85
"My speech, they say, is inelegant; but that I have ever thought of little importance. Worth sufficiently displays itself; it is for my detractors to use studied language, that they may palliate base conduct by plausible words. Nor have I learned Greek; for I had no wish to acquire a tongue that adds nothing to the valorValor] Virtutem. "The Greeks, those illustrious instructors of the world, had not been able to preserve their liberty; their learning therefore had not added to their valor. Virtus, in this passage, is evidently fortitudo bellica, which, in the opinion of Marius, was the only virtue."Bernouf. See Plutarch, Vit. Mar. c. 2. of those who teach it. But I have gained other accomplishments, such as are of the utmost benefit to a state; I have learned to strike down an enemy; to be vigilant at my post;To be vigilant at my post] Prœsidia agitare. Or "to keep guard at my post." "Prœsidia agitare signifies nothing more than to protect a party of foragers or the baggage, or to keep guard round a besieged city."Cortius. to fear nothing but dishonor; to bear cold and heat with equal endurance; to sleep on the ground; and to sustain at the same time hunger and fatigue. And with such rules of conduct I shall stimulate my soldiers, not treating them with rigor and myself with indulgence, nor making their toils my glory. Such a mode of commanding is at once useful to the state, and becoming to a citizen. For to coerce your troops with severity, while you yourself live at ease, is to be a tyrant, not a general.