1To hand down to posterity the deeds and characters of famous men, a custom practised of old, is something that not even our own age has neglected, indifferent though it is to its own people, whenever some great and noble virtue has conquered and risen above the vice common to small and great states alike, ignorance of what is right, and envy. 2But among earlier generations, just as it was natural and more open to do deeds worth recording, so every man most renowned for his talent was led to hand down the memory of virtue without partiality or self-seeking, for the reward of a good conscience alone. 3And many thought that to narrate their own lives showed confidence in their character rather than arrogance, and in the case of Rutilius and Scaurus this met neither with disbelief nor with detraction: so true is it that virtues are best appreciated in the very times in which they are most easily produced.
4But now, when I was about to narrate the life of a man who has died, I needed to ask for indulgence, which I would not have sought had I been about to make an accusation: so cruel and so hostile to virtues are the times.