---
title: "Thanksgiving for His Consulship · Gratiarum actio"
author: "Ausonius"
translator: "Hugh G. Evelyn-White"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
url: https://scriptura.si/works/ausonius-thanksgiving/
cite: "Ausonius, tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Thanksgiving for His Consulship · Gratiarum actio. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/ausonius-thanksgiving/"
---

# Thanksgiving for His Consulship · Gratiarum actio

*Ausonius, tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White*

Ausonius thanks the emperor Gratian for making his old teacher consul in 379.

> Latin: ed. Hugh G. Evelyn-White, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit, stoa0045.stoa014, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: Hugh G. Evelyn-White, from the Perseus Digital Library (stoa0045.stoa014.perseus-eng1). Notes are not included.

> Rows follow the references the two texts share (chapters and sections), cut where both reach the end of a sentence.

## Contents

1. [Sections 1–9](https://scriptura.si/works/ausonius-thanksgiving/1.md)
2. [Sections 10–17](https://scriptura.si/works/ausonius-thanksgiving/2.md)

## 1. Sections 1–9

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/ausonius-thanksgiving/1/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/ausonius-thanksgiving/1/#p-N

[¶0] 1. I express my thanks to you, most gracious Emperor; could I do so, I would also make repayment. But neither does your estate need any interchange of bounty, nor does mine supply the ability to return it. Men of private station alone have the opportunity for being liberal to one another: your favours at once surpass all others in their princely scale and demand no requital. And so 1 express my thanks—all that is in my power to do: yet in such a way as one is wont to do in the presence of God, with greater fulness of feeling than of speech. And it is not in the shrine of the imperial oracle, a place where feelings of subdued fear and reverent awe rarely permit your subject to exhibit outwardly all that he feels within; but it is at all times and in all places that I express my thanks, now silently in my own heart, now with my tongue, now in company with others, now by myself, whether I speak openly or reflect inwardly and apart, in every place, deed, habit, and season. Nor is it surprising that I set no limit to the expression of my gratitude, seeing that you do not know how to set any bound to your gracious favours. For what place, what time is there which docs not remind me of this or some similar cause for thankfulness? Do I say “remind”? What a weak and feeble connotation has that word! Is there any place, I say. which does not thrill and fire me with a sense of your bounty? There is no place, I say, Most Gracious Emperor, but stamps my consciousness with the wondrous image of \ our most worshipful majesty; not the Court, which was so formidable when you succeeded, and which you have made so agreeable: not the forum and basilicas, which once reechoed with legal business, but now with the taking of vows for your well-being—for under your rule who is there whose property is not secure?—; not the Senate-house, now happy in the business of passing resolutions in your honour as formerly gloomy and troubled with complaints; not the public highways where the sight of so many joyous faces suffers no one to be alone in showing delight; not the universal privacy of the home. The very bed, destined for our repose, is made more restful as we reflect upon your benefits: slumber, which blots out everything, nevertheless presents your picture to our gaze. As for that throne of honour, the curule chair surrounded with all the splendid circumstance which belongs to a rank which confers the imperium, to the proud elevation of which you have exalted me from so ordinary a station, as often as I think of it, its grandeur overpowers me and I am reduced to silence, being not merely loaded by your bounty, but overwhelmed. Your presence, indeed, is felt in all places and we are no longer surprised at the supposed extravagance of the poets who have declared that “all things arc full of God.”' You surpass our hopes, you anticipate all we can desire, you outstrip our fondest wishes; and the swiftness of our thought, which claims to be something divine, is outdistanced by your benefits which outrun it. For you to fulfil a wish is more instantaneous than for us to conceive it.

> Latin: 1. Ago tibi gratias, imperator Augusto; si possem, etiam referrem. sed neque tua fortuna desiderat remunerandi vicem neque nostra suggerit restituendi facultatem, privatorum ista copia est inter se esse munificos: tua beneficia ut maiestate praecedunt, ita mutuum non reposcunt. quod solum igitur nostrae opis est, gratias ago: verum ita, ut apud deum fieri amat, sentiendo copiosius quam loquendo. atque non in sacrario ⟨loco⟩ imperialis oraculi, qui locus horrore tranquillo et pavore venerabili raro eundem animum praestat et vultum tui; sed usquequaque gratias ago, tum tacens, tum loquens, tum in coetu hominum, tum ipse mecum, et cum voce patui. et cum meditatione secessi, omni loco actu habitu et tempore, nec mirum, si ego terminum non statuo tam grata profitendi, cum tu finem facere nescias honorandi. quis enim locus est aut dies, qui non me Iulius aut similis gratulationis admoneat? admoneat autem? o inertiam significationis ignavae! quis, impiam, loeus est, qui non beneficiis tuis agitet, inflammet? nullus, inquam, imperator Augusto, quin admirandam speciem tuae venerationis incutiat: non palatium, quod tu, cum terribile acceperis, amabile praestitisti: non forum et basilicae, olim negotiis plena, nunc votis pro tua salute susceptis: nam de sua cui non te imperante securitas? non curia honorificis modo laeta decretis, olim sollicitis maesta querimoniis; non publicum, in quo occursus gaudentium plurimorum neminem patitur solum gratulari; non domus commune.secretum. lectus ipse, ad quietem datus, beneficiorum tuorum reputatione tranquillior. somnus, abolitor omnium, imagines tuas offert, ista autem sedes honoris, sella curulis, gloriosa pompis imperialis officii, in cuius me fastigio ex qua mediocritate posuisti, quotiens a me cogitatur, vincor magnitudine et redigor ad silentium, non oneratus beneficiis, sed oppressus, ades enim locis omnibus, nec iam miramur licentiam poetarum, qui omnia deo plena dixerunt. spem superas, cupienda praevenis, vota praceurris: quaeque animi nostri celeritas divinum instar adfectat, beneficiis praceuntibus anteceditur. praestare tibi est, quam nobis optare, velocius.

[¶1] 2. Therefore I express my thanks, most gracious Emperor. And if anyone attributes so frequent a repetition in the same words of this phrase of mine to the speaker's poverty of speech, let him try to work out this same theme, and he will not be able to produce anything more eloquent. For I am now expressing thanks, not with intent to flatter any royal vanity and not without proofs of my assertions, to a most valiant emperor—as witness the pacification in a single year of the Danubian and Rhenish frontiers: 2 to one most generous; the wealth of the Army shows as much: to one most merciful; the safety which man's waywardness enjoys declares this: to one most statesmanlike; the organization of the east by so great a prince is proof enough: to one most dutiful; there is the amplest evidence to confirm this tribute—the canonization of his father with divine honours, the association of his brother,3 just as though he were a son, with himself in the imperial authority, the avenging of the outrage suffered by his uncle in war,4 the pairing of a son and father together in joint control of a prefecture, 5 and the election of his tutor to the consulate. I could enumerate all those titles which your valour has won for you in the past, those which Fortune has granted you so recently, and those which Heaven's favour is still designing for you: I might call you Germanicus in virtue of the surrender of that race to you; Alamannicus, because of the prisoners whom you transplanted: Sarmaticus,1 because you conquered and forgave that people: I might string together all the distinctions won by your valour, and all the titles earned by your good fortune; but that is another theme and one which will be treated in its own separate place, when 1 decide that the time has come to sketch distinctly and briefly all my facts without following them out in detail—like those who confine a map of the world to the compass of a single sheet, thereby causing it to lose something in impressiveness, but without any sacrifice of truth. But now for the special business of this day, which is to express thanks for my consulate. And yet there are other distinctions besides, which push to the front and burst out into cries of acknowledgment, claiming that they have the right to do this first. All those honours heaped upon me at once under the title of “companion” in acknowledgment of your upbringing; the quaestorship for which I have to thank you, though it was held under the joint sovereignty of your father and yourself, and the praefecture which I owe to your kindness alone. This latter in its very self is not content with a single acknowledgment for the larger bounty which divided rather than kept it one: since two of us now possess it complete, neither desires it apart.

