§2.1τοῦτο δὲ αὑτὸν ἐπῆρε μάλιστα τὰς διὰ μέσου καὶ συνήθεις τοῖς νέοις ἀρχὰς ὑπερβάντα, δημαρχίαν καὶ στρατηγίαν καὶ ἀγορανομίαν, εὐθὺς αὑτὸν ὑπατείας ἀξιοῦν καὶ κατῄει τοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν κληρουχιῶν ἔχων προθύμους.
And this especially encouraged him, bypassing the intermediate offices customary for young men—the tribuneship, the praetorship, and the aedileship—to deem himself worthy immediately of the consulship, and he went down with eager supporters from the colonies.
τῶν δὲ περὶ Φούλβιον καὶ Μάνιον δημάρχων ἐνισταμένων καὶ δεινὸν εἶναι λεγόντων ἄνδρα νέον εἰς τὴν μεγίστην ἀρχὴν εἰσβιάζεσθαι παρὰ τοὺς νόμους, οἷον ἀτέλεστον ἔτι τῶν πρώτων ἱερῶν καὶ μυστηρίων τῆς πολιτείας, §2.2ἡ μὲν σύγκλητος ἀπέδωκε τῷ δήμῳ τὴν ψῆφον, ὁ δὲ δῆμος ἀπέδειξεν αὑτὸν ὕπατον μετὰ Σέξτου Αἰλίου, καίπερ οὔπω τριάκοντα ἔτη γεγονότα, Κλήρῳ δὲ λαγχάνει τὸν πρὸς Φίλιππον καὶ Μακεδόνας πόλεμον, εὐτυχίᾳ τινὶ τῶν Ῥωμαίων συλλαχὼν πράγμασι καὶ ἀνθρώποις οὐ πάντα πολέμῳ καὶ βίᾳ χρωμένου δεομένοις ἄρχοντος, ἀλλὰ πειθοῖ καὶ ὁμιλίᾳ μᾶλλον ἁλωσίμοις.
But when the tribunes around Fulvius and Manius opposed him, saying that it was a terrible thing for a young man to force his way into the greatest office contrary to the laws, as if still uninitiated into the first sacred rites and mysteries of the state, the senate referred the vote to the people, and the people appointed him consul along with Sextus Aelius, although he was not yet thirty years old. And by lot he obtained the war against Philip and the Macedonians, meeting, by a certain good fortune of the Romans, with circumstances and men who did not entirely need a commander using war and force, but were rather winnable by persuasion and intercourse.
§2.3Φιλίππῳ γὰρ ἦν στόμωμα μὲν εἰς μάχην ἀποχρῶν ἡ Μακεδόνων ἀρχή, ῥώμη δὲ πολέμου τριβὴν ἔχοντος καὶ χορηγία καὶ καταφυγὴ καὶ ὄργανον ὅλως τῆς φάλαγγος ἡ τῶν Ἑλλήνων δύναμις, ὧν μὴ διαλυθέντων ἀπὸ τοῦ Φιλίππου μιᾶς μάχης οὐκ ἦν ἔργον ὁ πρὸς αὑτὸν πόλεμος.
For to Philip, the Macedonian empire indeed was a sufficient edge for battle, but the strength of the war if it dragged on, and the resource, and the refuge, and entirely the instrument of the phalanx was the power of the Greeks, and if these had not been detached from Philip, the war against him would not have been the work of a single battle.
§2.4ἡ δʼ Ἑλλὰς οὔπω πολλὰ συνενηνεγμένη Ῥωμαίοις, ἀλλὰ τότε πρῶτον ἐπιμιγνυμένη ταῖς πράξεσιν, εἰ μὴ φύσει τε χρηστὸς ἦν ὁ ἄρχων καὶ λόγῳ μᾶλλον ἢ πολέμῳ χρώμενος, ἐντυγχάνοντί τε προσῆν πιθανότης καὶ πρᾳότης ἐντυγχανομένῳ καὶ τόνος πλεῖστος ὑπὲρ τῶν δικαίων, οὐκ ἂν οὕτως ῥᾳδίως ἀντὶ τῶν συνήθων ἀλλόφυλον ἀρχὴν ἠγάπησε.
And Greece, having not yet had much intercourse with the Romans, but then for the first time mingling in their affairs, if the commander had not been both kind by nature and employing discourse rather than war, and if persuasiveness had not attended him when addressing others, and gentleness when he was addressed, along with the greatest intensity on behalf of justice, she would not have so easily welcomed a foreign rule instead of her customary ones.
ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐπὶ τῶν πράξεων αὐτοῦ δηλοῦται.
These things, then, are made clear from his deeds.