happen to a good man; for he will never surrender, never give up
the contest, to the last day of his life he will stand prepared and
in that posture he will die, testifying that though he has received
much, yet that he had the will to repay as much as he had received.

III. The Lacedaemonians forbid their young men to contend in the
pancratium, or with the caestus, in which games the defeated party
has to acknowledge himself beaten. The winner of a race is he who
first reaches the goal; he outstrips the others in swiftness, but
not in courage. The wrestler who has been thrown three times loses
the palm of victory, but does not yield it up. Since the
Lacedaemonians thought it of great importance that their countrymen
should be invincible, they kept them away from those contests in
which victory is assigned, not by the judge, or by the issue of the
contest itself, but by the voice of the vanquished begging the
victor to spare him as he falls. This attribute of never being
conquered, which they so jealously guard among their citizens, can
be attained by all men through virtue and goodwill, because even
when all else is vanquished, the mind remains unconquered. For this
cause no one speaks of the three hundred Fabii as conquered, but
slaughtered. Regulus was taken captive by the Carthaginians, not
conquered; and so were all other men who have not yielded in spirit
when overwhelmed by the strength and weight of angry fortune.

So is it with benefits. A man may have received more than he gave,
more valuable ones, more frequently bestowed; yet is he not
vanquished. It may be that, if you compare the benefits with one
another, those which he has received will outweigh those which he
has bestowed; but if you compare the giver and the receiver, whose
intentions also ought to be considered apart, neither will prove