stinctions of more solid and
weighty characters only stimulate and quicken them, and take them away,
like a wind, in the pursuit of honor; they look upon these marks and
testimonies to their virtue not as a recompense received for what they
have already done, but as a pledge given by themselves of what they will
perform hereafter, ashamed now to forsake or underlive the credit they
have won, or, rather, not to exceed and obscure all that is gone before
by the lustre of their following actions. Marcius, having a spirit
of this noble make, was ambitious always to surpass himself, and did
nothing, how extraordinary soever, but he thought he was bound to outdo
it at the next occasion; and ever desiring to give continual fresh
instances of his prowess, he added one exploit to another, and heaped up
trophies upon trophies, so as to make it a matter of contest also among
his commanders, the latter still vying with the earlier, which should
pay him the greatest honor and speak highest in his commendation. Of all
the numerous wars and conflicts in those days, there was not one from
which he returned without laurels and rewards. And, whereas others made
glory the end of their daring, the end of his glory was his mother's
gladness; the delight we took to hear him praised and to see him
crowned, and her weeping for joy in his embraces, rendered him, in
his own thoughts, the most honored and most happy person in the world.
Epaminondas is similarly said to have acknowledged his feeling, that it
was the greatest felicity of his whole life that his father and mother
survived to hear of his successful generalship and his victory at
Leuctra. And he had the advantage, indeed, to have both his parents
partake with him, and enjoy the pleasure of his good fortune. But
Marcius, believing himself bound to pay his mother Volumnia all that
gratitude and duty which would have belonged to his father, had he also
been alive, could never satiate himself in his tenderness and respect to
her. He took a wife, also, at her request and wish, and continued,
even after he had children, to live with his mother, without parting
families.

The repute of his integrity and courage had, by this time, gained him
considerable influence and authority in Rome, when the senate, favoring
the wealthier citizens, began to be at variance with the common people,
who made sad complaints of the rigorous and inhuman usage they received
from the money-lenders.

There had be