> Latin: 2. Ago igitur gratias, optime imperator, ac si quis hunc sermonem meum isdem verbis tam saepe repetitum inopiae loquentis adsignat, experiatur hoc idem persequi, et nihil poterit proferre facundius. aguntur enim gratiae non propter maiestatis ambitum nec sine argumentis imperatori fortissimo: testis est uno pacatus in anno et Danuvii limes et Rheni; liberalissimo: ostentat hoc dives exercitus; indulgentissimo: docet securitas erroris humani; consultissimo: probat hoc tali principe oriens ordinatus: piissimo: huius vero laudis locupletissimum testimonium est pater divinis honoribus consecratus, instar filii ad imperium frater adscitus, a contumelia belli patruus vindicatus, ad praefecturae collegium filius cum patre coniunctus, ad consulatum praeceptor electus, possum ire per omnes appellationes tuas. quas olim virtus dedit, quas proxime fortuna concessit, quas adhuc indulgentia divina meditatur: vocarem 1 Germanicum deditione gentilium. Alamannieum traductione captorum, vincendo et ignoscendo Sarmaticum; conecterem omnia merita virtutis et cognomina felicitatis: sed alia est ista materia et suo parata secreto, eum placuerit signanter et breviter omnia, quae novimus, indicare nec persequi, ut qui terrarum orbem unius tabulae ambitu circumscribunt aliquanto detrimento magnitudinis, nullo dispendio veritatis. Nunc autem, quod diei huius proprium, de consulatu gratias agam. Sed procurrunt et aliae dignitates atque in vocem gratulationis erumpunt ac se prius debere profitentur. tot gradus nomine cernitis propter tua incrementa congesti: ex tuo merito te ac patre principibus quaestura communis et tui tantum praefectura beneficii, quae et ipsa non vult vice simplici gratulari, liberalius divisa quam iuncta: cum teneamus duo integrum, neuter desiderat separatum.

[¶2] 3. But these honours, as I promised just now. shall have their special place apart for paying their tribute. At the present moment my consulship begs and prays you to allow one whom you have set above all to submit his high degree to yourself alone. And how many further degrees were added to this honour! Not only was I associated in this high office with a distinguished colleague,1 and designated as the senior, but by your favour, most gracious Emperor, I became consul without undergoing the ordeal of the hustings, the Campus Martius, the canvassing, the registration, the gratuities; I have not had to shake hands, nor have I been so confused by crowds of people pressing to greet me as to have been unable to call my friends by their proper names, or to have given them names which were not theirs: I have not had to visit the tribes, to flatter the centuries, I have not trembled as the classes were called upon to vote. I have made no deposit with a trustee, nor given any pledge to a financial agent. The Roman people, the Field of Mars, the Equestrian Class, the Rostra, the hustings, the Senate and the Senate House—Gratian alone was all of these for me. I have the right to declare, most mighty Emperor, and that without offending any of those who have ever attained or shall attain hereafter to this distinction in right of various qualities (for everyone has his own spirit, his own deserts, his own conscience): I can, I repeat, rightfully declare that my consulship seems to stand apart from the consulships of other men. Some are cruelly grieved by the disappointment of their hopes: I longed for nothing; some busy themselves in canvassing for this honour: I never sought it; some extort it by their importunity: I brought no pressure to bear; some owe their designation to the accident of their presence:2 I was not at the court; some use their wealth to help them: the morality of our age forbids such a practice; I did not buy this honour, yet cannot boast any self-restraint: I had no money. One thing only I have tried to make sure of, and even that I cannot claim as my own; for it depends upon your valuation whether I have been deserving.

> Latin: 3. Sed illa, ut paulo ante promisi, habebunt sui numeris peculiare secretum, consulatus hic meus orat atque obsecrat, ut obnoxiam tibi uni sinas fieri eius dignitatem, quem omnibus praetulisti. quot quidem et ipse sibi invenit gradus! eum clarissimo viro collega meo honore coniunctus, nuncupatione praelatus, consul ego, imperator Auguste, munere tuo non passus saepta neque campum, non suffragia, non puncta, non loeulos: qui non prensaverim manus nec salutantium confusus occursu aut sua amicis nomina non reddiderim, aut aliena imposuerim: qui tribus non circumivi, centurias non adulavi, voeatis classibus non intremui, nihil cum sequestre deposui, eum distributore nil pepigi. Romanus populus, Martius campus, equester ordo, rostra, ovilia, senatus, curia, unus mihi omnia Gratianus. iure meo, Auguste maxime, adfirmare possum incolumi omnium gratia, qui ad hunc honorem diversa umquam virtute venerunt venturique sunt (suus, enim cuique animus, uum meritum sibique mens conscia est), iure, inquam meo adfirmare possum me mihi videri a ceteris esse secretum, sunt quos votorum cruciat inanitas: non optavi; quos exercet ambitus: non petivi; qui adsiduitate exprimunt: non coegi; qui offeruntur occasione: non adfui; quos iuvat opulentia: obstat temporum disciplina: non emi, nec possum continentiam iactare: non habui. unum praestare temptavi, et hoc ipsum quasi meum vindicare non possum: in tua enim positum est opinione, si merui.

[¶3] 4. You have appointed, and will appoint others also as consuls, most kindly Gratian, but never on similar grounds. Men of military renown: and as these are always associated with you in the toils of empire, so they, in common with you, hold the greater share in its distinctions, having been your colleagues in soldierly virtue before they became so in civil dignities; men of ancient and famous lineage: for an illustrious name secures much, and distinction may serve as a substitute for achievements; men distinguished for their trustworthiness and tested by official duties: and though I do not place myself outside this category, yet, so tar as the path to honours is concerned, I differ in my qualifications. And to this new favour of yours, your Majesty, you add a fourth degree,1 in that you disparage yourself to do another honour, give the credit of the excellences of your mind to the effieacy of exterior influence, and with greater generosity than truth, misrepresent those natural accomplishments which you owe to God, to your father, and to yourself as the product of a stranger's efforts. Your own words written to me in your own hand declare: that you are discharging a debt which yon owe, and still owe what yon hare discharged. Oh, how that sentence is overlaid with the gold of your nature! How sustaining is the milk of these words, springing from the sincerest of breasts! Is there anyone who shrinks so modestly from arrogant display of his generosity? Anyone who thus alleges that his favours have no other weight but the receiver's work? Anyone who, in a word, prefers to call his gifts payment as though rendered by a debtor? Let those famous spokesmen of old, those orators of Homer—Menelaus, with his subdued but subtle mode of speech, the chieftain of Ithaca, so like a heavy storm of hail, Nestor, the survivor of three generations, whose lips were steeped in honey—let those seek to rival such a sentence! Yet for all his compression and Spartan conciseness, the first will utter nothing neater; the second, though he heap up words and ideas, nothing more forcible; the last, nothing sweeter, although his gentle speech persuaded rather by charming than overbearing. You say that you are paying a debt you owe and will still be in debt when you have paid. My young sovereign, may He who is the Ruler of heaven and of mankind grant that you may excel those ancients, even above whom the choiceness of that one sentence has placed you, and outstrip each one of them in his peculiar quality—Menelaus in kingly majesty, Ulysses in discretion, and Nestor in length of days.

> Latin: 4. Fecisti autem et facies alios quoque consules, piissime Gratiane, sed non et causa pari. viros gloriae militaris: habent enim tecum, ut.semper laboris, ita dignitatis plerumque consortium, virtutis quam honoris antiquiore collegio; viros nobilitatis antiquae: dantur enim multa nominibus et est fama pro merito; viros fide inclitos et officiis probatos: quorum me etiamsi non secerno numero, tamen, quod ad honoris viam pertinet, ratione dispertio. Quartum hunc gradum novi beneficii tu, Auguste, constituis: differre tibi ipsi, quo alter ornetur, bona animi tui ad alienam referre praestantiam cruditionemque naturae, quam deo et patri et tibi debes, ad alterius efficaciam gratius retorquere quam verius, tua haec verba sunt a te mihi scripta: solvere te, quod debeas et adhuc debere, quod solvens, o mentis aureae dictum bratteatum! o de pectore candidissimo lactei sermonis alimoniam! quisquamne tam parcus est in ostentatione beneficii? quisquam pondus gratiae suae vim meriti profitetur alieni? quisquam denique quod indulget, quasi ab obnoxio deferatur, pretium mavult vocare quam donum? certent huic sententiae veteres illi et Homerici oratores, subtilis deducta oratione Menelaus et instar profundae grandinis ductor Ithaeensius et melleo delibutus eloquio iam tertiae Nestor aetatis: sed neque ille concinnius eloquetur, qui se Laconica brevitate collegit, nec ille contortius, qui cum sensibus verba glomeravit, nec iste dulcius, cuius lenis oratio mulcendo potius quam extorquendo persuasit, solvere te dicis, quod debeas et debiturum esse, cum solvens. Auguste iuvenis, caeli tibi et humani generis rector hoc tribuat, ut praelatus antiquis, quos etiam elegantia sententiae istius antecessisti, vineas propria singulorum: in Menelao regiam dignationem, in Ulixe prudentiam, in Nestore senectutem.

