If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friends, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country. Such a choice may scandalize the modern reader, and he may stretch out his hand to the telephone at once and ring up the police. It would not have shocked [Dante Alighieri], though. Dante places Brutus and Cassius in the lowest circles of Hell because they had chosen their friend [Gaio Giulio Cesare] rather than their country Rome.