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Through prudence and good fortune has the empire of the Romans attained to greatness and durationLiterally: The Roman power has excelled in greatness and good fortune by reason of prudence and long duration. This, as Schweighäuser points out, is an awkward expression and inharmonious with the author’s argument, in which prudence and good fortune are grouped together as causes, and greatness and duration as consequences. in gaining which they have excelled all others in bravery, patience, and hard labor. They were never elated by success until they had firmly secured their power, nor were they ever cast down by misfortune, although they sometimes lost 20,000 men in a single day, at another time 40,000, and once 50,000, and although the city itself was often in danger. Neither famine, nor frequently recurring plague, nor sedition, nor all these falling upon them at once could abate their ardor; until, through the doubtful struggles and dangers of seven hundred years, they achieved their present greatness, having enjoyed the favors of fortune through wisdom.
