been a gift not to be slighted even if bestowed by an unoffended
prince. Caesar added: "In future I will take care never to quarrel
with you, for my own sake." Caesar acted honourably in pardoning
him, and in being liberal as well as forgiving; no one can hear
this anecdote without praising Caesar, but he must praise the slave
first. You need not wait for me to tell you that the slave who did
his master this service was set free; yet his master did not do
this for nothing, for Caesar had already paid him the price of the
slave's liberty.

XXVIII. After so many instances, can we doubt that a master may
sometimes receive a benefit from a slave? Why need the person of
the giver detract from the thing which he gives? why should not the
gift add rather to the glory of the giver. All men descend from the
same original stock; no one is better born than another, except in
so far as his disposition is nobler and better suited for the
performance of good actions. Those who display portraits of their
ancestors in their halls, and set up in the entrance to their
houses the pedigree of their family drawn out at length, with many
complicated collateral branches, are they not notorious rather than
noble? The universe is the one parent of all, whether they trace
their descent from this primary source through a glorious or a mean
line of ancestors. Be not deceived when men who are reckoning up
their genealogy, wherever an illustrious name is wanting, foist in
that of a god in its place. You need despise no one, even though he
bears a commonplace name, and owes little to fortune. Whether your
immediate ancestors were freedmen, or slaves, or foreigners, pluck
up your spirits boldly, and leap over any intervening disgraces of
your pedigree; at its source, a noble origin awaits you. Why should
our pride inflate us to such a degree that we think it beneath us