1There are, moreover, certain duties to be observed even towards those from whom you have received wrong. 1For there is a limit to revenge and punishment; 1and I am inclined to think it is enough that the one who gave provocation should repent of his wrong, so that both he himself may do nothing of the kind hereafter and others may be slower to do wrong. 34And in the state the laws of war must be most strictly observed. 34For since there are two ways of settling a dispute, one through discussion, the other through force, and since the former is proper to man, the latter to beasts, one must resort to the latter if one may not use the former.
35Wars, therefore, are to be undertaken for this reason, that we may live in peace without wrong; but when victory has been won, those should be spared who have not been cruel or savage in war, as our ancestors even admitted to citizenship the Tusculans, Aequi, Volsci, Sabines and Hernici, but utterly destroyed Carthage and Numantia; 35I could wish they had not destroyed Corinth, but I believe they had some aim in view, above all the advantage of its position, lest the place itself should at some time encourage the making of war. 35In my opinion, at least, we should always have regard for a peace that will contain no treachery.
35And if I had been heeded in this, we should have, if not the best, at least some kind of commonwealth, whereas now there is none. 35And while we must have regard for those whom we have conquered by force, those also who lay down their arms and take refuge in the good faith of our generals must be received, even though the battering-ram has struck the wall. 35In this respect justice has been so greatly cultivated among our people that those who had received into their protection states or nations conquered in war became their patrons by the custom of our ancestors. 36And the fairness of war has been set down most scrupulously in the fetial law of the Roman people.
36From this it can be understood that no war is just unless it is waged after a demand for restitution or has been announced and declared beforehand. 37There is a letter of the elder Marcus Cato to his son Marcus, in which he writes that he has heard that he was discharged by the consul while he was serving as a soldier in Macedonia in the war with Perseus. 37He therefore warns him to take care not to enter battle; 37for he says it is not lawful for one who is not a soldier to fight with the enemy.