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36“My friends, we ought not, I think, to deliberate about public interests in the same way as about private. In fact, I do not see that the same goal is set for each man privately as for all together publicly. For though we may for ourselves take the course that is most expedient and safe, yet for the people we should both adopt and carry out only the measures that are best. 2Even in private matters it is necessary to be energetic; so only can a respectable position be maintained. Still, a man who is least occupied with affairs is thought to be also safest. 3But a state, especially if it holds sway over others, would be very quickly overthrown by such a course. These laws, not drawn up by man but enacted by Nature herself, always have existed, do exist, and will exist so long as the race of mortals endures.
“This being the case, no one of you at this juncture should have an eye to what is privately agreeable and safe so much as to what is creditable and advantageous to all the Romans. 4For, apart from the other considerations that may naturally arise, reflect in particular that we who are so many and of such rank—members of the senate and knights—have come here accompanied by a great multitude of soldiers and with money in abundance, 5not that we may take our ease or neglect our duties, but for the purpose of managing rightly the affairs of our subjects, preserving in safety the property of those bound to us by treaty, repelling any who undertake to do them wrong, and increasing our own possessions. 6For if it was not in this spirit that we came, why in the world did we take the field at all instead of contriving in some manner or other to stay at home attending to our own affairs? Surely it were better not to have undertaken the campaign than to give it up after being assigned to it. 7If, however, some of us are here because compelled by the laws to do what our country ordains, and the majority of us voluntarily, on account of the honours and rewards that come from the wars we wage, how could we either honourably or rightly cheat not only the hopes of the men who sent us forth but also our own? 8For no one can fare so well individually as not to be ruined with the republic, if it should fall; but if the state prospers, it sustains all the misfortunes of each individual citizen.
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