Seneca · On the usefulness of basic principles

Letters 95.69

Vergil’s description, though referring to something else, might perfectly well be the portrayal of a brave man; at any rate, I myself should select no other simile for a hero. If I had to describe Cato, who was unterrified amid the din of civil war, who was first to attack the armies that were already making for the Alps, who plunged face-forward into the civil conflict, this is exactly the sort of expression and attitude which I should give him.

Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 95.69, translated by Richard Mott Gummere