, I am myself a sufficient instance of every vicissitude
of fortune. For me, whom a little while ago you saw advancing my
standards to the walls of Rome, after pitching my camp between the
Anio and your city, you now behold here, bereft of my two brothers,
men of consummate bravery, and most renowned generals, standing
before the walls of my native city, which is all but besieged, and
deprecating, in behalf of my own city, those severities with which I
terrified yours. In all cases, the most prosperous fortune is least to
be depended upon. While your affairs are in a favourable and ours in
a dubious state, you would derive honour and splendour from granting
peace; while to us who solicit it, it would considered as necessary
rather than honourable. A certain peace is better and safer than a
victory in prospect; the former is at your own disposal, the latter
depends upon the gods. Do not place at the hazard of a single hour the
successes of so many years. When you consider your own strength, then
also place before your view the power of fortune, and the fluctuating
nature of war. On both sides there will be arms, on both sides human
bodies. In nothing less than in war do events correspond (with men's
calculations). Should you be victorious in a battle, you will not add
so much to that renown which you now have it in your power to acquire
by granting peace, as you will detract from it should any adverse
event befall you. The chance of a single hour may at once overturn the
honours you have acquired and those you anticipate. Every thing is at
your own disposal in adjusting a peace; but, in the other case, you
must be content with that fortune which the gods shall impose upon
you. Formerly, in this same country, Marcus Atilius would have formed
one among the few instances of good fortune and valour, if, when
victorious, he had granted a peace to our fathers when they requested
it; but by not setting any bounds to his success, and not checking
good fortune, which was elating him, he fell with a degree of ignominy
proportioned to his elevation. It is indeed the right of him who
grants, and not of him who solicits it, to dictate the terms of peace;
but perhaps we may not be unworthy to impose upon ourselves the fine.
We do not refuse that all those possessions on account of which the
war was begun should be yours; Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, with all the
islands lying in any part of the sea, between Africa and Italy. Let us
Carthag