icly into exile?
Our forefathers, strangers and shepherds, when there was nothing in
these places but woods and marshes, erected a new city in a very short
time; do we, with a Capitol and citadel safe, and the temples of the
gods still standing, feel it irksome to build up what has been burnt?
and what we individually would have done, if our private residence had
been burned down, shall we as a body refuse to do in the case of a
public conflagration?

54. "What, if by some evil design of accident a fire should break out at
Veii, and the flames spread by the wind, as may happen, should consume a
considerable portion of the city; are we then to seek Fidenae, or Gabii,
or any other city to remove to? Has our native soil so slight a hold on
us, or this earth which we call mother; or does our love of country lie
merely in the surface and in the timber of the houses? For my part, I
will acknowledge to you, whilst I was absent, though I am less disposed
to remember this as the effect of your injustice than of my own
misfortune, as often as my country came into my mind, all these
circumstances occurred to me, the hills, the plains, the Tiber, the face
of the country familiar to my eyes, and this sky, beneath which I had
been born and educated; may these now induce you, by their endearing
hold on you, to remain in your present settlement, rather than they
should cause you to pine away through regret, after having left them.
Not without good reason did gods and men select this place for founding
a city: these most healthful hills; a commodious river, by means of
which the produce of the soil may be conveyed from the inland countries,
by which maritime supplies may be obtained; close enough to the sea for
all purposes of convenience, and not exposed by too much proximity to
the dangers of foreign fleets; a situation in the centre of the regions
of Italy, singularly adapted by nature for the increase of a city. The
very size of so new a city is a proof. Romans, the present year is the
three hundred and sixty-fifth year of the city; for so long a time are
you waging war amid nations of such long standing; yet not to mention
single cities, neither the Volscians combined with the AEquans, so many
and such strong towns, nor all Etruria, so potent by land and sea,
occupying the breadth of Italy between the two seas, can cope with you
in war. And as the case is so, where, in the name of goodness, is the
wisdom in you who have tried [this