and you had to always be actively engaged in proving yourself.". Military Although the two concepts are related, virtus, for the Roman, did not necessarily emphasize the behavior that the associations of the present-day English term 'virtue' suggest. Virtus was to be found in the context of 'outstanding deeds' (egregia facinora), and brave deeds were the accomplishments which brought gloria ('a reputation'). This gloria was attached to two ideas: fama ('what people think of you') and dignitas ('one's standing in the community'). The struggle for virtus in Rome was above all a struggle for public office (honos), since it was through aspiring to high office, to which one was elected by the People, that a man could best show his manliness by means of military achievement which would in turn cultivate a reputation and votes. It was the duty of every aristocrat and would-be aristocrat to maintain the dignitas which his family had already achieved and to extend it to the greatest possible degree, through higher political office and military victories. This system resulted in a strong built-in impetus in Roman society to engage in military expansion and conquest at all times. Sexuality While in many cultures the virtue of manliness is seen as being partly sexual, in the Roman world the word virtus did not necessitate sexuality. Similar words deriving from the same stem often have sexual connotations, such as the word for man itself (vir) and the concept of "virility" (virilitas), though virtus most commonly was employed in the contexts of martial courage, honour, and ethical correctness. Nonetheless, poems such as Catullus 16 and the Carmina Priapea, as well as speeches such as Cicero's In Verrem, demonstrate that manliness and pudicitia, or sexual propriety, are inextricably linked. Marcellus and the Temple M. Claudius Marcellus, during the battle of Clastidium in 222 BC, dedicated a temple to Honos and Virtus. This was one of the first times that Virtus had been recognized as divine. The connection with Honos would have been obvious to most Romans as demonstrations of virtus led to election to public office and both were considered honos. The cult of Honos was already a long-standing tradition in Rome. The marriage of the two deities ensured that Virtus would also get proper respect from the Romans. But an objection by the pontiffs was that one temple could not properly house two gods because there would be no