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4At the time he seemed to some to have acted recklessly and daringly in this, but later, thanks to his good fortune and the successes he achieved, he acquired a reputation for bravery for this act. 2For it has often happened that men who were wrong in undertaking some project have gained a reputation for good judgment, because they had the luck to gain their ends; while others, who made the best possible choice, have been charged with folly because they were not fortunate enough to attain their objects. 3He, too, acted in a precarious and hazardous fashion; for he was only just past boyhood, being eighteen years of age, and saw that his succession to the inheritance and the family was sure to provoke jealousy and censure; yet he set out in pursuit of objects such as had led to Caesar’s murder, which had not been avenged, and he feared neither the assassins nor Lepidus and Antony. 4Nevertheless, he was not thought to have planned badly, because he proved to be successful. Heaven, however, indicated in no obscure manner all the confusion that would result to the Romans from it; for as he was entering Rome a great halo with the colours of the rainbow surrounded the whole sun.
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