[297] The celebrated Latin poet. "Quintus Ennius," Gellius tells us (_N.
A._ lib. xvii. cap. 17), "said he had three hearts, because he
understood the Greek, Oscan, and Latin languages."
+ _Of Fabius Minutius and his sonne._ cxiii.
+ Fabius Minutius was of his sonne exhorted on a tyme to gette and
conquere a place that was mete for them, and to theyr great auauntage,
the whiche thynge he sayde, they myght do with the losse of a fewe men.
Wyll ye be one of those fewe, sayde Fabius to his sonne?
Therby shewynge, that it is a poynt of a good capiteyne to care for the
lest of his souldiours, and to saue them as nere as he can.[298]
Th' emperour Antoni[n]us Pius loued moche this sentence of Scipio,
whiche wolde ofte saye: I hadde leauer saue one citezen, thanne slee a
thousande ennemyes.