[6]
and this result I shall certainly
bring about if my present plans are accomplished.
The cause of my becoming an expounder of
philosophy sprang from the grave condition of the
State during the period of the Civil War, when,
being unable to protect the Republic, as had been
my custom, and finding it impossible to remain
inactive, I could find nothing else that I preferred
to do that was worthy of me. Therefore my countrymen will pardon me—rather they will thank
me—because, when the State was in the power
of one man, I refused to hide myself, to quit
my place, or to be cast down; I did not bear
[p. 377]
myself like one enraged at the man or at the
times; and, further, I neither so fawned upon
nor admired another's fortune as to repent me of
my own.
For one thing in particular I had learned from
Plato1 and from philosophy, that certain revolutions
in government are to be expected; so that states
are now under a monarchy, now under a democracy,
and now under a tyranny.
1 Plato, Rep. viii. 2. 545.
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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