1But since most people think that achievements in war are greater than those in civil life, this opinion must be scaled down. 1For many have often sought wars from the desire for glory, and this generally happens in great spirits and talents, and all the more if they are suited to soldiering and eager to wage wars; 1but if we wish to judge truly, there have been many achievements in civil life greater and more glorious than those in war. 75For although Themistocles is rightly praised, and his name is more illustrious than Solon's, and Salamis is cited as witness to a most glorious victory, which is set above the counsel of Solon by which he first established the Areopagites, this is to be judged no less splendid than that; 75for that was of benefit once, this will always benefit the state; 75by this counsel the laws of the Athenians, by this the institutions of their ancestors are preserved; 75and Themistocles could not say anything in which he himself had helped the Areopagus, but the Areopagus could truly say that Themistocles had been helped by it; 75for the war was waged by the counsel of that senate which had been established by Solon.
76One may say the same about Pausanias and Lysander, by whose achievements, although empire is thought to have been won for the Spartans, yet they are not to be compared even in the smallest degree with the laws and discipline of Lycurgus; 76indeed, it was for these very reasons that they had armies both more obedient and braver. 76To me, at least, it did not seem that Marcus Scaurus yielded to Gaius Marius when we were boys, or Quintus Catulus to Gnaeus Pompey when I was engaged in public life; 76for arms abroad are of little worth unless there is counsel at home; 76nor did Africanus, an exceptional man and general, do more service to the state in destroying Numantia than Publius Nasica, a private citizen, did at the same time when he killed Tiberius Gracchus; 76although this deed indeed does not belong only to the domestic sphere (it touches on the military too, since it was accomplished by force and violence), but still it was itself carried out by civil counsel, without an army.
77But that line is best, which I hear is regularly attacked by the wicked and envious: 'Let arms yield to the toga, the laurel give place to praise.' For, to pass over others, when I was steering the state, did not arms yield to the toga? 77For never was there graver danger in the state, nor greater peace. 77Thus by my counsel and diligence the arms themselves quickly slipped from the hands of the most reckless citizens and fell to the ground. 78What deed so great, then, was ever done in war? 78What triumph is to be compared with it? 78For I may boast before you, my son Marcus, to whom belong both the inheritance of this glory and the duty of imitating these deeds.
78To me, at any rate, a man abounding in military honours, Gnaeus Pompey, in the hearing of many, paid this tribute, saying that he would have brought home his third triumph in vain if he had not been going to have, thanks to my service to the state, a place in which to celebrate it. 78There are, therefore, kinds of courage at home not inferior to those in war; 78and on these even more effort and zeal must be spent than on the others.