not even those men, unless some reward is due to them on account of their swiftness of foot and running, would justly set themselves before us, or boast that there is more protection to the state in them than in us.  But you will both find them to be good and brave soldiers, and us still more zealous, because, by your kindness, we have been ransomed and restored to our country.  You are levying from every age and condition:  I hear that eight thousand slaves are being armed.  We are no fewer in number; nor will the expense of redeeming us be greater than that of purchasing these.  Should I compare ourselves with them, I should injure the name of Roman.  I should think also, conscript fathers, that in deliberating on such a measure, it ought also to be considered, (if you are disposed to be over severe, which you cannot do from any demerit of ours,) to what sort of enemy you would abandon us.  Is it to Pyrrhus, for instance, who treated us, when his prisoners, like guests; or to a barbarian and Carthaginian, of whom it is difficult to determine whether his rapacity or cruelty be the greater?  If you were to see the chains, the squalid appearance, the loathsomeness of your countrymen, that spectacle would not, I am confident, less affect you, than if, on the other hand, you beheld your legions prostrate on the plains of Cannae.  You may behold the solicitude and the tears of our kinsmen, as they stand in the lobby of your senate-house, and await your answer.  When they are in so much suspense and anxiety in behalf of us, and those who are absent, what think you must be our own feelings, whose lives and liberty are at stake?  By Hercules! should Hannibal himself, contrary to his nature, be disposed to be lenient towards us, yet we should not consider our lives worth possessing, since we have seemed unworthy of being ransomed by you.  Formerly, prisoners dismissed by Pyrrhus, without ransom, returned to Rome; but they returned in company with ambassadors, the chief men of the state, who were sent to ransom them.  Would I return to my country, a citizen, and not considered worth three hundred denarii?  Every man has his own way of thinking, conscript fathers.  I know that my life and person are at stake.  But the danger which threatens my reputation affects me most, if we should go away rejected and condemned by you; for men will never suppose that you grudged the price of our redemption.”

60.  When he had finished his address, the crowd of persons in the comitium immediately set up a loud lamentation, and stretched out their hands to the senate, imploring them to restore to them their children, their brothers, and their kinsmen.  Their fears and affection for their kindred had brought the women also with the crowd of men in the forum.  Witnesses being excluded, the matter began to be discussed in the senate.  There being a difference of opinion, and some advising that they should be ransomed at the public charge, others, that the state should be