My dear Serenus, I think Athenodorus gave up too easily. He retreated from public life too quickly. I won't deny that sometimes you need to step back from politics. But you should retreat slowly and keep your dignity. You should leave like a soldier who keeps his weapons and his honor. Enemies respect warriors who negotiate while still armed. They're also safer that way.
This is how I think virtue should work. This is what someone practicing virtue should do. If Fortune gets the upper hand and takes away your power to act, don't immediately turn and run. Don't throw down your weapons and flee to find a hiding place. There's nowhere Fortune can't follow you anyway. Instead, be more careful about which public offices you accept. Think it through. Find some way you can still serve the state.
To me, my dearest Serenus, Athenodorus seems to have yielded too completely to the times, to have fled too soon: I will not deny that sometimes one must retire, but one ought to retire slowly, at a foot's pace, without losing one's ensigns or one's honour as a soldier: those who make terms with arms in their hands are more respected by their enemies and more safe in their hands. This is what I think ought to be done by virtue and by one who practises virtue: if Fortune get the upper hand and deprive him of the power of action, let him not straightway turn his back to the enemy, throw away his arms, and run away seeking for a hiding-place, as if there were any place whither Fortune could not pursue him, but let him be more sparing in his acceptance of public office, and after due deliberation discover some means by which he can be of use to the state.