Ennius, Annals vv. 196-203    latin text    comment


"Gold will I none, nor price shall ye give; for I ask none;
Come, let us not be chaff'rers of war, but warriors embattled.
Nay; let us venture our lives, and the sword, not gold, weigh the outcome.
Make we the trial by valour in arms and see if Dame Fortune
Wills it that ye shall prevail or I, or what be her judgment.
Hear thou, too, this word, good Fabricius: whose valour soever
Spared hath been by the fortune of war - their freedom I grant them.
Such my resolve. I give and present them to you, my brave Romans;
Take them back to their homes; the great gods' blessings attend you."

from: Cicero in Twenty-eight Volumes. XXI, De officiis, with an English Translation by Walter Miller, London – Cambridge (Massachusetts), William Heinemann Ltd – Harvard University Press, 1968 (The Loeb Classical Library)