Res Gestae

And this Tully also shows in a letter to Nepos, in which he taxes Caesar with cruelty, saying: For happiness is nothing else than success in noble actions. Or, to express it differently, happiness is the good fortune that aids worthy designs, and one who does not aim at these can in no wise be happy. Therefore, in lawless and impious plans, such as Caesar followed, there could be no happiness. Happier, in my judgement, was Camillus in exile than was Manlius[*](M. Manlius saved the Roman citadel when the Gauls took the city in 387 B.C. Later, because he defended the commons, he was accused of aspiring to regal power and hurled from the Tarpeian Rock.) at that same time, even if (as he had desired) he had succeeded in making himself king.[*](A fragment preserved by Ammianus alone, not found in Cicero’s extant works.)

Heraclitus the Ephesian[*](The weeping philosopher, as Democritus was the laughing philosopher; cf. Juvenal, x. 33 ff. He flourished about 535-475 B.C.) also agrees with this, when he reminds us that the weak and cowardly have sometimes, through the mutability of fortune, been victorious over eminent men; but that the most conspicuous praise is won,

Now, although this emperor in foreign wars met with loss and disaster, yet he was elated by his success in civil conflicts and drenched with awful gore from the internal wounds of the state. It was on this unworthy rather than just or usual ground[*](It was usual to celebrate a triumph only over foreign enemies, and the same rule applied to triumphal arches.) that in Gaul and Pannonia he erected triumphal arches[*](Although this term is so common in English, this is the first and only occurrence in Latin literature, and it is found besides only in four late inscriptions from northern Africa.) at great expense commemorating the ruin of the provinces,[*](That is, his victories over his rivals, and the bloodshed and ruin attending them.) and added records of his deeds, that men might read of him so long as those monuments could last.

He was to an excessive degree under the influence of his wives, and the shrill-voiced eunuchs, and certain of the court officials, who applauded his every word, and listened for his yes or no, in order to be able to agree with him.

The bitterness of the times was increased by the insatiate extortion of the tax-collectors, who brought him more hatred than money; and to many this seemed the more intolerable, for the reason that he never investigated a dispute, nor had regard for the welfare of the provinces, although they were oppressed by a multiplicity of taxes and tributes. And besides this, he found it easy to take away exemptions which he had once given.

The plain[*](Cf. absolutio, xiv. 10, 13; responsum absolutum, xxx. 1, 4; planis absolutisque decretis, xxii. 5, 2.) and simple religion of the Christians he obscured by a dotard’s superstition, and by subtle