Valerius Maximus: Memorable Deeds and Sayings

I have decided to select from illustrious authors: He rightly puts the deeds before the words, as they carry more weight and are more inviting to imitate. And indeed, the Romans began to perform deeds brilliantly before they began to speak of them. These deeds and sayings were spread more widely among others—that is, among authors or writers—than could be expressed in elegant speech. Thus, I have decided to select those things that can be known briefly, just as they will now be able to be known. I mean chosen—that is, excerpts made with judgment—from illustrious—that is, distinguished—authors. Therefore, nothing trivial or trite will be brought forward. I decided this so that the labor of long research might be absent for those who wish—that is, for those who might desire—to take for themselves documents—that is, examples and monuments—by which they may be advised on what they ought to imitate and avoid in doing or speaking. This is the greatest fruit of reading history, whence Livy says in the preface: "This is the especially healthy and fruitful thing in the knowledge of events, to look upon documents of every kind of example set in an illustrious monument; from which you may take what you may imitate for yourself and your state, and what you may avoid as shameful in inception and shameful in outcome." Nor did the desire to encompass everything—that is, all deeds and sayings worthy of memory—seize me—that is, creep into me. It is also said "it seized you," as if challenging. For who could comprehend the deeds of all time in a modest number of volumes? I mean, no one. In this matter, however, Antonius Sabellicus earned great praise. Or who, if he were to attempt to encompass all things in a great number of volumes, being of sound mind—that is, not insane—would have hoped that he could hand down the series—that is, the rhapsody and coordination—of domestic—that is, of your city—and foreign—that is, external—history, compiled by the happy—that is, fertile and fortunate—style of predecessors—that is, prior writers? I mean, no one. And this is a clever piece of argumentation, concluding thus: Those who re-write what has been written by others can only with great difficulty encompass everything, for they will not be able to say everything in a few volumes, and in long ones they will either say the same things in the same way and be redundant, or they will be ridiculous. To promise to do so with attentive care—that is, to preserve the truth of the matter—or with more outstanding eloquence, is a sign of an arrogant mind or one not sufficiently consistent with itself. However, those who wish to imitate others have both to promise. For, as Livy says in the aforementioned preface: "While new writers always believe that they will bring something more certain to the matters, or that they will surpass the rudeness of antiquity in the art of writing."

OLIVE ¶ You, therefore, to whom: Now he begins to flatter. Thus also Virgil: "And you, therefore, for whom it is uncertain what councils of the gods will soon hold you," and the rest. And it is no wonder that he flatters so plainly, for it is not the custom for writers to invoke him. In this place, however, he invokes the Emperor as if he were a god, which he cannot do without flattery, because it is not the custom. Livy: "With good men, and with vows and prayers to the gods and goddesses, if it were the custom for us as it is for the poets, we would more willingly begin, so that they might give prosperous successes to the beginnings of such a great work." The consensus of men: Because the gods and men have agreed that you should obtain the command of the whole circle of lands and seas. Most certain safety: Because the safety of the fatherland is placed in you alone. For emperors were called parents of the fatherland through flattery. This was given to Cicero not through flattery after the Note extinction of the nefarious conspiracy of Catiline in his consulship. Juvenal: "Rome called Cicero, the liberator, father of the fatherland." Virtues are cherished and vices are punished. Perhaps he says this because he ought to do it—that is, to cherish virtues and punish vices—for when we say that a man does something great, if he does it, we confirm it; if he does not do it, we urge him to do it. Cherished—that is, sustained. For if the ancient orators: He shows that he has more rightly invoked the divinity of Caesar than the other gods, whom it is customary for orators and poets to invoke. He says, for if the ancient orators and poets began from some divinity, these from Jupiter, those from another divinity. "I, as I am lesser than the others, for this reason, I flee more justly to you, whom we see have deserved divine honors." Moreover, that the ancients invoked divinities before they began their speeches, Virgil shows in the 11th book of the Aeneid: "The king, having addressed the gods, sat upon his high throne." For Servius also, in the commentary on this poem, says thus: "By ancient custom, for the ancestors began no speech unless the divinities were invoked, as are all the speeches of Cato and the Gracchi, for we read a general heading in all of them." Whence Cicero says for derision: "If I should invoke Jupiter Optimus Maximus from some old speech, etc." From Jupiter Optimus Maximus: Cicero in the speech against Clodius: "Wherefore you, O Capitoline, whom..."

¶ YOU, therefore, I invoke for this undertaking, Caesar, under whom the consensus of men and gods wished for the governance of sea and land to be, whose heavenly providence the virtues (of which I am about to speak) are most kindly cherished, and vices most severely punished. For if the ancient orators began well from Jupiter Optimus Maximus; if the most excellent poets drew their beginnings from some divinity; my smallness will have run to your favor all the more justly, because the other divinity is collected by opinion, while yours, by present faith, seems equal to your fatherly and ancestral star, from whose excellent brightness much of illustrious clarity has been added to our ceremonies. For we have received the other gods, but we have given the Caesars. And since it is in my mind to seek the beginning from the worship of the gods, I shall discuss its condition summarily.

¶ "You, therefore, for this undertaking, etc.": After he proposed, he invokes, as I said, Tiberius Caesar, serving the time more than the truth. A vice of either flattery or timidity that also afflicted Lucan, who invokes Nero, and Martial, who invokes Domitian—the most terrible monsters of men. But I shall shorten my pen, as I will be brief, because I did not want to repeat or delete what was well said by Oliverius. The order, therefore, is: "Therefore, because I have decided to do this, O Caesar Tiberius, namely, I invoke you, the most certain safety of the fatherland—that is, our own (whence he deserves to be called father of the fatherland)—in whose power the consensus of men and gods (perhaps he adds the gods because of auspicious omens) wished the governance—that is, the empire—of sea and land to be; by whose heavenly providence the virtues of which I am about to speak are most kindly cherished, and vices are most severely punished." He then proves that he invokes rightly: "For if the ancient orators, like Cato, the Gracchi, and the others (about whom Oliverius speaks exactly) began well—that is, made their exordiums decently—or rather from Jupiter Optimus Maximus, epithets fitting the highest god: who, when he is called 'best', is understood to be supremely good and supremely knowing, for...