he who wishes to confer benefits must follow quite a different
path. In all ways you should make your benefit as acceptable as
possible by presenting it in the most attractive form; but the
method of Tiberius is not to confer benefits, but to reproach.

VIII. Moreover, if incidentally I should say what I think of this
part of the subject, I do not consider that it is becoming even to
an emperor to give merely in order to cover a man with shame. "And
yet," we are told, "Tiberius did not even by this means attain his
object; for after this a good many persons were found to make the
same request. He ordered all of them to explain the reasons of
their indebtedness before the senate, and when they did so, granted
them certain definite sums of money." This is not an act of
generosity, but a reprimand. You may call it a subsidy, or an
imperial contribution; it is not a benefit, for the receiver cannot
think of it without shame. I was summoned before a judge, and had
to be tried at bar before I obtained what I asked for.

IX. Accordingly, all writers on ethical philosophy tell us that
some benefits ought to be given in secret, others in public. Those
things which it is glorious to receive, such as military
decorations or public offices, and whatever else gains in value the
more widely it is known, should be conferred in public; on the
other hand, when they do not promote a man or add to his social
standing, but help him when in weakness, in want, or in disgrace,
they should be given silently, and so as to be known only to those
who profit by them.

X. Sometimes even the person who is assisted must be deceived, in
order that he may receive our bounty without knowing the source