1Now the year had come in which he was to draw lots for the proconsulship of Africa or Asia, and since Civica had recently been killed, Agricola did not lack a warning, nor Domitian a precedent. 1Certain men who knew the emperor's thoughts approached Agricola and went so far as to ask him whether he intended to go to his province. 2And at first rather covertly they praised quiet and leisure, then offered their services in getting his excuse accepted, and finally, no longer disguising themselves, persuading and frightening him at once, they dragged him to Domitian. 3Domitian, ready with his pretence and composed into an air of grandeur, both listened to his pleas to be excused and, when he had granted them, allowed himself to be thanked, and did not blush at the odiousness of such a favour.
3Yet he did not give Agricola the salary usually offered to a consular proconsul, and granted by himself to some, whether offended that it had not been asked for, or from a guilty conscience, so that he might not seem to have bought what he had forbidden. 4It is characteristic of human nature to hate one whom you have injured: but Domitian's nature, quick to anger and the more implacable the more it was concealed, was nevertheless softened by Agricola's moderation and good sense, because he did not challenge fame and fate by defiance or by an empty parade of independence. 5Let those whose habit it is to admire what is forbidden know that there can be great men even under bad emperors, and that obedience and moderation, if they are joined with diligence and energy, attain to that height of glory which many have reached by perilous paths, but, with no benefit to the state, through an ostentatious death.