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8Who could be found more magnanimous than I,—not to mention again my deceased father,—who more nearly divine? For I,—the gods be my witnesses!—who have so many gallant soldiers, both Romans and allies, who are devoted to me, I, who am supreme over the entire sea within the Pillars of Hercules except for a few tribes, I who possess both cities and provinces in every continent, 2at a time when there is no longer any foreign enemy making war upon me and no one at home is engaged in sedition, but when you are all at peace, are harmonious and strong, and, greatest of all, are content to yield obedience, I, in spite of all this, voluntarily and of my own motion resign so great a dominion and give up so vast a possession. 3So then, if Horatius, Mucius, Curtius, Regulus, and the Decii were willing to encounter danger and to die to win the fame of having done a great and noble deed, why should not I desire even more to do this thing, whereby, without losing my life, I shall excel both them and all the rest of mankind in glory? 4In truth no one of you should think that the ancient Romans sought to win fair fame and reputation for valour, but that in these days every manly virtue has become extinct in the state. And further, let no one suspect that I wish to betray you by delivering you into the hands of a group of wicked men, or by giving you over to government by the mob, from which nothing good ever comes, but rather in all cases and for all mankind nothing but the most terrible evils. 5Nay, it is to you senators, to you who are the best and wisest, that I restore the entire administration of the state. The other course I should never have followed, even had it been necessary for me to die a thousand deaths, or even to assume the sole rule; but this policy I adopt both for my own good and for that of the city. 6For I myself have undergone both labours and hardships and am no longer able to stand the strain, either in mind or in body. Furthermore, I foresee the jealousy and hatred which are engendered in certain persons against even the best men and the plots which arise therefrom. 7It is for these reasons that I choose the life of a private citizen and fair fame rather than that of a sovereign and constant peril. And as for the business of the commonwealth, it would be carried on far better by all in common, inasmuch as it would be transacted by many men together instead of being dependent upon some one man.
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