Cessent autem quaeso formidines, quae nobis intentantur ex more, cum ambigi nequeat, non inertia nos sed modestia, pugnas interdum excepisse potius quam intulisse, et nostra quotiens lacessimur, fortissimo bonae conscientiae spiritu defensare, id experiendo legendoque scientes, in proeliis quibusdam raro rem titubasse Romanam, in summa vero bellorum numquam ad deteriora prolapsam.
Furthermore, pray make an end of those intimidations which (as usual) are directed against us, since there can be no doubt that it was not through slackness, but through self-restraint that we have sometimes accepted battle rather than offered it, and that when we are set upon, we defend our territories with the most valiant spirit of a good conscience; for we know both by experience and by reading that while in some battles, though rarely, the Roman cause has stumbled, yet in the main issue of our wars it has never succumbed to defeat.
final_alignments\Ammianus_Marcellinus_Book17.json