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35“The words which required to be spoken in a private capacity by relatives over the Deified Augustus, Drusus has spoken. But the senate has wisely held him to be worthy of some kind of public eulogy as well; and while I recognize that the speech was fittingly entrusted to me 2(for to whom more justly than to me, his son and successor, could the duty of praising him be entrusted?), still I cannot feel any confidence that my abilities measure up in any wise either to your desires in the matter or to his merits. 3Indeed, if I were going to speak in the presence of strangers, I should be greatly concerned lest in following my speech they should believe his deeds to be no better than my account of them. But, as it is, I am encouraged by the thought that my words will be addressed to you who are thoroughly acquainted with all his achievements, who have known them all through personal experience, and for that reason have held him to be worthy of these words of praise. 4For you will judge of his excellence, not from what I may say, but from what you yourselves know, and you will come to the aid of my discourse, supplying what is deficient by your memory of the events. Hence, in this respect also, his eulogy will be a public one, rendered by us all, as I, like the leader of a chorus, merely give out the leading words, while you join in and chant the rest. 5For of this I assuredly am not afraid—either that you will find it a weakness in me that I am unable to attain to your desires, or that you yourselves will be jealous of one whose virtue so far surpassed your own. For who does not realize that not all mankind assembled together could worthily sound his praises, 6and that you all of your own free will yield to him his triumphs, feeling no envy at the thought that not one of you could equal him, but rather rejoicing in the very fact of his surpassing greatness? For the greater he appears in comparison with you, the greater will seem the benefits which you have enjoyed, so that rancour will not be engendered in you because of your inferiority to him, but rather pride because of the blessings you have received at his hands.
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