You are a king: I won't tell you to look at Croesus for an example. He watched his own funeral pyre get lit and then put out while he was still alive. He lived longer than his kingdom — he even outlived his own death. I won't point to Jugurtha either. The Roman people saw him as their captive in the same year they had feared him as their enemy. We have seen Ptolemy, King of Africa, and Mithridates, King of Armenia, both under guard by Caligula's soldiers. One was sent into exile. The other chose exile to make his downfall more dignified. With all these constant ups and downs, you give misfortune power over you unless you expect that whatever can happen will happen to you. Anyone who thinks about this ahead of time can destroy that power.
You are a king: I will not bid you go to Croesus for an example, he who while yet alive saw his funeral pile both lighted and extinguished, being made to outlive not only his kingdom but even his own death, nor to Jugurtha, whom the people of Rome beheld as a captive within the year in which they had feared him. We have seen Ptolemaeus King of Africa, and Mithridates King of Armenia, under the charge of Gaius's guards: the former was sent into exile, the latter chose it in order to make his exile more honourable. Among such continual topsy-turvy changes, unless you expect that whatever can happen will happen to you, you give adversity power against you, a power which can be destroyed by any one who looks at it beforehand.