Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 2.pdf/222

 Therefore by his bravery he overcame foreigners in war, but out of his humanity kept unharmed the seditious citizens, altho many of them by their acts had often shown themselves unworthy of this favor. The same policy he followed again both in Africa and Spain, releasing all who had not before been captured and been made recipients of his mercy. To grant their lives invariably to such as frequently plotted against him he deemed folly, not humanity. On the other hand, he thought it quite the duty of a manly man to pardon opponents on the occasion of their first errors and not to keep an inexorable anger; yes, and to assign honors to them, but if they cling to their original course, to get rid of them. Yet why did I say this? Many of them also he preserved by allowing all his associates and those who had helped him conquer to save, one each, the life of a captive.

Moreover, that he did all this from inherent excellence and not from pretense or to gather any advantage, as others in large numbers have displayed humaneness, the greatest evidence is that everywhere and under all circumstances he showed himself the same: anger did not brutalize him nor good fortune corrupt him; power did not alter, nor authority change him. Yet it very difficult when tested in so many enterprises of such a scope, and following one another in quick succession at a time when one has been successful in some, is still engaged in conducting others, and only suspects the existence of others,