[¶4] 5. Someone will interpose: “It is true you have received all these benefits, but, tell me, how have you deserved them?” Why do you cast this burden upon me, Master Inquisitor? No man gives a reason for his prosperity. God, and he who stands next to God, distributes blessings at will, and disdaining to await man's verdict on his favours, chooses rather in the persons of the uplifted to perform a miracle. “How have I deserved them,” you ask? I know of no grounds, except that you, most kindly Emperor, say that you owe a debt: and this word “owe” admits of very wide interpretation. Either you consider this debt to be the interest on the principal of your education; or, apart from this interest, you seek after the renown which bounty earns; or you arc discharging yourself of the burden of a pledge which you have incurred; or else with a heavenly loftiness of soul and without a trace of vanity you are imitating God's function. You say you owe a debt. To whom then? Or when did you contract it? On what account? Read the bill over: name the creditor: let the accounts for receipts and expenditure be laid before the court. When this is done you will see that the debit balance is not against you but against another. It is God who now begins to owe you a debt on my behalf. But what do you owe me, most gracious Emperor—for your kindly nature permits me to set aside your kingly qualities and use this familiar form of complimentary address?1 What do you owe me? And on the other side, what do I not owe you? Is it because I was your tutor? I can turn this about and say more exactly that I was deemed worthy to teach you; that so many men superior to me in eloquence and learning were passed over; that the honourable choice fell upon me, in order that you might have a man equipped with ripe years whom your impetuous generosity might advance through all the stages of a distinguished career; and that you seemed to fear that my life might fail while there still remained unbestowed something which you ought to bestow.

> Latin: 5. Subiciet aliquis: ista quidem adeptus es, sed effare, quo merito? quid me oneras, sciscitator? rationem felicitatis nemo reddit, deus et qui deo proximus tacito munera dispertit arbitrio et beneficiorum suorum indignatus per homines stare iudicium. mavult de subditis dedisse miraculum, quo, inquis, merito? ego nullum scio, nisi quod tu, piissime imperator, debere te dicis: et hoc debere latissime pertinet, sive hoc eruditionis tuae faenus existimas, sive sine faenore gloriam liberalitatis adfectas, sive te pondere conceptae sponsionis exoneras, seu fidei commissum patris exsolvis. seu magnanimitate caelesti ostentatione suppressa, dei munus imitaris. debere te dicis, cui? quando? quo nomine? lege syngrapham, nomina creditorem; accepti et expensi tabulae conferantur: videbis alio summae istius transire rationem, tibi coepit deus debere pro nobis, quid autem mihi debes, gratissime imperator? patitur enim humanitas tua, ut praeter regias virtutes privata appellatione lauderis. quid tu mihi debes? et contra quid non ego tibi debeo? anne quod docui? hoc ego possum verius retorquere, dignum me habitum, qui docerem; tot facundia doctrinaque praestantes inclinata in me dignatione praeteritos, ut esset quem tu matura iam aetate succinctum per omnes honorum gradus festinata bonitate proveheres; timere ut videreris, ne in me vita deficeret, dum tibi adhuc aliquid, quod deberes praestare, superesset.

[¶5] 6. Cicero, after his consulate, declared that he had nothing more to long for.1 I for my part, though I am a consul and an old man to boot, will confess to a ravenous appetite. I long to see you, Gratian, holding this office so many more times that your total may equal the sum of the six consulships of Valerius Corvinus, 2 the seven of Caius Marius, and the thirteen of Augustus, whose name you bear. Your youth and your exalted station can secure for you a still greater number; but I am sparing in my estimate, because you are so generous in bestowing this honour. For too often you cheat yourself of it to lavish it upon others. You know, most learned Emperor (for once again I will use a personal mode of complimentary address), you know, I say, that the seventeen consulates of Domitian 3 which, in his jealousy of the advancement of others, he held in an unbroken series, brought down such ridicule upon his selfishness that this page of his annals, nay, rather, of his arrogance, made him overbearingly proud but could not make him happy. But if the Sovereign ought to observe a well-calculated and, as the saying goes, a golden mean in holding this dignity, what moderation ought men of private station, of calm judgment, and lastly, of advanced age to observe? For myself, I have sated even my desires, so far as my own distinctions are concerned; but you, my most excellent, my most gracious Sovereign, you who never weary in your generosity except when you have no scope for it, you, I repeat, most bountiful Gratian, have such a quick and surprising inventiveness in conferring favours, that even now some addition to be conferred upon me under this head will be found. “Will be found”? Such a conviction have all men felt, in such wise have you yourself created this rank for me, such is your intimacy with the deity, that what we hope for is straightway granted by you, and what we have not yet hoped for is bestowed upon us.

> Latin: 6. Negat Cicero consularis ultra se habere, quod cupiat, ego autem iam consul et senex adhuc aviditatem meam fatebor, te videre saepius in hoc magistratu, Gratiane, desidero, ut et sex Val. Corvini et septem C. Marii et cognominis tui Augusti tredecim consulatus unus aequiperes. plures tibi potest aetas et fortuna tua praestare; verum ego in numero parcior, quia tu in munere liberalior: ipsum enim te saepius hoc honore defraudas, ut et aliis largiaris. scis enim, imperator doctissime (rursum enim utar laude privata), scis, inquam, septem ac decem Domitiani consulatus, quos ille invidia alios provehendi continuando conseruit, ita in eius aviditate derisos, ut haec eum pagina fastorum suorum, immo fastidiorum, fecerit insolentem nec potuerit praestare felicem, quod si principi honoris istius temperata et quae vocatur aurea debet esse modioeritas, quid privati status hominibus, quid aequanimis, quid iam senibus erga se oportet esse moderaminis? ego quidem, quod ad honores meos pertinet, et vota satum vi: tu tamen, imperator optime, tu piissime, tu quem non fatigat liberalitas, nisi quando cessavit: tu, inquam, indulgentissime Gratiane, ut ad benefaciendum subito es necopinus ingenio, adhuc aliquid, quod hoc nomine mihi praestetur, invenies, invenies? sic. intellexero omnes, sic nubis ordinem ipse fecisti, sic amicus deo es, ut a te iam impetratum sit, quod optatur, a quo et quod nondum optamus, adipiscimur.

[¶6] 7. But again someone will comment freely in speech, yet more freely in thought: “Were there not in the past and even in ancient times many such tutors? Or are you the only man who has had an Emperor for his pupil?” No, indeed! But while I am only one of many so far as my employment goes, I stand apart with very few in virtue of this distinction. I do not wish to cast reflections upon my fellows in this calling in the age of Constantine: there were princes and they were instructed. I will go back to earlier times. Fact proves more surely than words that Seneca, who for all his wealth was not a consul, did not discipline the nature of Nero, but merely gave arms to his cruelty. And though Quintilian obtained the consular distinction by grace of Clemens,1 he seems to have held an honorary title rather than the actual emblems of power. So too with the tutor Titianus; 2 but for all his boastful assumption, while alternating between the provincial school of Visontio (Besancon) and Lugdunum (Lyons), not through years but through light esteem he fell into a decline. The one and only precedent and one which I must frankly accept is the case of Fronto; 3 and yet this tutor to an Emperor, though he had the distinction of a consulate, was never invested with the authority of a prefect. But what sort of a consulship was it which he held? Acting as the substitute to an ordinary 4 consul, made to fill up a gap of two months, and dismissed in the sixth part of a year, this great orator has left us to find out for ourselves in which year he held the consulate. But here is another objection which may be raised: “Are you then so conceited as to exalt yourself to the height attained by that great orator?” To such a question I will answer briefly: “No, I do not set myself up as Fronto's rival, but I rank Gratian before Antoninus. It is true 1 that all the world over, every city which lives under our governance observes these annual days of festival, Rome as a matter of custom, Constantinople out of imitation, Antioch out of love for indulgence, as also do degenerate Carthage and Alexandria, the gift of its river 2; but Trèves is enabled to do this by the kindness of our prince, and will soon do so in company with the author of that kindness. All these places are far apart, but the prayers they offer up are all to one effect: one name is on the lips of all—the name of Gratian, Gratian who in virtue of his authority is styled Imperator; of his courage, the Victorious;” of his sacred person, Augustus; of his devotion, Pontifex; of his tenderness, Father; of his age, a Son; and of natural affection, both one and the other.

