At that juncture the struggle was for life; afterwards, for
victory. Now though all these affairs were transacted by the counsels and
conduct of another than Agricola, and though the stress of the whole, with
the glory of recovering the Province, accrued to the General; they all
however proved to the young man matters of skill, of experience and
stimulation; and there seized his soul a passion for military glory, a
spirit disgustful to the times, when of men signally eminent a malignant
opinion was entertained, and when as much peril arose from a great
character as from a bad.
A.D. 62-68. Departing from hence to Rome for the exercise of public
dignities, he there married Domitia Decidiana, a lady splendid in her
descent; and to him, who was aspiring to higher honours, this marriage
proved a great ornament and support. In marvellous unanimity they also
lived, in a course of mutual tenderness and mutual preference; a temper
commendable in both, only that the praise of a good wife rises in
proportion to the contumely of a bad. His lot as Quaestor fell upon Asia,
where he had Salvius Titianus for Proconsul.
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