ORATIONS AND HARANGUES.

CHAPTER I.

JUNIUS BRUTIS OVER THE DEAD BODY OF LUCRETIA.

YES, noble lady, I fwear by this blood, which was once fo pure, and which nothing but royal villany could have polJuted, that I will purfue Lucius Tarquinius the proud, his wicked wife, and their children, with fire and fword: nor will I ever fuffer any of that family, or of any other whatfoever, to be king in Rome. Ye gods, I call you to witnefs this, my oath!--There, Romans, turn your eyes to that fed fpectacle--the daughter of Lucretius, Collatinus' wife-fhe died by her own hand. See there a noble lady, whom the luft of a Tarquin reduced to the neceffity of being her own executioner, to atteft her innocence. Hofpitably entertained by her as a kinfman of her hufband's, Sextus, the perfidious gueft, became her brutal ravisher. The chafte, the generous Lucretia could not furvive the infult. Glorious woman! but once only treated as a flave, fhe thought life no longer to be endured. Lucretia, a woman, difdained a life that depended on a tyrant's will; and shall we, shall men, with fuch an example before our eyes, and after five-and-twenty years of ignominious fervitude, fhall we, through a fear of dying, defer one fingle intant to affert our liberty? No, Romans, now is the time; the favourable moment we have so long waited for is come. Tarquin is not at Rome. The

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Patricians are at the head of the enterprize. The city is abundantly provided with men, arms, and all things neceffary. There is nothing wanting to fecure the fuccefs, if our own courage does not fail us. Can all those warriors, who have ever been fo brave when foreign enemies were to be fubdued, or when conquefts were to be made to gratify the ambition and avarice of Tarquin, be then only cowards, when they are to deliver themselves from flavery? Some of you are perhaps intimidated by the army which Tarquin now commands. The foldiers, you imagine, will take the part of their general, banish so groundkfs a fear. The love of liberty is natural to all men. Your fellow-citizens in the camp feel the weight of oppreflion with as quick a fenfe as you that are in Rome: they will as eagerly feize the occafion of throwing off the yoke. But let us grant there may be fome among them, who, through baseness of fpirit, or a bad education, will be difpofed to favour the tyrant. The number of these can be but small, and we have means fufficient in our hands to reduce them to reafon. They have left us hoftages more dear to them than life. Their wives, their children, their fathers, their mothers, are here in the city. Courage, Romans, the gods are for us: thofe gods, whose temples and altars the impious Tarquin has profaned by facrifices and libations made with polluted hands, polluted with blood, and with numberlefs unexpiated crimes committed against his fubjects. Ye gods, who protected our forefathers, ye genii, who watch for the prefervation and glory of Rome, do you infpire us with courage and unanimity in this glorious caufe, and we will to our laft breath defend your worship from all profanation.

G

LIVY

CHAPTER II.

HANNIBAL TO HIS SOLDIERS.

I KNOW not, foldiers, whether you or your prisoners be encompaffed by fortune with the ftricter bonds and neceffities. Two feas enclose you on the right and left;—not a ship to flee to for escaping. Before you is the Po, a river broader and more rapid than the Rhone; behind you are the Alps, over which, even when your numbers were undiminished, you were hardly able to force a paffage. Here then, foldiers, you must either conquer or die, the very first hour you meet the enemy. But the fame fortune which has thus laid you under the neceffity of fighting, has fet before your eyes thofe rewards of victory, than which no men are ever wont to wish for greater from the immortal gods. Should we by our valour recover only Sicily and Sardinia, which were ravished from our fathers, those would be no inconfiderable prizes. Yet what are these? The wealth of Rome, whatever riches fhe has heaped together in the fpoils of nations, all these, with the masters of them, will be yours. You have been long enough employed in driving the cattle upon the vast moui tains of Lufitania and Celtiberia; you have hitherto m with no reward worthy of the labours and dangers you have undergone. The time is now come to reap the full recompenfe of your toilfome marches over so many mountains and rivers, and through so many nations, all of them in arms. This is the place which fortune has appointed to you will finish be the limit of your labours; it is here that your glorious warfare, and receive an ample recompense of your completed fervice. For I would not have you imagine, that victory would be as difficult as the name of a Roman war is great and founding. It has often happened that a defpifed enemy has given a bloody battle, and the most renowned kings and nations have by a small force

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been overthrown. And if you but take away the glitter of the Roman name, what is there, wherein they may stand in competition with you? For (to fay nothing of your service in war for twenty years together with so much valour and fuccefs) from the very pillars of Hercules, from the ocean, from the utmost bounds of the earth, through fo many warlike nations of Spain and Gaul, are you not come hither victorious? And with whom are you now to fight? With raw foldiers, an undifciplined army, beaten, vanquished, besieged by the Gauls the very laft fummer, an army unknown to their leader, and unacquainted with him.

Or fhall I, who was born I might almoft fay, but certainly brought up, in the tent of my father, that most excellent general, fhall I, the conqueror of Spain and Gaul, and not only of the Alpine nations, but, which is greater yet, of the Alps themselves, fhall I compare myself with this half-year captain? A captain before whom should one place the two armies without their enfigns, I am persuaded he would not know to which of them he is conful? I efteem it no fmall advantage, foldiers, that there is not one among you, who has not often been an eye-witness of my exploits in war; not one of whofe valour I myself have not been a spectator, so as to be able to name the times and places of his noble achievements; that with foldiers, whom I have a thousand times praised and rewarded, and whofe pupil I was, before I became their general, I shall march against an army of men, ftrangers to one another.

On what fide foever I turn my eyes, I behold all full of courage and strength; a veteran infantry; a moft gallant cavalry: you, my allies, most faithful and valiant: you, Carthaginians, whom not only your country's caufe, but the jufteft anger impels to battle. The hope, the courage of affailants, is always greater than of those who act upon the defenfive. With hoftile banners difplayed, you are

Grief, in

come down upon Italy; you bring the war. juries, indignities fire your minds, and fpur you forward to revenge!-Firft they demanded me; that I, your general, fhould be delivered up to them; next, all of you, who had fought at the fiege of Saguntum; and we were to be put to death by the extremeft tortures. Proud and cruel nation! Every thing must be yours, and at your difpofal! You are to prescribe to us with whom we shalk make war, with whom we shall make peace! You are to fet us bounds: to fhut us up within hills and rivers; but you-you are not to observe the limits which yourselves have fixed. Pafs not the Iberus. What next? Touch not the Saguntines.. Saguntum is upon the Iberus, move not a step towards that city. Is it a small matter then, that you have deprived us of our ancient poffeffions, Sicily and Sardinia; you would have Spain too? Well, we hall yield Spain and then you will pafs into Africa. Will pass, did I say?—This very year they ordered one of their confuls into Africa, the other into Spain. No, foldiers, there is nothing left for us but what we can vindicate with our fwords. Come on then. Be men. The Romans may with more ease be cowards; they have their own country behind them, have places of refuge to flee to, and are fecure from danger in the roads thither; but for you there is no middle fortune between death and victory. Let this be but well fixed in your minds, and once again I fay, you are conquerors.

CHAPTER III.

LIVY.

C. MARIUS TO THE ROMANS, ON THEIR HESITATING TO APPOINT HIM GENERAL IN THE EXPEDITION AGAINST JUGURTHA, MERELY ON ACCOUNT OF HIS EXTRACTION. It is but too common, my countrymen, to observe a material difference between the behaviour of those who ftand