BOOK VII.] History of Nature. 213 



and Thigh. Above all other actions, he alone saved the 

 Capitol, and thereby the whole State, from the Gauls: if he 

 had not saved it for his own Kingdom ! In these examples 

 there is indeed much of courage, but yet Fortune hath had the 

 greater share ; and in my judgment no one may justly prefer 

 any Man before M. Sergius, although Catiline, his Nephew's 

 Son, discredited his Name. In the second Year of his Service 

 he lost his Right Hand ; and in two Services he was wounded 

 three and twenty times : by which means he had little use 

 of either his Hands or Feet. But although thus disabled 

 as a Soldier, he went many a Time after to the Wars, 

 attended only by one Slave. Twice he was taken Prisoner 

 by Hannibal (for he did not serve against ordinary Enemies), 

 and twice he escaped from his bonds, although for twenty 

 Months he was every Day kept Bound with Chains or 

 Shackles. Four times he fought with his Left Hand only, 

 until two Horses were killed under him. He made himself 

 a Right Hand of Iron, and he fought with it fastened to his 

 Arm. He delivered Cremona from Siege, and saved Pla- 

 centia. In Gallia, he took twelve Camps of the Enemies: 

 All which Exploits appear from that Oration of his which he 

 made in his Praetorship, when his Colleagues repelled him 

 from the solemn Sacrifices because he was maimed. 1 What 

 heaps of Crowns would he have built up if he had been 

 matched with any other Enemy ! For it is very important, 

 in our estimate of Courage, to consider in what Time the 

 Persons lived. For what Civic Crowns yielded either Trebia 

 and Ticinus, or Thrasymenus? what Crown could have been 

 gained at Cannae, where the best service of Courage was to 

 have made an escape ? Others, truly, have vanquished Men ; 

 but Sergius conquered Fortune herself. 



1 The ancients were cautious not to admit a mutilated person to the 

 celebration of sacred rites, observing that such a defect was to be regarded 

 as a thing of ill-omen ; and that, if the victim must be perfect, how much 

 more does it become the priest to be so ! How careful the Jews were 

 commanded to be in this respect, appears from the Law of Moses, 

 Levit. xx. xxi. Wern. Club. 



