PREF. GALLiaS INDIFFERENCE 163 



adapt yourself to this model. When any flatterer 

 approaches you, say to him : Do you wish to 

 convey a complimentary message such as passes 

 between magistrates duly installed in office ? Do 

 you think that I am prepared to return the com- 

 pliment, and willing, therefore, to listen to your 

 long story ? Neither do I wish to dupe, nor can 

 I be duped. I should like well enough to have 

 the praise of people like yourself if you did not 

 praise the bad as well as the good. 



And yet, Lucilius, why is it necessary for you to 

 come down to their level, and allow them to attack 

 you at close quarters ? Keep a long distance between 

 you and them. When you desire to have genuine 

 praise, why should you be indebted to another for 

 it ? Yourself commend your own efforts. Say 

 thus : Though my poverty prompted another kind 

 of career, and tempted me to devote my talents to 13 

 a field which promised to application a quick return, 

 yet I gave myself up to liberal pursuits. I turned 

 aside to the unremunerative domains of poetry, 

 and bestowed myself upon the wholesome study of 

 philosophy. I have showed that seeds of virtue 

 are planted in every breast. I have surmounted 

 the difficulties of birth ; measuring my powers, not 

 by my lot, but by my capacity, I have reached a 

 position on a level with the highest. My friendship 

 with Gaetulicus did rtot sap my allegiance to the 

 Emperor Caius Caligula. Messalina and Narcissus, 

 long enemies of the State before they became 

 enemies of one another, were unable to overturn 14 

 my resolve to be true to others whom it was a 

 crime to love. 1 I risked my head for my loyalty. 



1 The passage is evidently corrupt ; the facts with which it deals are in 

 part unknown. 



