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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?