Etruscans, Volsci, Opici, Leucanians and Samnites, in one word subjugated the whole land bounded by the Alps and repulsed all the alien tribes that came against them. [-38-] "The later Romans, likewise, and our own fathers imitated them, not being satisfied with their temporary fortune nor content with what they had inherited, and they regarded sloth as their sure destruction but exertion as their certain safety. They feared that if their treasures remained unaugmented they would be consumed and worn away by age, and were ashamed after receiving so rich a heritage to make no further additions: thus they performed greater and more numerous exploits. "Why should one name individually Sardinia, Sicily, Macedonia, Illyricum, Greece, Ionic Asia, the Bithynians, Spaniards, Africans? I tell you the Carthaginians would have given them plenty of money to stop sailing against that city, and so would Philip and Perseus to stop making campaigns against them; Antiochus would have given much, his children and descendants would have given much to let them remain on European soil. But those men in view of the glory and the greatness of the empire did not choose to be ignobly idle or to enjoy their wealth in confidence, nor did the elders of our own generation who even now are still alive. "They knew well that the same practices as acquire good things serve also to preserve them: hence they made sure many of their original belongings and acquired many new ones. What need is there here to catalogue in detail Crete, Pontus, Cyprus, Asiatic Iberia, Farther Albania, both Syrian nations, each of the two Armenias, the Arabians, the Palestinians? We did not even know their names accurately in the old days: yet now we lord it over some ourselves and others we have bestowed upon various persons, insomuch that we have gained from them income and powers and honors and alliances.