[-37-] “I shall speak first about his lineage, though not because it is very brilliant.  Yet this too has considerable bearing on the nature of excellence, that a man should have become good not through force of circumstances but by inherent power.  Those not born of noble parents may disguise themselves as honest men but may also some day be convicted of their base origin by innate qualities.  Those, however, who possess the seed of honesty, descending through a long line of ancestors, cannot possibly help having an excellence which is of spontaneous growth and permanent.  Still, I do not now praise Caesar chiefly because he was sprung from many noble men of recent times and kings and gods of ancient days, but because in the first place he was a kinsman of our whole city,—­we were founded by the men that were his ancestors,—­and secondly because he not only confirmed the renown of his forefathers who were believed by virtue to have attained divinity, but actually increased it; if any person disputed formerly the possibility of Aeneas ever having been born of Venus, he may now believe it.  The gods in past times have been reported as possessing some unworthy children, but no one could deem this man unworthy to have had gods for his ancestors.  Aeneas himself became king, as likewise some of his descendants.  This man proved himself so much superior to them that whereas they were monarchs of Lavinium and Alba, he refused to become king of Rome; and whereas they laid the foundation of our city, he raised it to such heights that among other services he established colonies greater than the cities over which they ruled.

[-38-] “Such, then, is the state of his family.  That he passed through a childhood and education corresponding to the dignity of his noble birth how could one feel better assured than by the certain proofs that his deeds afford?  When a man possesses conspicuously a body that is most enduring and a soul that is most steadfast in the face of all contingencies alike of peace and war, is it not inevitable that he must have been reared in the best possible way?  And I tell you it is difficult for any man surpassingly beautiful to show himself most enduring, and difficult for one who is strong in body to attain greatest prudence, but most difficult of all for the same man to shine both in words and in deeds.  Now this man—­I speak among men who know the facts, so that I shall not falsify in the least degree, for I should be caught in the very act, nor heap up exaggerated praises, for then I should obtain the opposite results of what I wish.  If I do anything of the kind, I shall be suspected with the utmost justice of braggadocio, and it will be thought that I am making his excellence less than the reputation which already exists in your own minds.  Every utterance delivered under such conditions, in case it admits even the smallest amount of falsehood, not only bestows no praise on its subject but defeats its own ends.  The knowledge of the