[-40-] "For if some god had actually become our sponsor that, even if we should fail to do this, no one would plot against us and we should forever enjoy in safety all that we have won, it would still be disgraceful to say that we ought to keep quiet; yet those who are willing to do nothing that is requisite would have some show of excuse. But, as a fact, it is inevitable that men who possess anything should be plotted against by many, and it behooves us to anticipate their attacks. One class that holds quietly to its own possessions incurs danger even for these, while another without any compulsion employs war to acquire the possessions of others and keeps them. No one who is in terror regarding his own goods longs for those of his neighbors; for the fear concerning what he already has effectually deters him, from meddling in what does not belong to him. Why then does any man say such a thing as this,--that we must not all the time be gaining something more!
"Do you not recall, partly from hearsay and partly from observation, that none of the Italian races refrained from plotting against our country until our ancestors brought war into their territories, nor did the Epirots until they crossed over into Greece? Philip did not refrain, but intended to make a campaign against Italy until they wrought harm to his land in advance. Nor was there hesitation on the part of Perseus, of Antiochus, of Mithridates, until they were subjected to the same treatment. And why must one mention the remaining cases? For a while the Carthaginians suffered no damage at our hands in Africa, and crossed into Italy, where they overran the country, sacked the towns and almost captured the City itself; but when war began to be made against them they decamped altogether from our land. One might instance this same course of events in regard to the Gauls and Celts. For these people while we remained on this side of the Alps often crossed them and ravaged a large part of Italy. But when we ventured at last to make a campaign beyond the mountains and to surround them with war, and actually detached a portion of their territory, we never again saw any war begun by them in Italy except once. When, accordingly, in the face of these facts anybody says that we ought not to make war he simply says that we ought not to be rich, ought not to rule others, ought not to be free, to be Romans. Just as you would not endure it if a man should say any of these things, but would kill him even as he stood before you, so now also, my comrades, assume a like attitude toward those who utter the other form of statement, judging their disposition not by their words but by their acts.