[iii][1] On this question I therefore affirm that it was by right, and not by usurping, that the Roman people took on the office of the monarch (which is called ‘empire’) over all men.

[2] This can be proved firstly as follows: it is appropriate that the noblest race should rule over all the others; the Roman people was the noblest; therefore it was appropriate that they should rule over all the others.

[3] The major premiss is proved by an argument from reason: for since “honour is the reward for virtue” and every position of authority is an honour, every position of authority is the reward of virtue. But we know that men become noble through virtue, either their own virtue or that of their forebears.

[4] For “nobility is virtue and ancient wealth”, as Aristotle says in the Politics; and according to Juvenal:nobility of mind is the sole and only virtue.These two sayings refer to two kinds of nobility, i.e. a man’s own nobility and that of his ancestors. Therefore the reward of a position of authority is appropriate to the noble by reason of the cause of their nobility.

[5] And since rewards should be commensurate with deserts, as we read in the words of the Gospel: “With the same measure you have applied to others you will be measured”, it is appropriate that the most noble should have the highest position of authority over others.

[6] The minor premiss is supported by the testimony of the ancients; for our divine poet Virgil bears witness throughout the whole of the Aeneid, to his everlasting memory, that the father of the Roman people was that most glorious king Aeneas; and Titus Livy, the illustrious chronicler of Roman deeds, confirms this in the first part of his book, which takes as its starting-point the capture of Troy.

[7] It would be beyond me to give a full account of just how noble this supremely victorious and supremely dutiful father was, taking into account not only his own virtue but that of his forebears and his wives, whose nobility flowed into him by hereditary right: “but I shall trace the main outlines of the facts.”

[8] Now as far as his own nobility is concerned, we must listen to our poet when in the first book he introduces Ileoneus as he petitions in this manner:Aeneas was our king; no man more justIn piety, nor greater in war and arms.

[9] Let us listen to him too in the sixth book, when he speaks of the dead Misenus, who had served Hector in battle and who after Hector’s death had entered the service of Aeneas; he says that Misenus “followed no less a hero”, comparing Aeneas with Hector, whom Homer glorifies above all others, as Aristotle relates in that book of the Ethics which deals with behaviour to be avoided.

[10] As far as hereditary nobility is concerned, we find that each of the three regions into which the world is divided made him noble, both through his ancestors and through his wives. For Asia did so through his more immediate forebears, such as Assaracus and the others who ruled over Phrygia, a region of Asia; hence our poet says in the third book:After the Gods saw fit to overthrowThe might of Asia and Priam’s guiltless race.

[11] Europe did so with his most ancient male forebear, i.e. Dardanus; Africa did so too with his most ancient female forebear Electra, daughter of King Atlas of great renown; our poet bears witness concerning both of them in his eighth book, where Aeneas speaks in these words to Evander:Dardanus,First father and founder of the city of Troy,Born of Electra, as the Greeks maintain,Comes to the Teucrians; mighty Atlas begat her,Who bears the spheres of heaven on his shoulders.

[12] That Dardanus was of European birth our bard proclaims in the third book:There is a land the Greeks call Hesperia,Ancient, mighty in arms and fertile soil.Oenotrians lived there; a later generationHas called the nation Italy after their leader:This is our homeland; Dardanus was born here.

[13] That Atlas came from Africa is confirmed by the mountain there which bears his name. Orosius in his description of the world tells us it is in Africa in these words: “Its furthest boundary is Mount Atlas and the islands they call Fortunate” (‘its’ meaning ‘Africa’s’, because he is talking about Africa).

[14] In similar fashion I find that he was also made noble by marriage. For his first wife, Creusa, the daughter of king Priam, was from Asia, as may be gathered from what was said earlier. And that she was his wife our poet bears witness in his third book, where Andromache questions Aeneas as a father about his son Ascanius in this way:What of your boy Ascanius,Whom Creusa bore when Troy was smouldering?Is he alive and does he breathe earth’s air?

[15] His second wife was Dido, queen and mother of the Carthaginians in Africa; and that she was his wife our bard proclaims in the fourth book, for he says there of Dido:Dido no longer thinks of a secret love:She calls it marriage; this name conceals her sin.

[16] The third was Lavinia, mother of the Albans and the Romans, the daughter of King Latinus and his heir as well, if our poet is to be believed in his last book, where he introduces the defeated Turnus making supplication to Aeneas in these words:You have won; the Ausonians have seenThe vanquished man stretch forth his upturned hands:Lavinia is your wife.This last wife was from Italy, the most noble region of Europe.

[17] When these facts in support of the minor premiss are borne in mind, who is not satisfied that the father of the Roman people, and as a consequence that people itself, was the noblest in the world? Or who will fail to recognise divine predestination in that double confluence of blood from every part of the world into a single man?