ulated them very
cleverly and to the greatest public good. He attached himself to the
strong ones, who were menacing the very city, and with them fought the
others till he made an end of them: when these were out of the way he in
turn freed us from the former. He chose against his will to surrender a
few to their wrath so that he might save the majority, and he chose to
assume a friendly attitude toward them individually so as not to have to
fight with them all at once. From this he derived no individual gain but
aided us all most evidently. Why should one speak at length to enumerate
his deeds in the wars both at home and abroad? Consider especially that
the former ought never to have occurred at all and that the latter by the
conquests gained show their advantages better than any words, moreover
that they largely depended upon chance, that the successes were obtained
with the aid of many citizens and many allies so that these deserve the
credit equally with him, and finally that the achievements might possibly
be compared with those of some others. These, accordingly, I shall put
aside. You can behold and read them inscribed in letters and characters
in many places. I shall speak only of the works which belong to Augustus
himself, which have never been performed by any other man, and have not
only caused our city to survive from many dangers of a sorts but have
rendered it more prosperous and powerful. The mention of them will confer
upon him a unique glory and will afford the elder among you an innocent
pleasure while giving the younger men an exact instruction in the
character and constitution of the government.

[-38-] "This Augustus, then, whom you deemed worthy of this title for the
very reasons just cited, as soon as he had freed himself from the civil
wars after acting and enduring (not in a way that pleased himself)
as Heaven approved, first of all preserved the lives of most of his
opponents, who were survivors of the army, and thus he in no way imitated
Sulla, called the Fortunate. Not to give you a list of all of them, who
does not know about Sosius, about Scaurus the brother of Sextus, and
particularly about Lepidus, who lived so long a time after his defeat and
continued to be high priest his whole life through? Next he honored his
companions in conflict with many great gifts, but did not allow them to
act in any arrogant way or to be wanton. You know thoroughly among others
in this category both Maecenas