SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE LXXI
he had returned victorious to his native land and
arranged a '
peace Of ? course it was ;
for it is
by
the same virtue that evil fortune is overcome and
good fortune is controlled. Virtue, however, cannot
be increased or decreased ;
its stature is uniform.
"But/' you will object, "Gnaeus Pompey will lose
his army ; the patricians, those noblest patterns of
the State's creation, and the front -rank men of
Pompey's party, a senate under arms, will be routed
in a single engagement ;
the ruins of that great
oligarchy will be scattered all over the world one
;
division will fall in Egypt, another in Africa, and
another in a
Spain And the ! poor State will not be
allowed even the privilege of being ruined once for
'
Yes, all this may happen ; Juba's familiarity
all !
with every position in his own kingdom may be of
no avail to him, of no avail the resolute bravery of
his people \vhen fighting for their king ; even the
men of Utica, crushed by their troubles, may waver
in their allegiance and the ;
good fortune which
ever attended men of the name of Scipio may desert
Scipio in Africa. But long ago destiny " saw to it
that Cato should come to no harm." b
"He was conquered in spite of it all !
Well,
you may include this among Cato's "failures" ;
Cato
will bear with an equally stout heart anything
that thwarts him of his victory,
as he bore that
which thwarted him of his praetorship. The day
whereon he failed of election, he spent in play ;
night wherein he intended to die, he spent in
reading. He regarded in the same light both the
loss of his praetorship and the loss of his life he
;
had convinced himself that he ought to endure
anything which might happen. Why should he not
suffer, bravely and calmly, a change in the govern-
79
'