Nondum biennium compleveramus in officio laboriosissimo et maximo, cum tu nobis, optime principum fortissime imperatorum, consulatum obtulisti, ut ad summum honorem gloria celeritatis accederet: tantum inter te et illos principes interest, qui beneficiis suis commendationem ex difficultate captabant, gratioresque accipientibus honores arbitrabantur, si prius illos desperatio et taedium et similis repulsae mora in notam quandam pudoremque vertissent.
We had not yet completed our second year in an exacting and important office when you offered us the consulate, and this you did, noblest of princes and most valorous of emperors in the field, so that to its supreme honour might be added the further distinction of rapid promotion. This marks the gulf between you and those among your predecessors who sought to recommend their benefits by hedging them with difficulties, and believed that honours would be more acceptable to their recipients if hope long deferred, exasperation and endless delays tantamount to a rebuff, had first turned them into a mark of ignominy.
final_alignments\Pliny_Younger_Panegyricus.json