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Not chaffering war but waging war, not with gold but with iron—thus let us of both sides make trial for our lives

Nec cauponantes bellum sed belligerantes;
Ferro non auro vitam cernamus utrique.

Original text (Latin)

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Notes from Wikiquote

As quoted by Cicero in De Officiis, Book I, Chapter XII

Topics

War

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ennius (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.