For though the
issue of war is always doubtful, this much is evident, that if you
succeed, you will become your country's evil genius, and if you fail,
you will have inflicted the greatest miseries on men who are your
friends and benefactors, merely in order to gratify your own private
spite."
XXXVI. While Volumnia spoke thus, Marcius listened to her in silence.
After she had ceased, he stood for a long while without speaking, until
she again addressed him. "Why art thou silent, my son? Is it honourable
to make everything give way to your rancorous hatred, and is it a
disgrace to yield to your mother, when she pleads for such important
matters? Does it become a great man to remember that he has been ill
treated, and does it not rather become him to recollect the debt which
children owe to their parents. And yet no one ought to be more grateful
than you yourself, who punish ingratitude so bitterly: in spite of
which, though you have already taken a deep revenge on your country for
its ill treatment of you, you have not made your mother any return for
her kindness. It would have been right for me to gain my point without
any pressure, when pleading in such a just and honourable cause; but if
I cannot prevail by words, this resource alone is left me." Saying this,
she fell at his feet, together with his wife and children. Marcius,
crying out, "What have you done to me, mother?" raised her from the
ground, and pressing her hand violently, exclaimed, "You have conquered;
your victory is a blessed one for Rome, but ruinous to me, for I shall
retreat conquered by you alone.
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