1Your great-great-grandfather pardoned the conquered; 1for if he had not pardoned them, whom would he have ruled? 1Sallustius, the Cocceii, the Dellii and the whole band of those first admitted to his presence he enrolled from his opponents' camp; 1and now the Domitii, the Messallae, the Asinii, the Ciceros, all the flower of the state, he owed to his own clemency. 1Lepidus himself: how long he allowed him to die! 1For many years he endured him retaining the insignia of a prince, and allowed the chief pontificate to be transferred to himself only when Lepidus was dead; 1for he preferred it to be called an honour rather than a spoil.
1This clemency brought him to safety and security; 2this made him welcome and popular, although he had laid his hand on the necks of the Roman people before they were yet subdued; 2this still today brings him a fame which scarcely serves princes while they live. 3We believe he is a god, not as if we had been ordered to; 3we acknowledge that Augustus was a good prince, and that the name of father suited him well, for no other reason than that he did not pursue with any cruelty even the insults to himself, which are usually more bitter to princes than injuries, that he laughed at abusive things said against him, that he was plainly suffering punishment when he exacted it, and that those whom he had condemned for adultery with his daughter he was so far from killing that, having banished them, he gave them passports so that they might be safer.
4This is to pardon, when you know there will be many to rise up on your behalf and gratify you with another's blood: not just to grant safety, but to guarantee it.