> Latin: 7. Et rursum aliquis adiciet aut sermone libere aut cogitatione liberius: nonne olim et apud veteres multi eiusdem modi doctores fuerunt? an tu solus praeceptor Augusti? immo ego cum multis coniunctus officio, sed cum paucissimis secretus exemplo, nolo Constantini temporum taxare collegas: Caesares docebantur. superiora contingam. dives Seneca nec tamen consul, arguetur rectius quam praedicabitur non erudiisse indolem Neronis, sed armasse saevitiam. Quintilianus consularia per Clementem ornamenta sortitus honestamenta nominis potius videtur quam insignia potestatis habuisse. quo modo Titianus magister, sed gloriosus ille, municipalem scholam apud Visontionem Lugdunumque variando non aetate equidem, sed vilitate consenuit. unica mihi et amplectenda est Frontonis imitatio: quem tamen Augusti magistrum sic consulatus ornavit, ut praefectura non cingeret. sed consulatus ille cuius modi? ordinario suffectus, bimenstri spatio interpositis, in sexta anni parte consumptus, quae- rendum ut reliquerit tantus orator, quibus consulibus gesserit consulatum. Ecce aliud, quod aliquis opponat: in tanti te ergo oratoris fastigium gloriosus attollis? cui talia requirenti respondebo breviter: non ego me contendo Frontoni, sed Antonino praefero Gratianum. celebrant equidem sollemnes istos dies omnes ubique urbes, quae sub legibus agunt, et Roma de more et Constantinopolis de imitatione et Antiochia pro luxu et Carthago discincta et donum fluminis Alexandria: sed Treveri principis beneficio et mox cum ipso auctore beneficii, loca inter se distant, vota consentiunt, unus in ore omnium Gratianus, potestate imperator, virtute victor, Augustus sanctitate, pontifex religione, indulgentia pater, aetate filius, pietate utrumque.

[¶7] 8. “I am not able to display portraits of my ancestors in proof of good faith,” as Marius says in Sallust:4 I cannot unroll a pedigree to show my descent from heroes, or that 1 am of the lineage of the gods: I cannot boast of uncounted wealth and ancestral estates dotted all over the kingdoms of the world: but 1 can mention without vaunting advantages which are less fabulous. I can mention my birthplace, a city not unrenowned; my family, of which I have no need to be ashamed; my unblemished home; my life passed of my own free will without a spot; my scanty means (though enriched with books and learning); my simple yet not stingy tastes; my liberal intellect; my not illiberal spirit; the unostentatious refinement of my diet, my dress and the appointments of my house; so that, if anyone should think me worthy of comparison with those famous consuls of past days (excluding from the comparison those war-like qualities which then flourished), let him deny me their wealth without belittling my diligence. But in this expression of gratitude, my subject has long overpowered me: you, Gratian, must come to the help of my words. You, Gratian, who have received this name by chance, yet by so happy a chance that no one out of flattery has ever tried to find one more appropriate—for Metellus was less rightly surnamed the Dutiful when he recalled his father (since he would have been undutiful had he kept him in exile), and Sulla was less exactly called the Lucky (since he was luckier before he was so named), than you are named Gratian; you, who besides this name also bear those titles of Metellus and Sulla, you, Gratian, I repeat, who have earned your name not by isolated deeds but by the continual kindliness of your gracious life, you who would have received this as a surname by general consent had you not inherited it from your grandfather, you, I repeat, must yourself render thanks to yourself on my behalf. It is a task for you and for your high powers: for that kindness, so frequently shown to all, and so continually to me; for that natural affection with which you guide your subject world, and which you proved by avenging your uncle's death, doubled by maintaining your brother, and redoubled by raising your tutor to distinction. Let that indulgence which you vouchsafe to mankind render you thanks; that generosity with which you enrich all; that courage which enables you to conquer; and that golden spirit which you have drawn more freely than any single man from the God of us all. So also let the voice of every province in the three Gauls render thanks on my behalf, since it is upon their prefect that you have bestowed this distinction. I go even farther—and this I add because you say you are in my debt: let that render you thanks which can best render it, I mean that voice which I have trained.

> Latin: 8. “Non possum fidei causa ostendere imagines maiorum meorum,” ut ait apud Sallustium Marius, nec deductum ab heroibus genus vel deorum stemma replicare, nec ignotas opes et patrimonia sparsa sub regnis: sed ea, quae nota sunt, dicere potius, quam praedicare: patriam non obscuram, familiam non paenitendam, domum innocentem, innocentiam non coactam, angustas opes, verumtamen libris et litteris dilatatas, frugalitatem sine sordibus, ingenium liberale, animum non inliberalem, victum, vestitum, supellectilem munda, non splendida: veteribus ut illis consulibus (excepta, quae tum erant, bellicarum conlatione virtutum) si quis me conferre dignetur. seponat opulentiam non derogaturus industriam. Verum quoniam gratiis agendis iamdudum succumbo materiae: tu orationi meae, Gratiane, succede. tu, Gratiane, qui hoc nomen sic per fortunam adeptus es, ut nemo verius ambitione quaesierit: neque enim iustius Metellus cognomento Pius patre revocatis qui esset impius exulante; aut verius Sulla Felix, qui felicior ante, quam vocaretur; quam tu, Gratianus: cui et hoc nomen est, et illa Metelli Sullaeque cognomina. tu, inquam, Gratiane, qui hoc non singulis factis, sed perpetua grate agendi benignitate meruisti: cui, nisi ab avo deductum esset, ab omnibus adderetur: tu ipse tibi, inquam, pro me gratiam refer, tu tuaeque virtutes: bonitas, qua in omnes prolixus es, perpetuus in me; pietas, qua orbem tuum temperas, quam in ulciscendo patruo probas, tuendo in fratre cumulas, ornando in praeceptor multiplicas. agat gratias clementia, quam humano generi impertis; liberalitas, qua ditas omnes; fortitudo, qua vineis, et mens ista aurea, quam de communi deo plus quam unus hausisti. agant et pro me gratias voces omnium Galliarum, quarum praefecto hanc honorificentiam detulisti. ultra progredior, et hoc quia debere te dicis: agat, quae optime agere potest, vox ista, quam docui.

[¶8] 9. But grateful as my heart is, my words are all too feeble, and, as I have already said, I have long sunk under the theme. Moreover, I have not yet touched upon those matters which not even the sorriest speaker, unless he were likewise the most sacrilegious, would pass over, exalted as they are by fame and attested by universal delight—matters so far beyond my powers of speech that I hesitate to touch upon them, and I must either be proved guilty on a charge of ingratitude, or be blamed for my rash pretensions. And yet since I must suffer one of these two things, I prefer to be censured for over boldness than for ill-will. You, most worshipful Emperor, amid all the distractions of a most serious war, amid the onslaughts of all those thousands of savages who dwell along the shores of the Danube, held the elections for my consulate in full panoply. Shall I speak of them as elections by the people in tribes because they were held in the city of Sirmium? Or in centuries, because they were held in the war-zone? Or shall we call them pontifical elections, as in old days,1 since they were held, as elections to the priestly college were held, without reference to the people's will? That is best, that is their right description, seeing that you, who presided over them, are the Pontifex Maximus and a participator in the designs of God. It is not a part of my character, most devout Emperor, to invent such words as these. They are the words of your letter, in which you enlarge upon the authority of the Supreme Disposer and of your own will. This is what you say: When I was privately considering the appointment of consuls for the year, I referred my purpose to God. as you know I do, and as I was bound to do, and as I knew you wished me to do. In obedience to his prompting I have designated you as consul, proclaimed you as such, and given your name the precedence. What speech could be more dearly arranged? What learned man more careful to use only the terms customary at elections, without mixing untechnical words with the time-honoured phrases? No more of you henceforth, you classes of the people, you privileged city-tribes and centuries called up in due order! What elections have ever been more adequately attended than these, where God furnished the design, and the Emperor gave it effect?

