Book VIII, Epigram 30 (Ker)

What now entertains as a spectacle in Caesar's Arena was in Brutus' days their chiefest glory. You see how the hand grasps the flame and relishes its punishment, and bravely lords it amid the astonished fire! His own spectator is he, and he admires his right hand's noble death; in the full sacrifice that hand delights. Had not, against its will, that penalty been denied it, his left hand — fiercer still — was ready to pass to the sated hearth. I care not, after such a feat, to learn what was its crime before: enough for me to have known the prowess of the liand I saw.