Page:Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto volume 2 Haines 1920.djvu/39

 Trajan? Was not a consular likewise slain by the Parthians in Mesopotamia? Again under the rule of your grandfather Hadrian what a number of soldiers were killed by the Jews, what a number by the Britons! Even in the principate of your Father, who was the most fortunate of princes Should we not think the son of a Marsian father degenerate, if he were afraid of vipers, lizards, and water-snakes? are kept a few days in swaddling bands, the others pass their whole lives in rags.

3. And so that excellent emperor bade his captives be sold  The strength of fishes lies in their tails, of birds in their wings, of snakes in their power of crawling   both the restoration of the prestige of the Roman name, and the punishment of the enemy's traps and treachery,      call upon those to halt who are ready to advance, forward, backward, here, there. It is by no means advantageous to a man that is born of woman that prosperity should always attend him: changing fortunes are more secure.

4. Take Polycrates : strong in his vast wealth, and successful without a stumble in all that he undertook, he is said in the course of his life to have experienced no hard fortune or disappointment, 23