Читать книгу Yale Classics - Roman Classical Literature - Луций Анней Сенека - Страница 434

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Yet surely Fortune bears sovereign influence over every thing; it is she that brightens or obscures all things, more from caprice and humour than a regard to truth and justice. The actions of the Athenians were, I am ready to grant, sufficiently great and noble; though not to such a degree as fame has represented them: but as they had writers of great genius, their achievements were celebrated throughout the world as the greatest that ever were; and the bravery of those who performed them is reckoned just as great as the abilities of these illustrious authors in extolling them. But the Roman people wanted this advantage, because their ablest men were the most employed in the service of the state. None cultivated their minds without bodily application. The worthiest men preferred doing to speaking, and chose rather that others should commend their virtuous actions than they relate those of others.10