kings and nations have by a small force been overthrown. And if you but take away the glitter of the Roman name, what is there, wherein they may ftand in competition with you? For (to fay nothing of your fervice in war for twenty years together with so much valour and fuccefs) from the very pillars of Hercules, from the ocean, from the utmost bounds of the earth, through fo many warlike nations of Spain and Gaul, are you not come hither victorious? And with whom are you now to fight? With raw foldiers, an undisciplined army, beaten, vanquished, befieged by the Gauls the very last fummer, an army unknown to their leader, and unacquainted with him.

OR, fhall I, who was born I might almost fay, but certainly brought up, in the tent of my father, that most excellent general, fhall I, the conqueror of Spain and Gaul, and not only of the Alpine nations, but, which is greater yet, of the Alps themfelves, fhall I compare myself with this half year captain? A captain before whom should one place the two armies without their enfigns, I am perfuaded he would not know to which of them he is conful? I esteem it no fmall advantage, foldiers, that there is not one among you, who has not often been an eye-witness of my exploits in war; not one of whofe valour I myself have not been a fpectator, fo as to be able to name the times and places-of his noble achievements; that with foldiers, whom I have a thousand times praised and rewarded, and whose pupil I was before I became their general, I shall march against an army of men, strangers to one another.

ON what fide foever I turn my eyes, I behold all full of courage and ftrength; a veteran infantry; a moft gallant cavalry: you, my allies, most faithful and valiant; you, Carthaginians, whom not only your country's caufe, but the jufteft anger impels to battle. The hope, the courage of affailants, is always greater than of those who act upon the defenfive. With hoftile banners difplayed, you are come

down

Grief, injuries, in

down upon Italy; you bring the war. dignities fire your minds, and spur you forward to revenge! -Firft they demanded me; that I, your general, fhould be delivered up to them; next, all of you, who had fought at the fiege of Saguntum; and we were to be put to death by the extremeft tortures. Proud and cruel nation! Every thing must be yours, and at your difpofal! you are to preferibe to us with whom we fhall make war, with whom we shall make peace! You are to fet us bounds: to fhut us up within hills and rivers; but you-you are not to obferve the limits which yourselves have fixed. País not the Iberus. What next? Touch not the Saguntines. Saguntum is upon the Iberus, move not a ftep towards that city. Is it a small matter, then, that you have deprived us of our ancient poffeffions, Sicily and Sardinia; you would have Spain too? Well, we shall yield Spain! and then-you will pass into Africa. Will pafs, did I fay?-This very year they ordered one of their confuls into Africa, the other into Spain. No, foldiers, there is nothing left for us but what we can vindicate with our fwords. Come on, then. Be men. The Romans may with more fafety be cowards; they have their own country behind them, have places of refuge to flee to, and are fecure from danger in the roads thither; but for you there is no middle fortune between death and victory. Let this be but well fixed in your minds, and once again I fay, you are conquerors. LIVY

CHAP. III.

C. MARIUS TO THE ROMANS, ON THEIR HESITATING TO APPOINT HIM GENERAL IN THE EXPEDITION AGAINST JUGURTHA, MERELY ON ACCOUNT OF HIS EXTRACTION.

Ir is but too common, my countrymen, to observe. a

material difference between the behaviour of thofe, who ftand candidates for places of power and truft, before and

