“When the existence and safety of so many nations depend upon your single life, and so large a part of the world has chosen you for its head, it is cruel of you to court death.”

Book V, line 685 (tr. J. D. Duff).
Pharsalia

Original

Cum tot in hac anima populorum vita salusque pendeat et tantus caput hoc sibi fecerit orbis, saevitia est voluisse mori.

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Marcus Annaeus Lucanus 58
Roman poet 39–65

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