Now listen to what I was.

I was born free.

I inherited from my father a farm which he had successfully defended from the encroachments of the rich, at the expense of his comfort, his health, and his life.

When I succeeded to his lands, I determined to protect them in my time as studiously as he had defended them in his.
I worked unintermittingly: I enlarged my house, I improved my fields, I increased my flocks.

One after another I despised the threats and defeated the wiles of my noble neighbours, who desired possession of my estate to swell their own territorial grandeur.