I pray you, the eagerness and pleasure of hunting hurries men into snow and frost, over mountains and woods; shall we not employ that patience on the exigencies of war, which even sport and pleasure are wont to call forth?
Are we to suppose that the bodies of our soldiers are so effeminate, their minds so feeble, that they cannot hold out for one winter in a camp, and be absent from home?
that, like persons who wage a naval war, by taking advantage of the weather, and observing the season of the year, they are able to endure neither heat nor cold?
They would certainly blush, should any one lay these things to their charge; and would maintain that both their minds and their bodies were possessed of manly endurance, and that they were able to conduct war equally well in winter and in summer; and that they had not consigned to the tribunes the patronage of indolence and sloth, and that they remembered that their ancestors had created this very power, neither in the shade nor beneath their roofs.

Such sentiments are worthy of the valour of your soldiers, such sentiments are worthy of the Roman name, not to consider merely Veii, nor this war which is now pressing us, but to seek a reputation for hereafter for other wars and for other states.

Do you consider the difference of opinion likely to result from this matter as trivial?
Whether, pray, are the neighbouring states to suppose that the Roman people is such, that if any one shall sustain their first assault, and that of very short continuance, they have nothing afterwards to fear?
or whether such should be the terror of our name, that neither the tediousness of a distant siege, nor the inclemency of winter, can dislodge the Roman army from a city once invested, and that they know no other termination of war than victory, and that they carry on wars not more by briskness than by perseverance; which is necessary no doubt in every kind of war, but more especially in besieging cities; most of which, impregnable both by their works and by natural situation, time itself overpowers and reduces by famine and thirst; as it will reduce Veii, unless the tribunes of the commons shall afford aid to the enemy, and the Veientians find in Rome reinforcements which they seek in vain in Etruria.

Is there any thing which can happen so much in accordance with the wishes of the Veientians, as that first the Roman city, then the camp, as it were by contagion, should be filled with sedition?
But, by Jove, among the enemy so forbearing a state of mind prevails, that not a single change has taken place among them, either through disgust at the length of the siege nor even of the kingly form of government; nor has the refusal of aid by the Etrurians aroused their tempers.

For whoever will be the abettor of sedition, will be instantly put to death; nor will it be permitted to any one to utter those sentiments which amongst you are expressed with impunity.