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44If any of them remembered his former deeds in the course of the civil wars, they attributed them to the pressure of circumstances, and they thought it fair to seek for his real disposition in what he did after he was in undisputed possession of the supreme power; for this afforded in truth a mighty contrast. 2Anybody who examines his acts in detail can establish this fact; but summing them all up briefly, I may state that he put an end to all the factional discord, transformed the government in a way to give it the greatest power, and vastly strengthened it. Therefore, even if an occasional deed of violence did occur, as is apt to happen in extraordinary situations, one might more justly blame the circumstances themselves than him.
3Now not the least factor in his glory was the length of his reign. For the majority as well as the more powerful of those who had lived under the republic were now dead, 4and the later generation, knowing naught of that form of government and having been reared entirely or largely under existing conditions, were not only not displeased with them, familiar as they now were, but actually took delight in them, since they saw that their present state was better and more free from terror than that of which they knew by tradition.
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