"Virtus" comes from the aristocratic tradition in which it is a specific type of public conduct. It is really only applicable in the "cursus honorum", certainly by the late republic at least. It is not a "private" virtue in the way that modern people might consider it. Valor, courage, and manliness are not things that can be pursued in the private sphere of the individual or the individual's private concerns. There could be no virtue in exploiting one's manliness in the pursuit of personal wealth, for example. "Virtus" is exercised in the pursuit of "gloria" for the benefit of the "res publica" resulting in the winning of eternal "memoria". According to D.C. Earl "Outside the service of the "res publica" there can be no "magistratus" and therefore, strictly speaking, no "gloria", no "nobilitas", no "virtus"".