> Latin: 9. Iamdudum autem quam grati animi, tam sermonis exigui, ut supra dictum est, succumbo materiae, neque adhuc illa perstrinxi, quae ne infantissimus quidem, nisi idem impiissimus, eminentia per famam et omnium gaudiis testata supprimeret; quae supra vires dicendi meas posita cunctor attingere, aut ingrati crimine arguendus aut temerarii professione culpandus: tamen, alterum cum subeundum sit, audaciam quam malevolentiam malo reprehendi, tu, Auguste venerabilis, districtus maximo bello, adsultantibus tot milibus barbarorum, quot Danuvii ora praetexitur. comitia consulatus mei armatus exerces. tributa ista quod in urbe Sirmio geruntur, an. ut quod in pro- cinctu, centuriata dicentur? an ut quondam pontificalia vocabuntur, sine arbitrio multitudinis sacerdotum tractata collegio? sic potius, sic vocentur quae tu pontifex maximus deo participatus habuisti. Non est ingenii mei, piissime imperator, talia comminisci. verba sunt litterarum tuarum: quibus apud me auctoritatem summi numinis et tuae voluntatis amplificas. sic enim loqueris: cum de consulibus in annum creandis solus mecum rolutarem, ut me nosti atque ut facere debui et velle te scirit consilium meum ad deum retuli. eius auctoritati obsecutus te consulem designari et declarari ei priorem nuncupavi. cuius orationis ordo lucidior? quae doctrina tam diligens propriis comitiorum verbis loqui nec vocabulis moris antiqui nomina peregrina miscere? valete modo. classes populi et urbanarum tribuum praerogativae et centuriae iure vocatae. quae comitia pleniora umquam fuerunt quam quibus praestitit deus consilium, imperator obsequium?

## 2. Sections 10–17

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/ausonius-thanksgiving/2/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/ausonius-thanksgiving/2/#p-N

[¶0] 10. And now, most devout Emperor, that I may not insult the majesty of this sacred Audience-Chamber by shrinking from interpreting your utterances, with the forgiveness of your godhead, though not without some slight sacrilege, I run over your words. When, you say, I was considering the appointment of consuls for the year. What a learned phrase! What a solemn task! I was pondering inwardly. What depths to the secrets of your heart! You have, then, a counsellor without fearing betrayal. As you know I do: what could be more intimate? As I was bound to do: what more uncompromising? As I knew you wished: what more courteous phrase could be used? I referred my purpose to God: how, then, can you say privately when such vast wisdom is ready to aid you? Could you have weighed the matter more thoroughly if the Senate, the Equestrian Order, and the People together with your army and all the provinces had been aiding you? I referred my purpose to God. Not, I am sure, in order to gain some new plan, but to consecrate your own inclination. In obedience to his will: that is to say, as you have acted in canonizing your father, in avenging your uncle, in associating your brother with you. I have designated you as consul, proclaimed you as such, and given your name the preference. Who taught you these words? I knew none so fitting, so thoroughly Roman. I have designated, proclaimed, and named you. This is no random writing. The ripe deliberation of these words with its pauses allows them to progress by well-marked degrees. If I have this letter of yours posted up like an edict on every pillar and in every portico where it could easily be read, shall I not have as many statues in my honour as there were placarded sheets?

> Latin: 10. Et nunc ego, piissime imperator, ne fastigium anditorii sacri, dictorum tuorum timidus interpres, offendam, divinitatis tuae pro! levi cum piaculo verba transcurro. cum de consulibus, inquis, in annum creandis: erudita vox et cura sollemnis! mecum volutarem: o profundi altitudo secreti! habes ergo consiliatorem et non metuis proditorem, ut me nosti: quid familiarius, ut facere debui: quid constantius, ut velle te scivi: quid dici blandius potest? consilium meum ad deum retuli. et quemadmodum solus, cui praesto est tam grande consilium? an plenius cum senatu, eum equestri ordine, eum plebe Romana, cum exercitu tuo et provinciis omnibus deliberasses? consilium meum ad deum retuli. non ut, credo, novum sumeres, sed ut sanctius fieret, quod volebas, eius auctoritati obsecutus: scilicet ut in consecrando patre, in ulciscendo patruo, in cooptando fratre fecisti, te consulem designati et declaravi et priorem nuncupavi. quis haec verba te docuit? ego tam propria et tam Latina nescivi. designati et declaravi et nuncupavi. non fit hoc temere, habet moras suas dispertitis gradibus tam matura cunctatio, has ego litteras tuas si in omnibus pilis atque porticibus, unde de plano legi possint, instar edicti pendere mandavero, nonne tot statuis honorabor, quot fuerint paginae libellorum?

[¶1] 11. But I hasten on to what is still more agreeable. For in your letter which was delivered to me, you diverged from this subject, and so far condescended as to ask me what sort of robe should be sent me. With your anxiety you have worn out the whole staff of officials in charge of your bounties. Have I not then received over and above the con- sulate an additional gift in these pains, which cost you so much trouble and caused me so much happiness? Swords are being drawn in Illyricum: for my sake you distribute robes of civil dignities in Gaul: you, wearing your equipment, deal with the question of my gown; while prepared for battle and on the verge of a supreme struggle, you make arrangements for the decoration of my palm-broidered garb. Yet the omen was happy and auspicious. For just as in peace time this apparel marks the consul, so in victory it distinguishes the conqueror in his triumph. But it is not enough for you to ask what kind of robe shall be sent me: you must have it produced before your eyes. You are not content that the officials of your largess should perform their ordinary duties: you choose one robe out of many with your own hands, and having chosen it, follow up your gift with words of compliment. You say: I have sent yon a palm-broidered robe in winch is worked a figure of the sainted Constantins 1 my ancestor. Happy am I that such pains should be bestowed upon my vestments! It is, it most surely is, a broidered robe, as you say; but embroidered more richly with your words than with its own threads of gold. But, since it is you who have invested me, I perceive that its enrichment means far more. For the light which flashes from this single garment bespeaks two imperial personages: Constantius is embroidered in the actual fabric of the robe; but in the complimentary nature of the gift, I feel the presence of Gratian.

> Latin: 11. Sed ad blandiora festino, ab hac enim litterarum ad me datarum parte digressus, eo quoque descendisti, ut quaereres, qualis ad me trabea mitteretur, omne largitionum tuarum ministerium sollicitudine fatigasti. non ergo supra consulatum mihi est adhibita per te cura tam diligens, pro me cura tam felix? in Illyrico arma qnatiuntur: tu mea causa per Gallias civilium decorum indumenta dispensas, loricatus de toga mea fractas, in procinctu et cum maxime dimicaturus palmatae vestis meae ornamenta disponis: feliciter et bono omine, namque iste habitus, ut in pace consulis est, sic in victoria triumphantis. parum est, si, qualis ad me trabea mittatur, interroges: te coram promi iubes, nec satis habes, ut largitionum ministri ex more fungantur: eligis ipse de multis et, cum elegeris, munera tua verborum honore prosequeris. palmatam, inquis, tibi misi, in qua divus Constantius parens noster intentus est. me beatum, cuius insignibus talis cura praestatur! haec plane, haec est picta, ut dicitur, vestis, non magis auro suo quam tuis verbis, sed multo plura sunt in eius ornatu, quae per te instructus intellego, geminum quippe in uno habitu radiat nomen Augusti. Constantius in argumento vestis intexitur, Gratianus in muneris honore sentitur.

