An senatum populumque Romanum, exercitus provincias socios transmissurus uni successorem e sinu uxoris accipias, summaeque potestatis heredem tantum intra domum tuam quaeras? non totam per civitatem circumferas oculos et hunc tibi proximum, hunc coniunctissimum existimes, quem optimum quem dis simillimum inveneris? Imperaturus omnibus eligi debet ex omnibus; non enim servulis tuis dominum, ut possis esse contentus quasi necessario herede, sed principem civibus daturus et imperatorem.
for when it is a case of transferring the Senate and people of Rome, armies, provinces, and allies to a single successor, would you look to a wife to provide him, or seek no further than the four walls of your home? No indeed, you would search through all your subjects, and judge him the closest and dearest to you whom you find to be the noblest and dearest to the gods. If he is destined to rule the people, one and all, he must be chosen from among them all, for no natural law can satisfy you when you are not appointing an overlord for your household of cheap slaves, but a prince and emperor for the citizens of Rome.
final_alignments\Pliny_Younger_Panegyricus.json