These men made a short speech, imagining that Numa would be delighted
with his fortune; but it appears that it took much hard pleading to
induce a man who had lived all his life in peace to take the command of
a city which owed its origin and its increase alike to war. He said, in
the presence of his father and of Marcius, one of his relations, "Every
change in a man's life is dangerous; and when a man is not in want of
anything needful, and has no cause for being dissatisfied with his lot,
it is sheer madness for him to change his habits and way of life; for
these, at any rate, have the advantage of security, while in the new
state all is uncertain. Not even uncertain are the perils of royalty,
judging from Romulus himself, who was suspected of having plotted
against his partner Tatius, and whose peers were suspected of having
assassinated him. Yet these men call Romulus the child of the gods, and
tell how he had a divinely sent nurse, and was preserved by a miracle
while yet a child; while I was born of mortal parents, and brought up by
people whom you all know: even the points which you praise in my
character are far from those which make a good king, being love of
leisure and of unprofitable speculation, and also a great fondness for
peace and unwarlike matters, and for men who meet together for the glory
of the gods or for cheerful converse with one another, and who at other
times plough their fields and feed their cattle at home.
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