[¶2] 12. To your favour, already so weighty, was added the weight which a question put by certain persons piled upon it. When they inquired whom you appointed senior of the two consuls, you replied that there could he no uncertainty as to that; and the honourable men who surround you could not feel uncertainty. Nevertheless, this pronouncement aroused the expectations of those who would have been glad to think that the most distinguished man, who is my colleague, and who happened to be present at the time, had been awarded the precedence. At any rate, they made themselves wearisome by seeking for that meaning which they had read into your answer. Whereupon, as I am informed, your well-known modesty caused you for a while to hesitate, not through indecision as to your course, but to reprove with your flushed glance those who were flattering their own hopes by their affected inability to understand. Then you replied outright: Why do you ask in what order of precedence the two consuls designate are to stand? Can they stand in any other order than that which the prefecture has already determined? What happy modesty, so sagely to suggest that popular reason! You could have made another reply, Gratian, but refrained in order to spare the feelings of certain persons. But I find myself on dangerous ground and for the sake of that distinction which I never coveted, I must avoid it. Since I have been declared the senior, it is enough for me to keep to your decision: so farewell, you who would examine merits! I do not, however, regard this honour of precedence as a trifling favour, my most gracious Sovereign. It confers a glory of which Cicero was fully conscious: “The Roman People,” he says, “made me chief praetor and senior consul."1 His very form of expression makes us clearly understand that it is more honourable to receive precedence over one person, than over many; for while there is indeed no disgrace in taking the second place, the one of two who is preferred is signally distinguished. It is said of Alexander of Macedon that, after reading that passage in Homer 1 relating the decision to select by lot one of the nine chiefs who were all eager to fight in answer to Hector's challenge, and how the whole host besought Jupiter the Best and Greatest with anxiously conflicting prayers to suffer Ajax, or the son of Tydeus, or even Agamemnon, the king of rich Mycenae, to be chosen; he exclaimed: I would have killed the man who named me third!” See the high spirit of the dauntless hero! He scorned to be placed third in a list of nine persons, even though, of course, he would have more below him than above him. How deeply ashamed he would feel if he were the second of two persons only! For where there are two candidates, the choice of one is rich in high distinction. If the two who are made consuls are exalted over all mankind, then the one who has precedence over his colleague is set not above one only, but over all.

> Latin: 12. Accessit tam inpenso beneficio tuo pondus quorundam sciscitatione cumulatum, interrogatus, quem priorem decerneres consulem, ner dubitandum esse dixisti tu, et qui tecum boni sunt, dubitare non poterant, sed tamen ad hoc dictum erexerant animos, qui libenter clarissimum virum collegam meum, quem praesentem habebat occasio, praelatum credidissent, fatigantes tamen, quod intellexerant, requirebant, hic tu, sicut mihi renuntiatum est, noto illo pudore tuo paulisper haesisti non rationis ambiguus, sed eorum dubitationem vultu et rubore condemnans. qui studium suum interpretationis errore palpabant. deinde illico subdidisti: quid de duobus consulibus designatis quaeritis, quis ordo sit nuncupationis? anne alius quam quem praefectura constituit? o felicem verecundiam tuam, cui ista popularis ratio tam prudenter occurrit! scisti aliud, Gratiane, quod diceres: sed propter quorundam verecundiam dicere noluisti. scopulosus hic mihi locus est et propter eam, quam numquam adpetivi, gloriam, recusandus. cum prior renuntiatus sim, satis est tuum tenere iudicium: interpretes valete meritorum, neque autem ego, sacratissime imperator, in tenui beneficio gradum nuncupationis amplector, non est haec gloria ignota Ciceroni: praetorem me, inquit, populus Romanus primum fecit, consulem priorem, ex ipsa eius sententia intellegitur commendabilius uni videri quam pluribus esse praepositum, nulla enim est equidem contumelia secundi, sed in duobus gloria magna praelati. Alexandri Macedouis hoc fertur, cum legisset illos versus Homericos, quibus Hectore provocante de novem ducibus, qui omnes pugnare cupiebant, unum deligi placeret sortis eventu, trepida ubi contentione votorum Iovem optimum maximum totus precatur exercitus, ut Aiacem vel Tydei filium aut ipsum regem ditium Mycenarum sortiri patiatur Agamemnonem: occiderem, inquit, illum, qui me tertium nominasset. o magnanimitatem fortissimi viri! nominati inter novem tertius recusabat; ubi certe pluribus antecelleret quam subesset. quanta hic verecundia gravaretur posterior de duobus? est enim in hoc numero arduae plena dignationis electio. eum universis mortalibus duo, qui fiant consules, praeferuntur, qui alteri praeponitur, non uni, sed omnibus antefertur.

[¶3] 13. I know that the ears of my audience are now eagerly waiting, I can read on every face the thought which springs from the longing of each heart. They think that now that I have touched on every topic which has reference to my Thanksgiving—however summarily, or, as our poet says,'2 " spun out with meagre thread"—I am bound to touch upon the praises of your Majesty. Although I have said that I have put that subject on one side and am keeping it for another occasion, nevertheless they all urge with nods, nay, almost with protests, to make some reference to it now. I will do as they bid (for I welcome this compulsion), but I must lay aside the larger aspects of the subject and speak only of the slighter; and this not with any hope of according them adequate treatment, but to let all men know that from me they are to expect a relation only of those personal qualities which deserve praise, and to look to others for an estimate of your higher virtues. I shall deal therefore not with your loftiest qualities, but those of your every-day life.

> Latin: 13. Expectare nunc aures praesentium scio et eminere in omnium vultu intellego, quod desiderio concipiatur animorum, existimant enim, cum ea. quae ad grates agendas pertinebant, summatim et tenuiore filo, sicut dicitur, deducta libaverim, aliqua me etiam de maiestatis tuae laudibus debere perstringere. quamquam me istam dixerim seposuisse materiam et in tempus aliud reservare: nihilominus tamen, ut nunc aliqua contingam, nutu et prope murmure cohortantur. itaque faciam, quando cogunt volentem, sed maioribus separatis tenuiora memorabo, nulla spe ad plenum exequendi, sed universi ut intellegant eorum, quae inter ⟨familiaria⟩ praedicanda sunt, a me poscendam esse notitiam, ab aliis dignitatem, nec excellentia, sed cotidiana tractabo.

[¶4] 14. From your boyhood you have never let a single day pass without worshipping God, without discharging your vows the moment that they became due, with clean hands and a pure heart, a stainless conscience, and—a rare quality— with undivided thoughts. Was there ever a prince whose going forth was attended with better auguries, whose progress was less ostentatious, whose state was less extravagant, whose attire in private life was more seemly or in the field more severe? In athletic pursuits who ever matched your fleetness of foot, who so supple in disengaging at wrestling, who cleared so great a height in leaping? No one ever launched a javelin with a more forceful swing, no one hurled darts with greater speed or struck the mark more surely. We used to wonder at the poet 1 when he spoke of Numidians who use no reins, and at that other who summed up by saying that in riding it is with the lash alone that they urge their horses to full speed or make them stand.2 While we read we could not understand this, but we realized it when we saw you drop the reins and at the same time draw your bow, or urge on your horse with the whip when he slackened speed and check his exuberance likewise with the whip. Those who were supposed to instruct you in this do not do these things: nay, rather, those who are supposed to instruct you are now learning from you. Again, in the matter of food, was ever a priest more self-denying on religious grounds? Or in the matter of wine, was there ever an old man more sparing at table? The altar of Vesta is not more hallowed than the privacy of your bedchamber, the couch of a priest is not more pure, the bed of a prophet not more chaste. In your relations with your friends I do not say that you return like for like: you anticipate our services, or whenever we have the advantage in paying our duty to you, you flush up shyly with an embarrassment which we rather ought to feel when we have been anticipated by our Sovereign. In that place which we ordinarily speak of as your Consistory, but which I regard as your sanctuary, none of your predecessors ever thought out more deeply what he had to say, or arranged his thoughts more skilfully, or delivered them, when so arranged, in a more masterly style.

> Latin: 14. Nullum tu umquam diem ab adnleseentia tua nisi adorato dei numine et reus voti et illico absolutus egisti, lautis manibus, mente pura, inmaculabili conscientia et, quod in paucis est, cogitatione sincera. cuius autem umquam egressus auspicatior fuit aut incessus modestior aut habitudo cohibitior aut familiaris habitus condecentior aut militaris aecinctior? in exercendo corpore quis cursum tam perniciter incitavit? quis palaestram tam lubricus expedivit? quis saltum in tam sublime collegit: nemo adductius iacula contorsit, nemo spicula crebrius iecit aut certius destinata percussit. mirabamur poetam, qui infrenos dixerat Numidas, et alterum, qui ita collegerat, ut diceret in equitando verbera et praecepta esse fugae et praecepta sistendi. obscurum hoc nobis legentibus erat: intelleximus te videntes, cum idem arcum intenderes et habenas remitteres aut equum segnius euntem verbere concitares vel eodem verbere intemperantiam cohaereres. qui te visi sunt hoc docuisse. non faciunt: immo qui visi sunt docuisse, nunc discunt, in cibis autem cuius sacerdotis abstinentior caerimonia? in vino cuius senis mensa frugalior? operto conclavis tui non sanctior ara Vestalis, non pontificis cubile casti us nec pulvinar flaminis tam pudicum. in officiis amicorum non dico paria reddis: antevenis et. quotiens in obsequendo praecedimus, erubescis pudore tam obnoxio, quam in nobis esse deberet ab imperatore praeventis. in illa vero sede, ut ex more loquimur, consistorii, ut ego sentio, sacrari i tui, nullus umquam superiorum aut dicenda pensius cogitavit aut consultis cogitata disposuit aut disposita maturius expedivit.

