Chapter 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?