Ab urbe condita

But it is here that I beheld my country, it is on this spot that all the legions which Rome possesses are gathered, and unless they wish to rush to death for their own sakes, to save their honour, what else have they that they can save by their death.

“The dwellings of the City,” somebody may reply, “and its walls, and that crowd of human beings who form its population.” Nay, on the contrary, all these things are not saved, they are handed over to the enemy if this army is annihilated.

For who will protect them? A defenceless multitude of non-combatants, I suppose; as successfully as it defended them from the approach of the Gauls.