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they were paying attention and observing what sort of opinion he might bring forward concerning the matters at hand. And when he himself entered into the discussion, he said the following: "That your opinion is rather inclined to make war on the barbarians, thinking you will most easily overcome them, can be conjectured in a short time from many things. May a superior power then bring these things to some favorable conclusion, just as you yourselves wish. But what I myself think is advantageous for us at the present time, this I will declare. I do not think it is the mark of sensible men, nor of experienced ones in general, when they have rushed into war, not to have first assessed both their own and the enemy's strength, but trusting in the unreliability of fortune, to push themselves into dangers. For to be strong in arms and money and a multitude of troops is a sure thing for salvation; but fortune for the most part deceives. But the barbarians against whom we now have our war are by no means so different as to be unknown. For in experience for battle they are in no way inferior to us, and they are many times 3.296 more numerous in multitude and stronger in preparation and more ready for campaigns, serving their own ruler without pay and for free. In addition to these things, possessing much land and our cities not only in Asia but also in Europe, they will now fight eagerly for the remainder, being hopeful, as from examples, also for the rest. We once had sufficient power, not only against so many, but even against many times more, not so as to drive them from our land, but also to put them in danger concerning their own. But foolishness and thoughtlessness and not deliberating best concerning what is mutually advantageous, but each one looking to arrange his own affairs well, has led us into this weakness now, so that we must consider it a blessing if we do not also lose what we have. For our army has been ruined, from being brilliant and renowned it has become small and destitute; and the contributions from the public revenues have failed completely. And as for most of you or almost all, if someone does not provide money for the war, I do not think you would hold out for very long spending from your own resources. All of you considering these things must look not only to this, how from peace we may move to war, but also how we shall overcome the enemy or endure nothing difficult from it. But I do not advise you to abstain from war against the barbarians out of cowardice, 3.297 nor am I second to any of you in hatred of them, but I myself would have gladly annihilated all barbarians together, if it were possible, and I would have considered their destruction to bring the greatest fame and glory to me; and I saw