[30]
Such is not the truth, O Romans. Nor is there any one among us who exerts
himself amid the dangers of the republic with virtue and glory, who is not induced to do so by
the hope he entertains of receiving his reward from posterity—therefore, while there
are many reasons why I think that the souls of good men are divine and undying, this is the
greatest argument of all to my mind, that the more virtuous and wise each individual is, the
more thoroughly does his mind look forward to the future, so as to seem, in fact, to regard
nothing except what is eternal. Wherefore, I call to witness the souls of Caius
Marius and of the other wise men and gallant citizens which seem to me to have emigrated from
life among men to the holy habitations and sacred character of the gods, that I think it my
duty to contend for their fame, and glory, and memory, no less than for the shrines and
temples of my native land; and that if I had to take up arms in defence of their credit, I
should take them up no less zealously than they took them up in defence of the common safety.
In truth, O Romans, nature has given us but a limited space to live in, but an endless period
of glory.
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