 Cicero chooses examples that, in combining military with family, evoke core ancient Roman values. Torquatus then defends his ancestors’ behaviour in terms compatible with Epicurean theory. Focusing in particular on the first Torquatus, he argues that he acted to uphold his authority at a time of war, and therefore to enhance his own security and so, ultimately, pleasure. More striking than the details of Torquatus’ explanation is that he feels the need to give it. Why could he not have said that his ancestors were misguided and that it took later generations to see the Epicurean light? Torquatus says explicitly that he has no reason to fear that he cannot ‘accommodate’ his ancestors to the Epicurean view (1.34). That he rises to Cicero’s challenge in this way indicates that ancestral behaviour has normative force for him: his ancestors must be read as acting from (what he considers) the correct motives.