The Crown Is a Chain

In his sefer V'Yimaher Avraham (Shin, #582), Rav Avraham cites from Seder HaDoros the account of Augustus Caesar's coronation. Though young, Augustus was humble and wise. When they came to crown him, he took the crown, set it down before him, and addressed it: if the wise and the masses knew the troubles, worries and fears that lie beneath you, they would not dare lift you even if they found you cast aside in the marketplace, lost among rocks and stones. As for himself, he said, he had been sold as a slave to this nation, not as its leader or ruler. This was no crown of royalty but iron shackles and chains of bondage. The Abarbanel cites the same account in Nachlas Avos on the Mishnah "Be exceedingly humble" (Avos 4:4), praises Augustus's words of wisdom, and concludes that this is why his reign was the longest among the Caesars of Rome.