[¶5] 15. I would also make some remarks on your excellence as a speaker, were I not afraid of flattering myself. Sulpicius was not more vehement in harangue, nor the elder Gracchus more deserving of praise for self-control, nor your own father more weighty, more impressive. How your voice rings out when you declaim some stirring theme! How gentle in unimpassioned passages! How skilfully regulated when you deal with both! Which of the orators either in speech or in the free domain of thought dealt with cheerful themes more charmingly, on eloquent themes more choicely, on the strenuous more intensely, on the intense more forcibly? Ah, Attic Xenophon, I would that it were possible in the nature of things for you to come to life again in this age—you who celebrated the virtues of Cyrus by following the line of your own desires rather than his actual history, since you described him not as he was, but as he ought to have been. If you could take a stride forward into these present times, you would behold in our beloved Gratian not what you actually saw in your favourite Cyrus, but what you wished to see. All these qualities, the salient points of which I have sketched in a few dashes, I would describe in detail were my powers of speaking proportionate to my will; for however much I may lack fluency, the greatness of the subject would inspire my pen. But all that is appropriate neither to this occasion, nor to this subject. You, who hereafter shall pronounce the praises of our Sovereign have here, if I may call it so, a nursery-garden on which you can draw to fill out the acres of your own discourses. I have merely touched upon the subject, and being—as all are aware—the exponent of secrets known to me through my close intimacy, I may be thought merely to divulge rather than to belaud these personal virtues. And as I have spoken of matters known to me and to all who share the inner life of the Court, I might also tell of those which are constantly spoken of beyond its precincts, were it not that they are all known to all men and individually to each. I could say in as few words as I have done above: a most perfect hero does nothing of which he need be ashamed; but you have never done anything which calls for repentance, while you have always extended pardon to those who repent. It is noble to be merciful to those who fear; but so continual is your kindness that your edicts remove all cause for fear. It is splendid to lavish distinctions: you not only bestow distinctions, but also generously enrich the recipients. It is praiseworthy in an Emperor to grant petitioners easy access and not to refuse them on the pretext of engagements: you encourage those who hesitate to approach yon, and when they have declared their complaints, you ask them whether they have left anything still unmentioned.

> Latin: 15. Et aliqua de oratoriis virtutibus tuis dicerem, nisi vererer mihi gratificari. non enim Sulpicius acrior in contionibus nec maioris Gracchi commendabilior modestia fuit nec patris tui gravior auctoritas, qui tenor vocis, cum incitata pronuntias; quae inflexio, cum remissa; quae temperatio, cum utraque dispensas! quis oratorum laeta iucundius, facunda cultius, pugnantia densius, densata glomerosius aut dixit aut, quod est liberum, cogitavit? vellem, si rerum natura pateretur, Xenophon Attice, in aevum nostrum venires, tu, qui ad Cyri virtutes exequendas votum potius, quam historiam commodasti: cum diceres, non qualis esset, sed qualis esse deberet, si nunc in tempora ista procederes, in nostro Gratiano cerneres, quod in Cyro tuo non videras, sed optabas. atque ista omnia, quae punctis quibusdam acuminata signavi, si facundia pro voluntate suppeteret, quamquam non copiosius, exequerer, ubertatem stilo rerum magnitudine suggerente. sed nec huius diei nec huius ista materiae, qui dicturi estis laudes principis nostri, habetis velut seminarium. unde orationum vestrarum iugera compleatis. ego ista perstrinxi atque, ut sciunt omnes, possum videri familiaris notitiae secretus interpres domestica istaec non tam praedicare quam prodere. Atque ut ista dixi de cognitis mihi atque intra aulam familiaribus, possem et foris celebrata memorare, nisi omnia omnes et separatim sibi quisque novisset, possem pari brevitate dicere, qua superiora: emendalissimi viri est pigenda non facere: at tu numquam paenitenda fecisti et semper veniam paenitentibus obtulisti, pulchrum est indulgere timentibus: sed tu perpetuae bonitatis edictis occurrit omnibus, ne timerent, magnificum largiri honores: tu honoratos et liberalitate ditasti. laudabile est imperatorem faciles interpellantibus praebere aditus nec de occupatione causari: tu confirmas adire cunetantes; et iam querimoniis explicatis, ne quid adhuc sileatur. interrogas.

[¶6] 16. The saying of Titus Caesar 1 that he had lost that day in which he had not performed a good action, has become famous; but it has become famous because it was uttered by the successor of Vespasian, a man whose excessive economy and almost intolerable strictness made his son's easier rule seem remarkable. You, the son of Valentinian, whose kindness was so profound, whose affability was never lacking, whose sternness was so well controlled—you realize that, now that the State has gained and established a thoroughly sound condition, you can show all the gentleness of your nature without prejudice to good order. And, indeed, it is not just one good deed a day that you perform: every moment of every hour you increase the sum of your momentous favours. How shall we speak of that single measure by which the arrears of tribute were remitted? What a wealth of generosity there was in this act! What Emperor has ever granted such a boon to his subject provinces with a more generous consideration, or calculated its results with a surer confidence, or safeguarded it with more experience and wisdom? Trajan 2 also did the same thing in past times; but since he retained a claim to a certain amount of the arrears, the pleasure caused by that portion of the debt which he forgave was less than the underlying discontent left unremoved by the amount which he retained. Antoninus, too, granted the same favour; but he who inherited his throne but not his kindliness, grudged this remission of arrears and reclaimed from his people the full amount as entered in the schedules and registers. You gave orders for all these evidences of claim to be burned publicly. Every township beheld in its own market-place the blaze of the relieving fire. Burning were the roots of by-gone wrongs: burning were the seeds of those to come. Already the ashes had mingled with the dust, already the smoke had been absorbed in the clouds; but still the debtors beheld in the charred pages the lines of lettering and the figures in the cash-column together with the valuation of their little properties: still they feared that what they remembered to have heard read could even now be read. What then can there be winch is more merciful, more sagacious than you, most gracious Emperor? You give good gifts and make sure that they shall not be transitory: you remove ills, and take precautions against their revival. Such are the favours you have lavished upon the provinces; but what of those conferred upon our own order? Or upon the Army? The personal interest taken by the Antonines. and even earlier by the Germanici, in their suite of friends and in their legions, was a recognized fact. But I do not care to extol your benevolences by comparing others. You furnish a host of such instances of goodness and virtue as generations to come will long to imitate, and as ages past would have wished, did the nature of things allow, to have attributed to themselves.

> Latin: 16. Celebre fuit Titi Caesaris dictum, perdidisse se diem, quo nihil boni fecerat; sed celebre fuit, quia Vespasiani successor dixerat, cuius nimia parsimonia et austeritas vix ferenda miram fecerat filii lenitatem, tu Valentiniano genitus, cuius alta bonitas, praesens comitas, temperata severitas fuit, parto et condito optimo reipublicae statu, intellegis posse te esse lenissimum sine dispendio disciplinae, neque vero unum aliquod bonum uno die praestas: sed indulgentias singulares per singula horarum momenta multiplicas, vel illud unum cuius modi est de condonatis residuis tributorum? quod tu quam cumulata bonitate fecisti! quis umquam imperatorum hoc provinciis suis aut uberiore indulgentia dedit, aut certiore securitate prospexit, aut prudentia consultare munivit? fecerat et Traianus olim, sed partibus retentis non habebat tantam oblectationem concessi debiti portio, quanta suberat amaritudo servati, et Antoninus indulserat, sed imperii, non beneficii successor invidit, qui ex documentis tabulisque populi condonata repetivit. tu argumenta omnia flagitandi publicitus ardere iussisti, videre in suis quaeque foris omnes civitates conflagrationem salubris incendii, ardebant stirpes fraudium veterum: ardebant semina futurarum. iam se cum pulvere favilla miscuerat, iam nubibus fumus se involverat: et adhuc obnoxii in paginis conerematis duetus apicum et sestertiorum notas cum substantiolae ratione cernebant, quod meminerant lectum, legi posse metuentes, quid te, imperator Auguste, indulgentius, quid potest esse consultius? quae bona praestas, efficis, ne caduca sint: quae mala adfinis, prospieis ne possint esse recidiva. haec provincialibus indulgentiae bona. quid illa nostro ordini? quid illa militibus? Antoninorum cognita fuit et iam ante Germanicorum in cohorte amicorum et legionibus familiaris humanitas. sed ego nolo benevolentiam tuam aliorum collatione praecedere abundant in te ea bonitatis et virtutis exempla, quae sequi cupiat ventura posteritas et, si rerum natura pateretur, adscribi sibi voluisset antiquitas.

