than clemency; but one who can easily avenge himself,
if he neglects to do so, is certain to gain praise for goodness of
heart. Those who are born in a humble station may with greater freedom
exercise violence, go to law, engage in quarrels, and indulge their
angry passions; even blows count for little between two equals; but in
case of a king, even loud clamor and unmeasured talk are
unbecoming....

Such was Augustus when an old man, or when growing old: in his youth
he was hasty and passionate, and did many things upon which he looked
back with regret. No one will venture to compare the rule of the blest
Augustus to the mildness of your own, even if your youth be compared
with his more than ripe old age: he was gentle and placable, but it
was after he had dyed the sea at Actium with Roman blood; after he had
wrecked both the enemy's fleet and his own at Sicily; after the
holocaust of Perusia and the proscriptions. But I do not call it
clemency to be wearied of cruelty; true clemency, Caesar, is that which
you display, which has not begun from remorse at its past ferocity, on
which there is no stain, which has never shed the blood of your
countrymen: this, when combined with unlimited power, shows the truest
self-control and all-embracing love of the human race as of one's
self, not corrupted by any low desires, any extravagant ideas, or any
of the bad examples of former emperors into trying, by actual
experiment, how great a tyranny you would be allowed to exercise over
his countrymen, but inclining rather to blunting your sword of empire.

You, Caesar, have granted us the boon of keeping our state free from
bloodshed, and that of which you boast, that you have not caused one
single drop of blood to flow in any part of the world, is all the more
magnanimous and marvelous because no one ever had the power of the
sword placed in his hands at an earlier age. Clemency, then, makes
empires besides being their most trustworthy means of preservation.
Why have legitimate sovereigns grown old on the throne, and bequeathed
their power to their children and grandchildren, while the sway of
despotic usurpers is both hateful and short-lived? What is the
difference between the tyrant and the king--for their outward symbols
of authority and their powers are the same--except it be that tyrants
take delight in cruelty, whereas kings are only cruel for good reasons
and because they can not help it....

Nothing can be imagined which