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23These honours, then, they granted Pompey in his absence, but none when he had come home, though they would certainly have added others, had he wished it. At any rate they had often bestowed many extravagant distinctions upon other men who had possessed less authority than he, but it is clear that they had done so unwillingly. 2Now Pompey knew well that all the gifts granted by the multitude to the powerful who are in positions of authority contain the suggestion, no matter how willingly they are voted, of being forcibly granted at the instigation of the strong; and that they bring no glory to those who receive them, because it is believed that they have been obtained, not from willing donors, but under compulsion, and not from good will, but as a result of flattery. Hence he did not permit any one to propose any measure whatever. 3This course he declared to be far better than to reject what has once been voted you: the one course arouses hatred for the high position that led to such measures being passed, and argues arrogance and insolence in not accepting what is granted you by those who think themselves your superiors or at any rate your equals; whereas by the other course you are truly democratic both in name and in fact, not merely by way of display, but in very truth. 4Thus Pompey, after having received practically all the offices and positions of command contrary to precedent, was now unwilling to accept any other such honours that were liable to bring him merely envy and hatred, even from the very givers, without enabling him to benefit any one or to be benefited.
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