m fortune. The great Metellus had four distinguished
sons; but Priam had fifty, seventeen of which were born to him by his
lawful wife: Fortune had the same power over both, though she exercised it
but on one: for Metellus was laid on his funeral pile by a great company
of sons and daughters, grandsons, and grandaughters; but Priam fell by the
hand of an enemy, after having fled to the altar, and having seen himself
deprived of all his numerous progeny. Had he died before the death of his
sons and the ruin of his kingdom,

With all his mighty wealth elate,
Under rich canopies of state;

would he then have been taken from good or from evil? It would indeed, at
that time, have appeared that he was being taken away from good; yet
surely, it would have turned out advantageous for him; nor should we have
had these mournful verses,--

Lo! these all perish'd in one flaming pile;
The foe old Priam did of life beguile,
And with his blood, thy altar, Jove, defile.

As if anything better could have happened to him at that time, than to
lose his life in that manner; but yet, if it had befallen him sooner, it
would have prevented all those consequences; but even as it was it
released him from any further sense of them. The case of our friend
Pompey(70) was something better: once, when he had been very ill at
Naples, the Neapolitans on his recovery put crowns on their heads, as did
those of Puteoli; the people flocked from the country to congratulate
him;--it is a Grecian custom, and a foolish one; still it is a sign of good
fortune. But the question is, had he died, would he have been taken from
good, or from evil? Certainly from evil. He would not have been engaged in
a war with his father-in-law;(71) he would not have taken up arms before
he was prepared; he would not have left his own house, nor fled from
Italy; he would not, after the loss of his army, have fallen unarmed into
the hands of slaves, and been put to death by them; his children would not
have been destroyed; nor would his whole fortune have come into the
possession of the conquerors. Did not he, then, who, if he had died at
that time would have died in all his glory, owe all the great and terrible
misfortunes into which he subsequently fell to the prolongation of his
life at that time?

XXXVI. These calamities are avoided by death, for even though they should
never happen, there is a possibility that they may; but it never occurs to