Letters 104.31

If you would obtain a mental picture of that period, you may imagine on one side the people and the whole proletariat eager for revolution—on the other the senators and knights, the chosen and honoured men of the commonwealth; and there were left between them but these two—the Republic and Cato.

I tell you, you will marvel when you see

Atreus’ son, and Priam, and Achilles, wroth at both.

Like Achilles, he scorns and disarms each faction.

Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 104.31, translated by Richard Mott Gummere