The people went in a body to the senate house andinsisted on Loesius summoning the senate. They . openlythreatened the nobles who had so long absented themselvesfrom the senate, that they would go round to their houses -anddrag them all by main force into the streets. * These threats resulted in a full meeting- of the senate. The general opinionwas in favour of sending a deputation to the Roman commander,but Vibius Virrius, the prime author of the revolt from Rome,when asked his opinion, told those who were talking about adeputation and terms of peace and surrender that they wereforgetting what they would have done had they had the Romansin their power, or what, as circumstances now were, they would magine in old· surrend tbat韶嘿 ourselves and all that belonged to us to Rome?Have already forgotten at what a critical moment for Rome How we put to death with eve and -卯勿ty the garrison which we coul试easily have sent away e what numerous and desperate sorties we have made apinst our besiegers, how we have assaulted their lines and called Hannibal in to crush them?Have you forgotten this last act of ours when we sent him to attack Rome?· “Now look at the other side, consider their determined hostility to us and seethere was a foreign辍黔豁絮hope for.and that馏 Hannibal. though the flames of war were beinz kindled in everv 一，。，.。1，，__，，。_____，，___L，·，__，，·，，、 quarter, they negiectea everything, even .tianni oai nimseu, ana1 .1 .1 1 1 .1 /N T sent uotn the consuls。each with an army. to CaDua. For two 一一，r，几 years now have they hemmed us in with their lines of circumvallation, and are wearing us down with famine. They have endured as much as we have in the extremity of peril, the utmost severity of toil;often have they been slaughtered about their entrenchments, and all but driven out of them. But I -pass over these things;the labours and dangers of a siege are an old and common experience. But to show their rage and 一implacable hatred against us I will remind you of these in- ，cidents:Hannibal assaulted their lines with an enormous force .of infantry and cavalry, and partly captured them, but they -did not raise the siege;he crossed the Volturnus and desolated the district of Calenum with fire;the sufferings of their allies failed to call off the Romans;he ordered a general advance 娜Rome itself, they disregarded the threatening storm;he crossed the Anio and encamped within three miles of the City,, _..八at last rode un to Its wails anti Bates and made as tnouen =he :would take their city from them it thev did not loose their 自倒以on tranua:thev did not loose their hold. When wild beasts me mad with raze you can still divert their blind fury切 一erect of their city-t theirr wives and chil黯besieged,1 or by the terrifiedwhich could almost be heard盆 ;-by -the:the shri瓢聪desecration of their hearths and altars,gods and the tombs of their ancestors. to visit us with punishment, so greedily do r blood. And, perhaps, rightly; we should done the same had fortune favoured us. “Heaven, however, has ordered otherwise. and so. though 1 am aouna to meet my aeath in any case, 1. can, whilst I am 西11 free,-escape the insults and the tortures which the enemy is preparing for me, I can dispose of myself妙a death as peaceful as it is honourable._ I_refuse to look upon Appius Claudius and Q. Fulvius~ exulting in all the insolence of victory; I refuse to卜dragged in chains through the一streets of Rome to grace their triumph, and then in the dungeon or bound to the stake, with my back torn with the scourge, pass under the headsman's axe. I will not see my city plundered and burnt. ，，，，1·，，‘，，‘。舀。。。。，二 ana the matrons and maiaens ana. no ale Qoys oI uapua ravished and outraged. Alba, the mother city of Rome, was rased by the 长omans to its foundations in order that no memorial of their origin and of the stock whence they spru survive .ich less can I believe that 1 will spare which they to more bitterly than they hate Cartintend to 恤ge. “So, for those of you who meet your fate before you witness all these horrors I have prepared a banquet to一av at my house. When you have taken your皿of food and wine the same goblet that is handed to me will be passed round to you. That draught will free our bodies from torture, our spirits from insult, our eyes and ears from seeing and hearing all the suffering and outrage which await the vanquished. Men will be in readiness to place our lifeless bodies on a vast pile which will be kindled in the court-yard of the house. This is the path to death which is honourable and worthy of free Even the enemy will admire our courage, and Hannibal will know that the allies whom he has abandoned and betrayed were, after all, brave men."