[132]
Do I seem to be insulting you in your calamity; to be cutting you
off from your legitimate excuse of blaming fortune? Do I appear to be attacking and
reproaching you for the ordinary chances of war? Although the men who are indeed
accustomed to object to the results of fortune being made a charge against them, are
those who have committed themselves to her, and have encountered her perils and
vicissitudes. But in that disaster of yours, fortune had no share at all. For men
are accustomed to try the fortune of war, and to encounter danger in battles, not in
banquets. But in that disaster of yours we cannot say that Mars had any share; we
may say that Venus had. But if it is not right that the disasters of fortune should
be imputed to you, why did you not allow her some weight in furnishing excuses and
defence for those innocent men?
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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