Book 1, Chapter 37

“Yet why do we need philosophy here, when we see that the matter scarcely requires it?

89 “How often not only our commanders but even entire armies have rushed to certain death! If death were something to fear, Lucius Brutus would not have fallen in battle preventing the return of the tyrant he himself had expelled. Father Decius would not have flung himself into the enemy’s weapons fighting the Latins, nor his son fighting the Etruscans, nor his grandson fighting Pyrrhus. Spain would not have seen the Scipios fall for their country in a single war, nor Cannae Paulus and Geminus, nor Venusia Marcellus, nor Litana Albinus, nor the Lucanians Gracchus. Is any of them miserable today? Not even then, after their last breath. For no one can be miserable once sensation has been destroyed.

90 “‘But to have no sensation is itself hateful.’ Hateful, if it amounted to feeling a lack. But since it is evident that nothing can exist in someone who does not himself exist, what can be hateful in someone who neither lacks nor feels anything? I have said this too often, perhaps, but only because here lies the whole source of the soul’s shrinking from the fear of death. Anyone who has clearly seen what is brighter than daylight—that, once soul and body are consumed and the whole living being destroyed in a universal extinction, the creature that once existed has become nothing—will plainly see that there is no difference between a centaur, which never existed, and King Agamemnon. He will see that Marcus Camillus now cares no more for this civil war than I cared for the capture of Rome when he was alive. Why, then, would Camillus have grieved had he thought these events would occur some three hundred and fifty years later? Why should I grieve if I thought some nation would take possession of our city ten thousand years from now? Because our love of our country is so great that we measure it not by our own awareness but by her safety.”

“Though why do we need philosophy here, when we can see the subject doesn’t much need it?

89 “Our history is full of commanders, and indeed entire armies, charging straight toward certain death. Had death frightened them, would Lucius Brutus have died fighting to bar the return of the tyrant he’d expelled? Would three generations of Decii have offered themselves to enemy weapons: the father against the Latins, his son against the Etruscans, his grandson against Pyrrhus? In one war Spain saw the Scipios die for their country. Cannae saw Paulus and Geminus die, Venusia saw Marcellus, Litana Albinus, and the Lucanians Gracchus. If death were to be feared, none of that would have happened. Are any of them suffering now? They weren’t suffering even then, once they’d breathed their last. Destroy awareness and misery becomes impossible.

90 “‘Not being aware—that itself is dreadful.’ It would be dreadful if it meant feeling a lack. But a person who doesn’t exist plainly cannot have any condition at all. Where, then, is the dreadfulness for someone who feels neither a lack nor anything else? I repeat myself too often here, I admit. This point, though, contains the whole reason our spirits shrink at the thought of death. The truth is clearer than daylight: once body and soul are consumed, the whole creature wiped out in total destruction, what was a living being becomes nothing. See that clearly, and you see that King Agamemnon is no different from a centaur that never existed. Marcus Camillus is no more concerned with our present civil war than I was with Rome’s capture during his lifetime. Why would he have felt grief, then, if he’d foreseen this war some three hundred and fifty years ahead? Why should I grieve at the thought of another nation taking our city in ten thousand years? We love our country so much that her safety, not what we ourselves experience, is the measure of our love.”