Camillus

But possibly this will seem like fable. At any rate the city was taken by storm, and the Romans were pillaging and plundering its boundless wealth, when Camillus, seeing from the citadel what was going on, at first burst into tears as he stood, and then, on being congratulated by the bystanders, lifted up his hands to the gods and prayed, saying:

O greatest Jupiter, and ye gods who see and judge men’s good and evil deeds, ye surely know that it is not unjustly, but of necessity and in self-defence that we Romans have visited its iniquity upon this city of hostile and lawless men. But if, as counterpoise to this our present success, some retribution is due to come upon us, spare, I beseech you, the city and the army of the Romans, and let it fall upon my own head, though with as little harm as may be.