[¶7] 17. Nevertheless, some comparison must be made in order to make clear the superiority of our blessings. Trajan was in the habit of visiting his friends when they were sick: so far we may grant that he had a considerate nature. Your practice is both to visit and to heal them: you provide them with attendants, you order their diet, you prescribe medicines, you furnish the cost of remedies, you comfort them in their pain, and you congratulate them on their recovery. See in how many ways you show advance beyond Trajan's single form of consideration! With the legions one and all, whenever any regrettable incident had occurred, as is the fortune of war, I have seen you go round the men's lines, asking “How goes it?”, attending to the wounds of casualties, giving strict orders that healing remedies should be applied and that there should be no delay about it. I have seen men who turned from their food with loathing take it on your recommendation: I have heard you speak words which gave them heart to recover. You anticipated what each man sorely needed, causing this man's pack to be carried by the mules of the royal train, providing special beasts for some to ride, furnishing others with servants in place of those whom they had lost: sometimes you would relieve the poorer soldiers out of your own purse, sometimes cover the nakedness of the thinly clad. You would do all unwearyingly and cheerfully, with the deepest charity and without a trace of display, bestowing everything upon the sick and claiming nothing from the cured. Thus it is that you have become dearer to us than our lives, and have deservedly gained friends who are obedient, ready, devoted, faithful—men who will stand by you for ever, since it is affection rather than accident which makes them yours. After this I must bring my speech to a close, most Sacred Majesty; though it is my words rather than my gratitude which will end. For the latter is unending: its course can never be run, for it knows no stopping point. Yet I must make a slight digression and turn not very far from you to God. Eternal Begetter of all things, thyself unbegotten, Creator and Cause of the universe, more ancient than its beginning, outlasting its end, Thou who hast built thine own temples and altars in the inmost hearts of the initiated 1 worshippers: Thou hast implanted in Gratian, the lord of this world below, such seeds of love towards me that separation has not weakened his remembrance of me though parted from him. He has honoured me though I was no longer in his presence, he has preferred me above those who stand before him; and further: because distance would not allow him to be present at the opening ceremony of my elevation, he has hastened to attend the solemnities of my laying down office, that his bounties might be completed by his courtesy. For what record is there, even in the daring fables of the Greeks, of a journey so swiftly accomplished? Winged Pegasus starting from Lycia travelled no further than Cilicia: Cyllarus and Arion 2 grew old between Argos and Nemea. Even the steeds of a Castor do not accomplish that endless journey of theirs without changing their riders.3 You, Gratian, speed across all those frontiers of the Roman Empire, all those rivers and lakes, all those barriers of old-established kingdoms, from distant Thrace and along the whole coast, through all its length, of Illyricum, through Venetia, Liguria, and old Gaul, over the forbidding peaks of Rhaetia, across the fords of the Rhine, through the thick country of the Sequani and across the plains of Germany; you speed across them, I repeat, swifter in your passage than my rapid speech, without stopping for rest, without indulging fully in sleep or in food; and all to shed the unexpected light of your presence upon your favourite Gaul, to surprise (how welcome the surprise!) your own consul while still in office, to make even Rumour, who is usually swifter than the winds, a slower traveller than yourself. This was your tribute to my age, this to my dignity! God, that supreme confidant, controller and author both of your throne and of your counsels, has graciously permitted that the curule chair (which you will often fill with so much grace), that my magisterial robe dyed with your glowing purple, that my consular apparel which is enriched less by its own gold than by your munificence—that all these favours, which your noble letter from Illyricum made vet more honourable, should gain yet further in lustre by your presence in Gaul; that your quaestor, your praetorian prefect, your consul, and—a name which you still rate above all my titles—your tutor, lie whom you designated with your sacred lips, whom you named as senior consul on substantial grounds, whom you enriched with your generous bounty, should be hallowed by the condescension of your royal attentions.

> Latin: 17. Necesse est tamen aliquid comparari, ut possit intellegi, bona nostra quo praestent. Aegrotantes amicos Traianus visere solebat: hactenus in eo comitas praedicanda est. tu et visere solitus et mederi praebes ministros, instruis cibos, fomenta dispensas, sumptum adicis medellarum, consolaris adfectos, revalescentibus gratularis. in quot vias de una eius humanitate progrederis! legionibus universis, ut in communi Marte evenit, si quid adversi acciderat, vidi te circumire tentoria, “satin salvae?” quaerere, tractare vulnera sauciorum et, ut salutiferae adponerentur medellae atque ut non cessaretur, instare, vidi quosdam fastidientes cibum te commendante sumpsisse, audivi confirmantia ad salutem verba praefari, occurrere desideriis singulorum: huius sarcinas mulis aulicis vellere, his specialia iumenta praebere, illis ministeria perditorum instaurare lixarum, aliorum egestatem tolerare sumptu, horum nuditatem velare vestitu, omnia agere indefesse et benigne, pietate maxima, ostentatione nulla, omnia praebere aegris, nihil exprobrare sanatis. inde cunctis salute nostra carior factus meruisti, ut haberes amicos obnoxios, promptos, devotos, fideles, in aevum omne mansuros, quales caritas potius quam fortuna concidat, XVI II. Concludam deinceps orationem meam. piissime Auguste, sermonis magis fine, quam gratiae, namque illa perpetua est et spatio non transmeabili terminum calcis ignorat, flexu tamen parvo, nec a te procul, convertar ad deum. aeterno omnium genitor, ipse non genite, opifex et causa mundi, principio antiquior, fine diuturnior, qui templa tibi et aras penetrabilibus initiatorum mentibus condidisti, tu Gratiano humanarum rerum domino eiusmodi semina nostri amoris molesti, ut nihil in digressu segnior factus meminisset et relicti, illustraret absentem, praesentibus anteferret; deinde quia interesse primordiis dignitatis per locorum intervalla non poterat, ad sollemnitatem condendi honoris occurreret, beneficiis ne deesset officium, quae enim maiorum umquam memoria transcursum tantae celeritatis vel in audacibus Graecorum fabulis commenta est? Pegasus volucer actus a Lycia non ultra Ciliciam permeavit. Cyllarus atque Arion inter Argos Ncmeamque senuerunt. ipsi Castorum equi, quod longissimum iter est, non nisi mutato vectore transcurrunt, tu, Gratiane. tot Romani imperii limites, tot flumina et lacus, tot veterum intersaepta regnorum ab usque Thracia per totum, quam longum est, latus Illyrici, Venetiam Liguriamque et Galliam veterem, insuperabilia Rhaetiae, Rheni vadosa, Sequanorum invia, porrecta Germaniae, celeriore transcursu, quam est properatio nostri sermonis, evolvis, nulla requie otii, ne somni quidem aut cibi munere liberali, ut Gallias tuas inopinatus illustres, ut consulem tuum, quamvis desideratus, anticipes, ut illam ipsam, quae auras praecedere solet, famam facias tardiorem. hoc senectuti meae, hoc honori a te datum, supremus ille imperii et consiliorum tuorum deus conscius et arbiter et auctor indulsit, ut sellam curulem, cuius sedem frequenter ornabis, ut praetextam meam purpurae tuae luce fucatam, ut trabeam non magis auro suo quam munere tuo splendidam, quae ab Illyrico sermonis dignitas honestavit, apud Gallias illustriora praestares, quaestorem ut tuum, praefectum ut tuo praetorio, consulem tuum et, quod adhuc cunctis meis nominibus anteponis. praeceptorem tuum, quem pia voce declaraveras, iusta ratione praetuleras, liberali largitate ditaveras, Augustae dignationis officiis consecrares.