Moral essays. With an English translation by J.W. Basore

—"ON ANGER, I. XI. 4-7with no shelter against the continual rigour of theclimate ? Yet these are they -whom the Spaniardsand the Gauls and men of Asia and Syria, uninuredto war, cut down before they could even glimpse aRoman legion, the \-ictims of nothing else than anger.But mark you,_iMUie^ give, discipline to those bodies,give reason to those minds that are strangers still topampered ways, excess, and wealthy and we Romansto mention nothmg further—shall assuredly be forcedto retWil to the ancient Roman ways. How else didFab i us restore the broken forces of the state butby knowing how to loiter, to put oiF, and to wait—things of which angry men know nothing ? Thestate, which was standing then in the utmostextremity, had surely perished if Fabius had venturedto do all that anger prompted. But he took intoconsideration the well-being of the state, and,estimating its strength, of which now nothing couldbe lost ^\•ithout the loss of all, he buried all thoughtof resentment and revenge and was concerned onlywith expediency and the fitting opportunity ; Jieconquered anger before he conquered Hannibal.And what of Scipio ? Did he not leave behind himHannibal and the Carthaginian army and all thosewith whom he had reason to be angry, and dally soin transferring the war to Africa that he gavelong ^to evil-minded people the impression that he wasa sensualist and a sluggard ? What, too, of the otherScipio ? " Did he not sit before Numantia, idlingmuch and long, and bear unmoved the reproach tohimself and to his countr}' that it took longer toconquer Numantia than to conquer Carthage ?But by blockading and investing '^ the enemy heforced them to such straits that they perished by135