1And of this, indeed, I am a witness on Marcus Marcellus' behalf. 1For our feelings, just as always in peace, so then too in war were in agreement. 1How often and with how much grief I saw him dreading both the arrogance of certain men and also the ferocity of victory itself! 1All the more welcome, then, Gaius Caesar, ought your generosity to be to us who saw those things. 1For now it is not the causes that are to be compared with each other, but the victories. 17We have seen your victory ended with the outcome of the battles: we have not seen a sword out of its sheath in the city.
17The citizens we have lost were struck down by the violence of Mars, not by the anger of victory, so that no one ought to doubt that Gaius Caesar would raise many from the dead, if he could, since from the same battle line he preserves those he can. 17Of the other side I say nothing more than what we all feared, that its victory would have been too wrathful. 18For some were threatening not only those in arms but sometimes even those who stayed at home, and they said that one should consider not what each man had thought, but where he had been; 18so that it seems to me, at least, that the immortal gods, even if they exacted punishment from the Roman people for some wrongdoing — they who stirred up so great and so grievous a civil war — have now, either appeased or at last sated, placed all hope of safety in the clemency and wisdom of the victor.
19Therefore rejoice in this so excellent blessing of yours, and enjoy both your fortune and glory and also your nature and character; 19from this indeed comes the greatest reward and delight for a wise man. 19When you recall your other achievements, though you will very often congratulate your virtue, still you will mostly congratulate your good fortune: as often as you think of us, whom you have wished to be in the commonwealth together with you, so often will you think of your very great kindnesses, so often of your incredible generosity, so often of your singular wisdom: things which I will venture to call not only the highest goods but, surely, even the only ones.
19For so great is the splendour in true praise, so great the dignity in greatness of soul and of counsel, that these seem to have been bestowed by virtue, the rest lent by fortune. 20Do not, then, grow weary of preserving good men, especially those who have fallen not through any desire or depravity, but through a notion of duty, foolish perhaps, certainly not wicked, and through a certain semblance of the commonwealth. 20For it is no fault of yours if some have feared you, and on the contrary it is your highest praise that they have perceived that you were least to be feared.