§9.18.1et loquimur de Alexandro nondum merso secundis rebus, quarum nemo intolerantior fuit.
And we are speaking of Alexander not yet submerged by prosperous circumstances, of which no one was more impatient.
§9.18.2qui si ex habitu novae fortunae novique, ut ita dicam, ingenii, §9.18.3quod sibi victor induerat, spectetur, Dareo magis similis quam Alexandro in Italiam venisset et exercitum Macedoniae oblitum degenerantemque iam in Persarum mores adduxisset.
who, if he should be judged by the character of his new fortune and new, so to speak, disposition, which as victor he had put on himself, would have come into Italy more like Darius than Alexander, and would have brought an army of Macedonia forgetful of its country and already degenerating into the customs of the Persians.
§9.18.4referre in tanto rege piget superbam mutationem vestis et desideratas humi iacentium adulationes, etiam victis Macedonibus graves, nedum victoribus, et foeda supplicia et inter vinum et epulas caedes amicorum et vanitatem ementiendae divinae stirpis.
In so great a king, it is painful to relate the haughty change of dress and the desired adulations of those prostrating themselves on the ground, offensive even to the conquered Macedonians, let alone to the victors, and the foul executions, and the slaughters of friends amidst wine and feasts, and the vanity of lying about a divine lineage.
§9.18.5quid? si vini amor in dies fieret acrior, quid?
What if the love of wine became fiercer day by day?
§9.18.6si trux ac praefervida ira nec quicquam dubium inter scriptores refero —, nullane haec damna imperatoriis virtutibus ducimus? id vero periculum erat, quod levissimi ex Graecis, qui Parthorum quoque contra nomen Romanum gloriae favent, dictitare solent, ne maiestatem nominis Alexandri, quem ne fama quidem illis notum arbitror fuisse,
What if there were a ferocious and burning wrath—and I report nothing doubtful among writers—, do we consider these as no losses to the virtues of a general?
§9.18.7sustinere non potuerit populus Romanus, et adversus quem Athenis, in civitate fracta Macedonum armis, cernentes tum maxime prope fumantes Thebarum ruinas contionari libere ausi sint homines, id quod ex monumentis orationum patet, adversus eum nemo ex tot proceribus Romanis vocem liberam missurus fuerit! Quantalibet magnitudo hominis concipiatur animo;
Indeed, that was the danger, which the most frivolous of the Greeks, who even favor the glory of the Parthians against the Roman name, are accustomed to keep saying, lest the majesty of the name of Alexander, whom I think was not known to them even by rumor, the Roman people would not have been able to withstand, and that against him, against whom at Athens, in a city broken by the arms of the Macedonians, men dared to speak freely in assembly at that very time when they were seeing the almost smoking ruins of Thebes—which is clear from the records of their speeches—, no one of so many Roman nobles would have uttered a free voice!
§9.18.8unius tamen ea magnitudo hominis erit, collecta paulo plus decem annorum felicitate; §9.18.9quam qui eo extollunt, quod populus Romanus, etsi nullo bello, multis tamen proeliis victus sit, Alexandro nullius pugnae non secunda fortuna fuerit, non intellegunt se hominis res gestas, et eius iuvenis, cum populi iam quadringentesimum bellantis annum rebus conferre.
However great a greatness of the man may be conceived in the mind, yet that greatness will be that of a single man, accumulated by the good fortune of a little more than ten years; those who extol it on this account, because the Roman people, although defeated in no war, were yet defeated in many battles, whereas for Alexander the fortune of no battle was not favorable, do not understand that they are comparing the achievements of a man, and of a young man, with the history of a people already waging war for its four-hundredth year.
§9.18.10miremur, si, cum ex hac parte saecula plura numerentur quam ex illa anni, plus in tam longo spatio quam in aetate tredecim annorum fortuna variaverit?
Should we wonder if, since more centuries are counted on this side than years on that, fortune varied more in so long a span than in a life of thirteen years?
§9.18.11quin tu hominis cum homine et ducis cum duce fortunam confers? quot Romanos duces nominem,
Why do you not rather compare the fortune of man with man, and leader with leader?
§9.18.12quibus numquam adversa fortuna pugnae fuit! paginas in annalibus magistratuumque fastis percurrere licet consulum dictatorumque, quorum nec virtutis nec fortunae ullo die populum Romanum paenituit.
How many Roman leaders could I name, for whom the fortune of battle was never adverse! One may run through the pages of the annals and the fasti of magistrates, of consuls and dictators, of whose virtue or fortune the Roman people never on any day repented.
§9.18.13et, quo sint mirabiliores quam Alexander aut quisquam rex, denos vicenosque dies quidam dictaturam, nemo plus quam annum consulatum gessit; §9.18.14ab tribunis plebis dilectus inpediti sunt; post tempus ad bella ierunt, ante tempus comitiorum causa revocati sunt; in ipso conatu rerum circumegit se annus; §9.18.15collegae nunc temeritas nunc pravitas inpedimento aut damno fuit; male gestis rebus alterius successum est; tironem aut mala disciplina institutum exercitum acceperunt.
And, what makes them more wonderful than Alexander or any king, some held the dictatorship for ten or twenty days, and no one held the consulship for more than a year; the levies were hindered by the tribunes of the plebs; they went to war late, and were recalled early for the sake of the comitia; in the very attempt of actions, the year wound to its close; sometimes the rashness, sometimes the perversity of a colleague was a hindrance or a loss; they succeeded to affairs badly managed by another; they received an army of recruits or one trained under poor discipline.
§9.18.16at hercule reges non liberi solum inpedimentis omnibus sed domini rerum temporumque trahunt consiliis cuncta, non sequuntur.
But by Hercules, kings are not only free from all hindrances but are masters of circumstances and times; they drag all things by their counsels, they do not follow them.
§9.18.17invictus ergo Alexander cum invictis ducibus bella gessisset et eadem fortunae pignora in discrimen detulisset; §9.18.18immo etiam eo plus periculi subisset, quod Macedones unum Alexandrum habuissent, multis casibus non solum obnoxium sed etiam offerentem se, §9.18.19Romani multi fuissent Alexandro vel gloria vel rerum magnitudine pares, quorum suo quisque fato sine publico discrimine viveret morereturque.
Therefore, the invincible Alexander would have waged war with invincible leaders, and would have brought the same pledges of fortune into danger; nay rather, he would have undergone so much more danger, because the Macedonians would have had only one Alexander, not only subject to many casualties but even offering himself to them, while there would have been many Romans equal to Alexander either in glory or in the magnitude of their achievements, each of whom would live and die by his own fate without public danger.