, nearer to the city than Porsena's camp had been. He
did, indeed, use the cruel privileges of victory with moderation; as was
said at the time, he protected his countrymen, and put to death no man
who was not in arms. Yet what credit is there in this? Others used their
arms more cruelly, but flung them away when glutted with blood, while
he, though he soon sheathed the sword, never laid it aside. Antonius was
ungrateful to his dictator, who he declared was rightly slain, and whose
murderers he allowed to depart to their commands in the provinces;
as for his country, after it had been torn to pieces by so many
proscriptions, invasions, and civil wars, he intended to subject it
to kings, not even of Roman birth, and to force that very state to pay
tribute to eunuchs, [Footnote: The allusion is to Antonius's connection
with Cleopatra. Cf. Virg. "Aen.," viii., 688.] which had itself restored
sovereign rights, autonomy, and immunities, to the Achaeans, the
Rhodians, and the people of many other famous cities.

XVII. The day would not be long enough for me to enumerate those who
have pushed their ingratitude so far as to ruin their native land.
It would be as vast a task to mention how often the state has been
ungrateful to its best and most devoted lovers, although it has done no
less wrong than it has suffered. It sent Camillus and Scipio into exile;
even after the death of Catiline it exiled Cicero, destroyed his house,
plundered his property, and did everything which Catiline would
have done if victorious; Rutilius found his virtue rewarded with a
hiding-place in Asia; to Cato the Roman people refused the praetorship,
and persisted in refusing the consulship. We are ungrateful in public
matters; and if every man asks himself, you will find that there is
no one who has not some private ingratitude to complain of. Yet it is
impossible that all men should complain, unless all were deserving of
complaint, therefore all men are ungrateful. Are they ungrateful
alone? nay, they are also all covetous, all spiteful, and all cowardly,
especially those who appear daring; and, besides this, all men fawn upon
the great, and all are impious. Yet you need not be angry with them;
pardon them, for they are all mad. I do not wish to recall you to what
is not proved, or to say, "See how ungrateful is youth! what young man,
even if of innocent life, does not long for his father's death? even if
moderate in his desires, does not look forward