1Yesterday, on the emperor's proposal, the senate voted a triumphal statue to Vestricius Spurinna, not as it has to many who have never stood in the battle line, never seen a camp, never, in short, heard the sound of trumpets except at the shows, but as to those who used to win that distinction with sweat and blood and deeds. 2For Spurinna installed the king of the Bructeri in his kingdom by force of arms, and by the mere display of war he subdued a most ferocious people through terror, which is the finest kind of victory. 3And this he received as the reward of his valour, and that as consolation for his grief, that the honour of a statue was granted to his son Cottius, whom he lost while he was away.
3That is rare in the case of a young man; 3but the father deserved this too, since his very grievous wound had to be healed by some great soothing remedy. 4Besides, Cottius himself had given so bright a proof of his character that his brief and narrow life ought to be prolonged by this immortality, as it were. 4For he had such purity, gravity and even authority that he could challenge in virtue those old men to whom he has now been made equal in honour. 5By this honour, as far as I understand it, provision has been made not only for the memory of the dead and the grief of the father but also for an example.
5Such great rewards, established for young men too, provided only they are worthy, will spur the youth on to good pursuits; 5they will spur leading men to raise children, through the joys they bring if they survive, and such glorious consolations if they are lost. 6For these reasons I rejoice at Cottius' statue on the public account, and no less privately. 6I loved that most accomplished young man as ardently as I now impatiently miss him. 6It will therefore be a great pleasure to me to gaze at this likeness of his again and again, to look back at it again and again, to stand beneath it and to walk past it.
7For if the images of the dead placed at home lighten our grief, how much more do these, by which, in the most frequented place, not only their appearance and features but their honour and glory too are brought back! 7Farewell.