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Notes Display Latin text | Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb Chapter 44: Obituary of Agricola[AD 93] | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
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Agricola was born on the 13th of June, in the third consulate of Gaius Caesar; he died on the 23rd of August, during the consulate of Collega and Priscinus, being in the fifty-sixth year of his age. Should posterity wish to know something of his appearance, it was graceful rather than commanding. There was nothing formidable in his appearance; a gracious look predominated. One would easily believe him a good man, and willingly believe him to be great. As for himself, though taken from us in the prime of a vigorous manhood, yet, as far as glory is concerned, his life was of the longest. Those true blessings, indeed, which consist in virtue, he had fully attained; and on one who had reached the honours of a consulate and a triumph, what more had fortune to bestow? Immense wealth had no attractions for him, and wealth he had, even to splendour. As his daughter and his wife [Note 1] survived him, it may be thought that he was even fortunate -- fortunate, in that while his honours had suffered no eclipse, while his fame was at its height, while his kindred and his friends still prospered, he escaped from the evil to come. For, though to survive until the dawn of this most happy age and to see a Trajan on the throne was what he would speculate upon in previsions and wishes confided to my ears, yet he had this mighty compensation for his premature death, that he was spared those later years during which Domitian, leaving now no interval or breathing space of time, but, as it were, with one continuous blow, drained the life-blood of the Common-wealth. Note 1: wife = Domitia Decidiana |