Book 8
7.7
Moreover, I have lived to see my friends madeHis services prosperous and happy through my efforts and my enemies reduced by me to subjection; and my country, which once played no great part in Asia, I now leave honoured above all. Of all my conquests, there is not once that I have not maintained. Throughout the past I have fared even as I have wished; but a fear that was ever at my side, lest in the time to come I might see or hear or experience something unpleasant, would not let me become overweeningly proud or extravagantly happy.
7.8
But now, if I die, I leave you, my sons, whom the gods have given me, to survive me, and I leave my friends and country happy;
7.9
and so why should I not be justly accounted blessed and enjoy an immortality of fame?But I must also declare my will about the dispositionHe defines the succession of my throne, that the succession may not become a matter of dispute and cause you trouble. Now, I love you both alike, my sons; but precedence in counsel and leadership in everything that may be thought expedient, that I commit to the first born, who naturally has a wider experience.
