Page:Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto volume 2 Haines 1920.djvu/221

 of the living are listened to in a more grudging, of the dead in a more generous, spirit; that the past are regarded with partiality, the present with envy. For as long as a man lives snarling envy is ever at his side   As soon as ever the state called for a great leader, that is to say a man who was equal to the task before him, there appeared one who was more war-like than all the leaders reared in the needy homes of Arpinum or the hardy ways of Nursia  Parthians stained with Roman blood    an enemy of old, resolved and dangerous, and prepared to meet the Romans, trained in wars verily from ambush   when he was hurried headlong into daring any wicked deed, no crime more outrageous being now left for him to dare.

9. Then besides     He set out for the war with tried soldiers who held the Parthian enemy in contempt, making light of the impact of their arrows compared with the gaping wounds inflicted by the scythes of the Dacians. Numbers of his soldiers would the emperor call each by his own name, aye, and by any humorous nickname of the camp. Those who hung back   with a helmet decoration or bronze or partly  by military custom payments proudly gained from spoils of the enemy such as, though victorious and celebrating  205