them suffering the same things from another. Nevertheless, if none of these things were possible, but it were necessary for me, by being slain by whomever, by this very act of dying for the barbarians to be utterly destroyed, I would most easily and with pleasure have given up my dear life; so much hatred for them abounds in me, not only because of the extreme opposition concerning religion, but because for many years they have greatly wronged the Romans, harming almost everything, and have not yet until now had their fill of injustice; but also having crossed into Thrace, they hold many cities and plunder and carry off all our things. For what reason then, having such hatred for them, did I neither previously myself rush to war nor do I now prevent you who are eager? Because in examining our present power, I find it neither before nor now a match for the war against them. What then, someone might say, do you command us, having covered our faces completely and despaired of our own salvation, to bear the blows quietly and to yield everything as if by command to the barbarians? Not this, I would say, but we must rather make war and strive for this 3.298, if anything, but not so ignorantly and rashly as to gain nothing else from our courage than to lose what we have in addition to recovering nothing of what has been taken away. What is it then that I am saying? That first we must provide money and some foreign force equal to the enemy's. Since indeed

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προσεῖχον καὶ ἀπεσκόπουν, ὁποίαν τινὰ περὶ τῶν προκειμένων γνώμην εἰσενέγκοι. καταστὰς δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς εἰς λόγους, εἶπε τοιάδε· «τὴν μὲν γνώμην ὑμῶν ὡς μᾶλλον ἐπὶ τὸ πολεμεῖν ἐπῆρται τοῖς βαρβάροις, οἰομένων ῥᾷστα περιέσεσθαι αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐν ὀλίγῳ χρόνῳ ἐκ πολλῶν ἐστι στοχάζεσθαι. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐπί τι τέλος ἀγάγοι τὸ κρεῖττον δεξιὸν, ὥσπερ βούλεσθε αὐτοί. ἃ δὲ οἴομαι καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν τῷ παρόντι λυσιτελεῖν ἡμῖν, ταῦτα σημανῶ. οὐ σωφρόνων οἴομαι ἀνθρώπων, οὐδ' ἄλλως ἐμπείρων εἶναι, ὡρμημένους ἐπὶ πόλεμον μὴ πρότερον τήν τε ἑαυτῶν καὶ τὴν πολεμίων ἐπισκεψαμένους δύναμιν, τύχης θαῤῥοῦντας ἀπιστίᾳ, ἑαυτοὺς πρὸς τοὺς κινδύνους εἰσωθεῖν. τὸ μὲν γὰρ καὶ ὅπλοις καὶ χρήμασι καὶ πλήθει στρατιᾶς ἐῤῥωμένους εἶναι βέβαιον πρὸς σωτηρίαν· τύχη δὲ τὰ πλείω σφάλλεται. πρὸς οὓς δὲ ἡμῖν ὁ πόλεμός ἐστι βαρβάρους νῦν, οὐχ ὅσον ἀγνοεῖσθαι διαφέρουσιν. ἐμπειρίᾳ γὰρ τῇ πρὸς τὰς μάχας οὐδαμῶς ἀπολειπόμενοι ἡμῶν, πολλαπλα 3.296 σίους εἰσὶ τῷ πλήθει καὶ τῇ παρασκευῇ ἐῤῥωμενέστεροι καὶ πρὸς τὰς στρατείας ἑτοιμότεροι, ἀμισθὶ καὶ προῖκα στρατευόμενοι τῷ σφῶν δυνάστῃ. πρὸς δὲ τούτοις γῆν ἔχοντες πολλὴν καὶ πόλεις ἡμετέρας οὐ κατὰ τὴν Ἀσίαν μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ κατὰ τὴν Εὐρώπην, νῦν προθύμως ὑπὲρ τῶν λοιπῶν μαχοῦνται, εὐέλπιδες ὄντες, ὥσπερ ἐκ παραδειγμάτων, καὶ πρὸς τὰ λοιπά. ἡμῖν δὲ ἦν μέν ποτε δύναμις ἀξιόχρεως, οὐ πρὸς τοσούτους μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πολλαπλασίους, οὐχ ὥστε ἐκ τῆς ἡμετέρας ἐξελαύνειν, ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ τῆς οἰκείας ἐν κινδύνῳ καθιστᾷν. ἡ δὲ ἀξυνεσία καὶ ἀβουλία καὶ τὸ μὴ περὶ τῶν κοινῇ λυσιτελούντων ἄριστα βουλεύεσθαι, ἀλλ' ἕκαστον τὰ ἴδια εὖ τίθεσθαι σκοπεῖν, εἰς τοῦτο ἤγαγεν ἡμᾶς ἀδυναμίας νῦν, ὥστ' ἀγαπητὸν, ἂν μὴ καὶ τὰ ὄντα ἀπολέσωμεν, ἡγεῖσθαι. ἥ τε γὰρ στρατιὰ διέφθαρται ἡμῖν, ἐκ λαμπρᾶς καὶ περιφανοῦς ὀλίγη καὶ ἄπορος καθεστηκυῖα· καὶ τῶν κοινῶν προσόδων αἱ συντάξεις ἐκλελοίπασι παντάπασι. καὶ ὑμῶν τοὺς πλείους ἢ σύμπαντας σχεδὸν, εἰ μή τις χρήματα παράσχοι πρὸς τὸν πόλεμον, οὐκ ἂν οἴομαι ἀντισχήσειν ἐπιπλεῖστον ἀναλοῦντας ἐκ τῶν ὄντων. ἅπερ ἅπαντας ἐνθυμουμένους, οὐ τοῦτο μόνον χρὴ σκοπεῖν, ὅπως ἐκ τῆς εἰρήνης καταστῶμεν πρὸς τὸ πολεμεῖν, ἀλλ' ὅπως καὶ περιεσόμεθα τῶν πολεμίων ἢ μηδὲν ἐκ τούτου δυσχερὲς ὑπομενοῦμεν. ἐγὼ δὲ οὔτε ἀτολμίᾳ τοῦ πρὸς τοὺς βαρβάρους ὑμᾶς πολέμου ἀποσχέσθαι συμ 3.297 βουλεύω, οὔτε πρὸς ἀπέχθειαν αὐτῶν οὐδενὸς ἀπολείπομαι ὑμῶν, ἀλλ' αὐτός τε ἂν ἐξέτριψα ἡδέως ὁμοῦ τοι σύμπαντας βαρβάρους, εἴπερ οἷόντε, καὶ μεγίστην εὔκλειαν καὶ εὐδοξίαν τὸν ἐκείνων ὄλεθρον φέρειν ἂν ἐνόμισα ἐμοί· καὶ παρ' ἑτέρου πάσχοντάς τινος τὰ ἴσα εἶδον. οὐ μὴν ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν τούτων μὲν οὐδὲν ἐξῆν, ἔδει δὲ ἐμὲ παρ' ὁτουοῦν ἀποσφαγέντα, αὐτῷ τούτῳ τῷ ἀποθανεῖν ἐξώλεις γενέσθαι τοὺς βαρβάρους, ῥᾷστα ἂν καὶ τὴν φίλην προὔδωκα ζωὴν σὺν ἡδονῇ· τοσοῦτον ἀπεχθείας πρὸς αὐτοὺς περίεστιν ἐμοὶ, οὐ μόνον διὰ τὴν περὶ τὴν θρησκείαν ἄκραν ἐναντίωσιν, ἀλλ' ὅτι ἐκ πολλῶν ἐτῶν μεγάλα ἠδικήκασι Ῥωμαίους, πᾶσι λυμηνάμενοι σχεδὸν καὶ οὐδέπω μέχρι νῦν κόρον ἐσχήκασι τῆς ἀδικίας· ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπὶ Θρᾴκην διαβάντες, πόλεις ἔχουσι πολλὰς καὶ πάντα τὰ ἡμῶν ἄγουσι καὶ φέρουσι. τίνος οὖν ἕνεκα οὕτως ἔχων πρὸς ἐκείνους ἀπεχθείας, οὔτε πρότερον αὐτὸς ὡρμήθην πολεμεῖν καὶ ὑμᾶς κωλύω νῦν προθυμουμένους; ὅτι τὴν ἐνοῦσαν ἐξετάζων δύναμιν, οὔτε πρότερον, οὔτε νῦν ἀξιόμαχον εὑρίσκω πρὸς τὸν πρὸς ἐκείνους πόλεμον. τί οὖν, ἄν τις φαίη, κελεύῃς ἡμᾶς καθάπαξ ἐγκαλυψαμένους καὶ τὴν οἰκείαν σωτηρίαν ἀπογνόντας, ἡσυχῇ φέρειν τὰς πληγὰς καὶ πάντα ὥσπερ ἐξ ἐπιτάγματος ὑπείκειν τοῖς βαρβάροις; οὐ τοῦτο ἔγωγε, φαίην ἂν, ἀλλὰ πολεμητέον μᾶλλον καὶ πρὸς τοῦ 3.298 το, εἴ τι ἕτερον, σπουδαστέον, οὐ μὴν ἀμαθῶς τοσοῦτον καὶ θρασέως, ὡς μηδὲν ἕτερον ἀπόνασθαι τῆς εὐτολμίας, ἢ καὶ τὰ ὄντα προσαπολεῖν πρὸς τῷ μηδὲ τῶν ἀφῃρημένων ἀνασώσασθαι μηδέν. τί οὖν ἐστιν, ὃ λέγω; ὅτι χρήματα πρότερον ποριστέον καὶ δύναμίν ποθεν ξενικὴν ἀξιόμαχον πρὸς τὴν τῶν πολεμίων. ὡς ἥ γε