the standards, the armor, and the spoils, which I myself have wrested from the vanquished. I can show the scars of many wounds received in combating the enemies of Rome. These are my statues! These the honors I can boast of! Not an accidental inheritance, like theirs; but earned by toil, by abstinence, by valor; amid clouds of dust and seas of blood; cenes of action in which these effeminate patricians, who would now depreciate me in your esteem, have never dared to appear, no, not even as spectators! 7. Here, Romans, are my credentials; here, my titles of nobility; here, my claims to the generalship of your army! Tell me, are they not as respectable, are they not as valid, are they not as deserving of your confidence and reward, as those which any patrician of them all can offer? PARAPHRASE FROM SALLUST. 17. BRUTUS ON THE DEATH OF CÆSAR. ROMANS, countrymen and lovers! hear me for my cause, and be silent that you may hear. Believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine honor that you may believe. Censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses, that you may the better judge. 2. If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Cæsar's, to him I say, that Brutus' love to Cæsar was no less than his. If, then, that friend demand why Brutus rose against Cæsar, this is my answer: Not that I loved Cæsar less, but that I loved Rome more. 3. Had you rather Cæsar were living, and die all slaves, than that Cæsar were dead, to live all freemen? As Cæsar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor him; but as he was ambitious-I slew him. There are tears for his love, joy for his fortune, honor for his valor, and death for his ambition. 4. Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so rude, that would not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so vile, that would not love his country? If any, speak; for him have I offended. I pause for a reply5. None! Then none have I offended. I have done no more to Cæsar than you should do to Brutus. The question of his death is enrolled in the capitol-his glory not extenuated, wherein he was worthy; nor his offences enforced, for which he suffered death. 6. Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony, who, though he had no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying, a place in the commonwealth; as which of you shall not? With this I depart-that as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my country to need my death. 18. THE SPARTANS' MARCH. [The Spartans used not the trumpet in their march into battle, says Thucydides, because they wished not to excite the rage of their warriors. Their charging step was made to the Dorian mood of flutes and soft recorders.] "TWAS morn upon the Grecian hills, where peasants dressed the vines; Sunlight was on Citharon's hills, Arcadia's rocks and pines; And brightly, through his reeds and flowers, Eurotas wan dered by, When a sound arose from Sparta's towers of solemn harmony. Was it the hunter's choral strain, to the woodland goddess poured? Did virgin hands, in Pallas' fane, strike the full-sounding chord? But helms were glancing on the stream, spears ranged in close array, And shields flung back a glorious beam to the morn of a fearful day! And the mountain echoes of the land swelled through the deep blue sky, While to soft strains moved forth a band of men that moved to die. They marched not with the trumpet's blast, nor bade the horn peal out; And the laurel groves, as on they passed, rung with no battleshout! III. They asked no clarion's voice to fire their souls with an impulse high, But the Dorian reed and the Spartan lyre, for the sons of liberty! And still sweet flutes, their path around, sent forth Eolian breath; They needed not a sterner sound to marshal them for death So moved they calmly to their field, thence never to return, Save bringing back the Spartan shield, or on it proudly borne ! FELICIA HEMANS IT 19. THE DEATH OF LEONIDAS. T was the wild midnight-a storm was on the sky; The lightning gave its light, and the thunder echoed by. The torrent swept the glen, the ocean lashed the shore; Then rose the Spartan men, to make their bed in gore! Swift from the deluged ground three hundred took the shield; Then in silence gathered round the leader of the field! II. All up the mountain's side, all down the woody vale, III. Anon a trumpet blew, and a fiery sheet burst high, Where the Spartan's bloody steel on the silken turbans came; IV. They found a royal feast, his midnight banquet there, That feast must be their last, that spot must be their grave. V. Fear on King Xerxes fell, when, like spirits from the tomb, I 20. THE FLIGHT OF XERXES. SAW him on the battle-eve, When like a king he bore him : Proud hosts were there in helm and greave, And prouder chiefs before him. The warrior, and the warrior's deeds,— No daunting thought came o'er him; CROLY. 2. He looked on ocean,-its broad breast On earth, and saw, from east to west, While rock, and glen, and cave, and ocean, He heard the imperial echoes ring: 8. I saw him next alone; nor camp He who with Heaven contended, Fled, like a fugitive and slave ! Behind, the foe; before, the wave! 4. He stood; fleet, army, treasure, gone,- While wave and wind swept ruthless on, And Xerxes, in a single bark, Where late his thousand ships were dark, What a revenge, a trophy, this, MISS JEWSBURY. 21. SCIPIO TO HIS ARMY. [Before the battle of Ticinus, B. C. 218, in which the Carthaginians, under Hannibal, were victorious. The speech of the latter, on the same occasion, follows.] NOT OT because of their courage, O soldiers, but because an engagement is now inevitable, do the enemy prepare for |