5.4
"I shall subsequently show
not only the expediency but even the necessity of
the policy which my colleagues have adopted of
refusing to withdraw the army from Veii until their
object was effected. For the present I prefer to
speak of the actual conditions under which it is
serving, and if I were speaking not before you only
but in the camp as well, I think that what I say
would appear just and fair in the judgment of the
soldiers themselves. Even if no arguments presented
themselves to my mind, I should find those of my
opponents quite sufficient for my purpose. They were
saying lately that pay ought not to be given to the
soldiers because it never had been given. How then
can they now profess indignation at those who have
gained additional benefits being required to undergo
additional exertion in proportion? Nowhere do we
find labour without its reward, nor, as a rule,
reward without some expenditure of labour. Toil and
pleasure, utterly dissimilar by nature, have been
brought by nature into a kind of partnership with
each other. Formerly, the soldier felt it a
grievance that he gave his services to the State at
his own cost, he had the satisfaction, however, of
cultivating his land for a part of the year, and
acquiring the means of supporting himself and his
family whether he were at home or on service. Now he
has the pleasure of knowing that the State is a
source of income to him, and he is glad to receive
his pay. Let him therefore take it patiently that he
is a little longer absent from his home and his
property, on which no heavy expense now falls. If
the State were to call him to an exact reckoning,
would it not be justified in saying, 'You receive a
year's pay, put in a year's work. Do you think it
fair to receive a whole twelve-month's pay for six
months' service?' It is with reluctance, Quirites,
that I dwell on this topic, for it is those who
employ mercenaries who ought to deal thus with them,
but we want to deal with you as with
fellow-citizens, and we think it only fair that you
should deal with us as with your fatherland.
"Either the war ought not to have been
undertaken, or it ought to be conducted as befits
the dignity of Rome and brought to a close as soon
as possible. It will certainly be brought to a close
if we press on the siege, but not if we retire
before we have fulfilled our hopes by the capture of
Veii. Why, good heavens! if there were no other
reason, the very discredit of the thing ought to
inspire us with perseverance. A city was once
besieged by the whole of Greece for ten years, for
the sake of one woman, and at what a distance from
home, how many lands and seas lay between! Are we
growing tired of keeping up a siege for one year,
not twenty miles off, almost within sight of the
City? I suppose you think the reason for the war is
a trivial one, and we do not feel enough just
resentment to urge us to persevere. Seven times have
they recommenced war against us; they have never
loyally kept to the terms of peace; they have
ravaged our fields a thousand times; they forced the
Fidenates to revolt; they slew the colonists whom we
settled there; they instigated the impious murder of
our ambassadors in violation of the law of nations;
they wanted to raise the whole of Etruria against
us, and they are trying to do so today; when we sent
ambassadors to demand satisfaction, they very nearly
outraged them.