Legatio Ad Gaium

Accordingly when his disease began to abate, in a very short time even the men who were living on the very confines of the empire heard of it and rejoiced, for nothing is swifter than report, [*](So Virgil says— Fama malum quo non aliucl velocius ullum— Æn. iv. 174. ) and immediately every city was full of suspense and expectation, being continually eager for better news, until at length his perfect recovery was announced by fresh arrivals, at which news they again returned to their original cheerfulness, each thinking the health of Caius to be his own salvation;

and this feeling pervaded every continent and every island, for no one can recollect so great and general a joy affecting any one country or any one nation, at the good health or prosperity of their governor, as now pervaded the whole of the habitable world at the recovery of Caius, and at his being able to resume the exercise of his power and having completely got rid of his sickness.

For they all rejoiced, from ignorance of the truth, like men who are now for the first time beginning to exchange a wandering and uncivilised mode of life for a social and civilised system, and instead of dwelling in desert places, and the open air, and the mountain districts, to live in walled cities, and instead of living without any governor, or protector, or lawgiver, to be now established under the care of a governor to be a sort of shepherd and leader of a more domesticated flock;

for the human mind is apt to be blind towards the perception of what is really expedient and beneficial for it, being influenced rather by conjecture and notions of probability than by real knowledge.