Читать книгу The Greatest Works of Roman Classical Literature - Луций Анней Сенека - Страница 487

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“Two armies, one from Rome, another from Gaul, obstruct our motions. Want of provisions and other necessaries will not allow us to make any longer stay here, were we ever so desirous of doing it. To whatever place you think of marching, you must open yourselves a passage with your swords. I conjure you then to summon up all your courage; to act like men resolute and undaunted; to remember, when you engage, that you carry in your hands riches, honour, and glory; nay, even your liberty and your country. If we overcome, all will be safe; we shall have plenty of provisions; the corporate towns and colonies will be all ready to receive us. But if we fail through fear, the very reverse will be our fate; nor will any place or friend protect those whose arms could not. Let me add to this, my fellow-soldiers, that we have different motives to animate us from what the opposite army has. We fight for our country, for our liberty, for our lives; they, for no interest of their own, but only to support the power of a few. Let this consideration, then, engage you to fall on them the more courageously, remembering your former bravery.

“We might, indeed, have passed our days, with the utmost infamy, in banishment: some of you too might have lived at Rome, depending for your subsistence on others, after having lost your own estates. But such a condition appearing infamous and intolerable to men of spirit, you resolved on the present course. If you repent of the step, it is necessary to remind you, that even to secure a retreat, the firmest valour is still indispensable. Peace must be procured by victory alone, not by a grovelling cowardice. To hope for security from flight, where you have turned from the enemy the arms which serve to defend you, is the height of madness. In battle, the most cowardly are always in most danger: courage is a wall of defence. When I consider your characters, fellow-soldiers, and reflect on your past achievements, I have great hopes for victory: your spirit, your age, your virtue encourage me; and our necessity, too, which even inspires cowards with bravery: for the straitness of our situation will prevent the enemy’s numbers from surrounding us. But should fortune envy your bravery, be sure you fall not without taking due vengeance on the enemy; suffer not yourselves to be taken a slaughtered like cattle; but fight rather like men, and leave the enemy a bloody and mournful victory.”40