thee certaine
bookes of old and auncient common wealth, which if it please
thee to vse, and as at other times I haue sayd vnto thee, thou
shalte finde mee to be a proclaimer of thy famous workes, and a
chronicler of all thy noble facts of armes: but if perchaunce
thou follow thine owne aduise, and chaunge thy selfe to bee
other than hitherto thou hast ben, presently I inuocate and cry
out vpon the immortall Gods, and this Letter shall be wytnesse,
that if any hurt do chaunce to thee, or to thine Empire, it is
not through the counsell or meanes of thy maister Plutarch. And
so farewell most Noble Prynce.

_The aunswere of the Emperour Traiane to hys mayster Plutarch._

Cocceius Traiane Emperour of Rome, to the Philosopher Plutarch,
sometimes my mayster: salutation and consolation in the Gods of
comfort. In Agrippina was deliuered vnto me a letter from thee,
whych so soone as I opened, I knew to be written wyth thine owne
hand, and endited with thy wysedom. So flowing was the same with
goodly woordes and accompanied with graue sentences, an occasion
that made mee reade the same twice or thrice, thinking that I
saw thee write and heard thee speak, and so welcome was the same
to me, as at that very instant I caused it to be red at my
table, yea and made the same to be fixed at my bed's heade, that
thy well meanyng vnto me might be generally knowen, how mutch I
am bound vnto thee. I esteemed for a good presage the
congratulation that the Consul Rutulus did vnto me from thee,
touchinge my commyng to the empire: I hope through thy merites,
that I shall be a good Emperoure. Thou sayest in thy letter,
that thou canste by no meanes beleue that I haue giuen bribes,
and vsed meanes to buye myne Empire, as other haue done. For
aunswere thereunto I say, that as a man I haue desired it, but
neuer by solicitation or other meanes attempted it: for I neuer
saw wythin the City of Rome any man to bribe for honour, but for
the same, some notable infamy chaunced vnto hym, as for example
wee may learne of the Good old man Menander, my friende and thy
neyghbour, who to be Consul, procured the same by vnlawful
meanes, and therfore in the end was banished and died
desperately. The greate Caius Caesar, and Tiberius, Caligula,
Cladius, Nero, Galba, Otho Vitelius, and Domitian, some for
usurpyng the Empire, some for tyranny, some for gettyng it by
bribes, and some by other meanes procuryng the same, lost
(by the sufferance of the righteous go