[2]
But still, if there he any one who thinks
that Postumus's conduct, whether it proceeded from a vain hope, or from a
not sufficiently considered calculation or (to use the strongest possible
terms) from pure rashness deserves to be blamed, I will not object to his
entertaining that opinion. But I do beg this, that as he sees that his
designs have been punished with the greatest cruelty by fortune himself, he
will not think it necessary to add any additional bitterness to the ruin
with which he is already overwhelmed. It is quite enough not to help to set
men up again who have fallen through imprudence; but to press down those
already fallen, or to increase their impetus when falling, is unquestionably
most barbarous. Especially, O judges, when this principle is almost
implanted by nature in the race of man, that those men who are of a family
which considerable glory has already distinguished, should with the greatest
eagerness pursue the same path as their ancestors, seeing that the virtue of
their fathers is celebrated in the recollection and conversation of all men;
just as not only did Scipio imitate Paullus in his renown gained by military
exploits; not only did his son imitate Maximus; but his own son also
imitated Decius in the devotion of his life, and the exact manner of his
death. Let small things, O judges, be compared in this way to great things.
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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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