ships of war, paid us five thousand talents, and to have given hostages for the performance of all. The senate accepted these conditions, but Carthage failed on her part: Carthage deceived us. What then is to be done 2 Are the Carthaginians to be released from the most important articles of the treaty, as a reward for their breach of faith? no, certainly. If to the conditions before agreed upon, you had added some new articles, to our ad. vantage, there would have been matter of reference to the Roman people; but when, instead of adding, you retrench, there is no room for deliberation. The Carthaginians, therefore, must submit to us at discretion, or must vanquish us in battle. IV.-Calisthenes' Reproof of Cleon's Flattery to Alexander, on whom he had proposed to confer Divinity, by vote. IF the king were present, Cleon, there would be no need of my answering to what you have just proposed. He would himself reprove you, for endeavoring to draw him into an imitation of foreign absurdities, and for bringing envy upon him by such unmanly flattery. As he is absent, I take upon me to tell you, in his name, that no praise is lasting, but what is rational; and that, you do what you can to lessen his glory, instead of adding to it. Heroes have never, among us, been deified, till affer their death; and, whatever may be your way of thinking, Cleon, for my part, I wish the king may not for many years to come, obtain that honor. You have mentioned, as precedents of what you propose, Hercules and Bacchus. Do you imagine, Cleon, that they were deified over a cup of wine ? And are you and I qualified to make gods? Is the king, our sovereign, to receive his divinity from you and me, who are his subjects? First try your power, whether you can make a king. It is surely easier so make a king than a god; to give an earthly dominion, than a throne in heav en. I only wish that the gods may have heard, without offence, the arrogant proposal you have made, of adding |