rate all the days of their reigns as
if those days had followed one after another in orderly succession, but
make a single sweeping calculation with the exact time, as I have stated
it, in mind.

[Sidenote:--18--] At his death Titus succeeded to the imperial power.
Titus as a ruler committed no act of murder or passion, but showed himself
upright, though the victim of plots, and self-controlled, though Berenice
came to Rome again. Perhaps this was because he had undergone a change.
(To share a reign with somebody else is a very different thing from being
one's self an independent ruler. In the former case persons are heedless
of the good name of the sovereignty and enjoy greedily the authority it
gives them, thus doing many things that make their position the object of
envy and slander. Actual monarchs, on the other hand, knowing that
everything depends on their decision, have some eye to good repute as well
as to other matters. So Titus said to somebody whose society he had
previously affected: "It is not the same thing to desire something from
another as to decide a case yourself, nor to ask something from another as
it is to give it to some one yourself.") Perhaps his satisfactory conduct
was also due to his surviving so short a time compared with most rulers,
for he was thus given little opportunity for wrongdoing. For he lived
after this only two years, two months and twenty days in addition to his
thirty-nine years, five months and twenty-five days. People compare this
feature of Titus's career with the fullness of years of Augustus, and say
that the latter would never have won affection if he had lived a shorter
time, nor the former, if he had lived longer. Augustus, though at the
outset he had shown himself rather harsh because of the wars and the
political factions, was able later in the course of time to become
distinguished for his kindnesses: Titus ruled with forbearance and died at
the summit of his glory, whereas if he had enjoyed a longer life, it might
have been proved that he owes his present fame more to good fortune than
to virtue.

[Sidenote:--19--] It is worth noting that Titus during his reign put no
senator to death, nor was any one else slain by him all the time that he
was emperor. Cases involving maiestas he would never entertain himself nor
allow others to entertain, for he said: "It is impossible for me to be
insulted or outraged in any way. I do naught that deserves censure and I
care not f