after

after their obtaining them. They folicit them in one man-ner, and execute them in another. They fet out with a great appearance of activity, humility, and moderation: and they quickly fall into floth, pride, and avarice. It is, undoubtedly, no eafy matter to discharge, to the general fatisfaction, the duty of a fupreme commander in troublefome times. I am, I hope, duly fenfible of the importance of the office I propose to take upon me, for the fervice of my country. To carry on, with effect, an expenfive war, and yet be frugal of the public money; to oblige those to ferve. whom it may be delicate to offend; to conduct, at the fame time, a complicated variety of operations; to concert measures at home anfwerable to the ftate of things abroad; and to gain every valuable end, in fpite of oppofition from the envious, the factious, and the diffaffected; to do all this, my countrymen, is more difficult than is generally thought. And, befide the difadvantages which are common to me with all others in eminent stations, my cafe is, in this refpect, peculiarly hard; that whereas a commander of patrician rank, if he is guilty of a neglect, or breach of duty, has his great connections, the antiquity of his family, the important fervices of his ancestors, and the multitudes he has by power engaged in his intereft, to fcreen him from condign punishment: my whole fafety depends upon myself; which renders it the more indifpenfably neceffary for me to take care, that my conduct be clear and unexceptionable. Befides, I am well aware, my countrymen, that the eye of the public is upon me: and that, though the imparcial, who prefer the real advantages of the commonwealth to all other considerations, favour my pretenfions, the Patricians want nothing fo much as an occafion against me. It is therefore my fixed refolution, to ufe my beft endeavours, that you be not disappointed in me, and that their indirect defigns against me may be defeated. I have, from my youth, been familiar with toils and with dangers.

I was faithful to your intereft, my countrymen, when I ferved you for no reward but that of honour. It is not my defign to betray you now that you have conferred upon me a place of profit. You have committed to my conduct the war against Jugurtha. The Patricians are offended at this. But where would be the wisdom of giving fuch a command to one of their honourable body, a perfon of illuftrious birth, of ancient family, of innumerable ftatues, but-of no experience? What service would his long line of dead anceftors, or his multitude of motionless statues, do his country in the day of battle? What could fuch a general do but, in his trepidation and inexperience, have recourfe to fome inferior commander, for direction in difficulties, to which he was not himself equal? Thus, your patrician general would, in fact, have a general over him; so that the acting commander would ftill be a plebeian. So true is this, my countrymen, that I have myself known thofe who have been chofen confuls, begin then to read the hiftory of their own country, of which till that time they were totally ignorant; that is, they firft obtained the employment, and then bethought themfelves of the qualifications neceffary for the proper discharge of it. I fubmit to your judgment, Romans, on which fide the advantage lies, when a comparifon is made between patrician haughtiness and plebeian experience. The very action which they have only read, I have partly feen, and partly myself achieved. What they know by reading I know by action. They are pleased to flight my mean birth; 1 defpife their mean characters. Want of birth and fortune is the objection against me: want of perfonal worth, against them. But are not all men of the fame fpecies? What can make a difference between one man and another, but the endowments of the mind? For my part, I fhall always look upon the braveft man as the nobleft man. Suppose it were inquired of the fathers of fuch Patricians as Albinus and Beftia, whether, if they had their choice, they would de

fire fons of their character, or of mine; what would they anfwer, but that they should with the worthiest to be their fons? If the Patricians have reason to defpife me, let them likewife defpife their ancestors, whofe nobility was the fruit of their virtue. Do they envy the honours bestowed upon me? Let them envy likewife my labours, my abftinence, and the dangers I have undergone for my country; by which I have acquired them. But thofe worthless men lead such a life of inactivity, as if they defpifed any honours you can bestow; whilft they afpire to honours, as if they had deferved them by the most induftrious virtue. They arrogate the rewards of activity for their having enjoyed the pleasures of luxury. Yet none can be more lavish than they are in praise of their ancestors. And they imagine they honour themselves by celebrating their forefathers. Whereas they do the very contrary. For, as much as their ancestors were diftinguished for their virtues, fo much are they difgraced by their vices. The glory of anceflors cafts a light, indeed, upon their pofterity: but it only ferves to fhow what the defcendants are. It alike exhibits to public view their degeneracy and their worth. I own I cannot boast of the deeds of my forefathers: but I hope I may anfwer the cavils of the Patricians, by ftanding up in defence of what I have myself done. Obferve now, my countrymen, the injuftice of the Patricians. They arrogate to themselves honours on account of the exploits done by their forefathers, whift they will not allow me the due praife for performing the very fame fort of actions in my own perfon. He has no ftatues, they cry, of his family. He can trace no venerable line of ancestors.What then! Is it matter of more praife to difgrace one's illuftrious ancestors, than to become illuftrious by his own good behaviour? What if I can show no ftatues of my family! I can show the ftandards, the armour, and the trappings, which I have myself taken from the vanquished; I can fhow the fears of thofe wounds, which I have received by facing