Even that which consoles people under all
other misfortunes, prayer to the gods, has become impossible for us. We
cannot beg of heaven to give us the victory and to save you, but our
prayers for you must always resemble the imprecations of our enemies
against Rome. Your wife and children are in such a position, that they
must either lose you or lose their native country. For my own part, I
cannot bear to live until fortune decides the event of this war. If I
cannot now persuade you to make a lasting peace, and so become the
benefactor instead of the scourge of the two nations, be well assured
that you shall never assail Rome without first passing over the corpse
of your mother. I cannot wait for that day on which I shall either see
my countrymen triumphing over my son, or my son triumphing over his
country. If indeed I were to ask you to betray the Volscians and save
your country, this would be a hard request for you to grant; for though
it is base to destroy one's own fellow citizens, it is equally wrong to
betray those who have trusted you. But we merely ask for a respite from
our sufferings, which will save both nations alike from ruin, and which
will be all the more glorious for the Volscians because their
superiority in the field has put them in a position to grant us the
greatest of blessings, peace and concord, in which they also will share
alike with us. You will be chiefly to be thanked for these blessings, if
we obtain them, and chiefly to be blamed if we do not.
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