Image, Ideology and Action in Cicero and Lucretius

Abstract

nam saepe ego audiui Q. Maxumum, P. Scipionem, praeterea ciuitatis nostrae praeclaros uiros solitos ita dicere, cum maiorum imagines intuerentur, uehementissume sibi animum ad uirtutem accendi. scilicet non ceram illam neque figuram tantam uim in sese habere, sed memoria rerum gestarum earn flammam egregiis uiris in pectore crescere neque prius sedari, quam uirtus eorum famam atque gloriam adaequauerit. For I frequently heard that Quintus Maximus and Publius Scipio, along with other famous men of our state, were in the habit of saying that when they looked upon the images of their ancestors, their minds were most powerfully kindled towards virtue. Clearly they were not saying that the wax likeness of itself has so much power, but that through the memory of past achievements a flame grows in the breast of outstanding men of a kind that is not put down until their own virtue has won an equal fame and glory.