Works and Other Worthy Writings (Aldine Edition)

That I share the mourning of this calamity with you, and that you are not affected otherwise than I myself am, I am most fully persuaded. For I, while my parent was still alive, never behaved toward you as superior to you. For he loved us all as he loved one, and called me his fellow-soldier more willingly than his son. For he considered this a designation of nature, but that a communion of virtue. Nay, often carrying me as an infant in his arms, he gave me into your hands and, as it were, entrusted me to your faith. Wherefore I have no doubt that you will show me every benevolence. For although the elders should hold me as a ward, I have called my equals, by the right of arms, my fellow-disciples, since the father loved us all as he loved one, and took care to have us all instructed in every pursuit of virtue and in good arts. Now, after him, fortune has given me to you as your prince, not, indeed, a foreign one, as those before me have been, nor one who glories as if in an acquired empire. For I alone was born and educated among you in the palace, and untouched by the cradles of private life, immediately as I had issued from the womb, the imperial purple received me, and the sun saw me as both a man and a prince at the same time. Reflecting on these things in your minds, honor by right the prince not given to you, but born to you. For my father, having now been raised to heaven, is a consort and a fellow-sitter of the gods. But the governance of the world and the care of human affairs weighs upon us. What success these will have, and how much strength they will possess, is in your hand. For if you shall bravely destroy the remnants of the war and advance the boundaries of the Roman empire as far as the ocean, you will not only acquire great glory for yourselves, but you will also return the debt of gratitude due to the memory of our common parent. And believe that he hears what we say and, being present, looks upon what we do. But we are most fortunate that we shall have such a witness of our good deeds. The things, therefore, that you have done most bravely and prosperously to this day are attributed, of course, to his wisdom and governance. The things, however, that you shall do magnificently with me—that is, with your young emperor—will bring forth for you yourselves a distinct clarity, both of faith and of virtue. Therefore, you will procure authority for my age by acting strenuously, and the barbarian tribe, having been repressed at the beginning of a new principate, will not, for the present, carry itself more audaciously in contempt of our age, and, having now been taught by its own perils, it will henceforth be restrained by perpetual fear. With these words, having distributed money in great abundance so that he might make the minds of the soldiers loyal to himself, he returned to the palace. Therefore, for a short time, all things were carried out under the guidance of his father’s friends. They were wanting in no place with their assiduity and prudent counsel, allowing him only as much leisure as they judged sufficient to protect his bodily health. Gradually, thereafter, some from the court attendants crept in, who would leave nothing undone to corrupt the young man’s