passion for military glory entered his soul; a passion ungrateful to the
times, [19] in which eminence was unfavorably construed, and a great
reputation was no less dangerous than a bad one.

6. Departing thence to undertake the offices of magistracy in Rome, he
married Domitia Decidiana, a lady of illustrious descent, from which
connection he derived credit and support in his pursuit of greater things.
They lived together in admirable harmony and mutual affection; each giving
the preference to the other; a conduct equally laudable in both, except
that a greater degree of praise is due to a good wife, in proportion as a
bad one deserves the greater censure. The lot of quaestorship [20] gave
him Asia for his province, and the proconsul Salvius Titianus [21] for his
superior; by neither of which circumstances was he corrupted, although the
province was wealthy and open to plunder, and the proconsul, from his
rapacious disposition, would readily have agreed to a mutual concealment
of guilt. His family was there increased by the birth of a daughter, who
was both the support of his house, and his consolation; for he lost an
elder-born son in infancy. The interval between his serving the offices of
quaestor and tribune of the people, and even the year of the latter
magistracy, he passed in repose and inactivity; well knowing the temper of
the times under Nero, in which indolence was wisdom. He maintained the
same tenor of conduct when praetor; for the judiciary part of the office
did not fall to his share. [22] In the exhibition of public games, and the
idle trappings of dignity, he consulted propriety and the measure of his
fortune; by no means approaching to extravagance, yet inclining rather to
a popular course. When he was afterwards appointed by Galba to manage an
inquest concerning the offerings which had been presented to the temples,
by his strict attention and diligence he preserved the state from any
further sacrilege than what it had suffered from Nero. [23]