[25]
Therefore it does seem a marvellous
thing to me, where you, O Labienus, found thus image which you have. For after Sextus Titius
was condemned, no one could be found who would dare to have it in his possession. But if you
had heard of that, or if, from your age, you could have known it, you certainly would never
have brought that image, which, even when concealed in his house, had brought ruin and exile
on Sextus Titius, into the rostrum, and into the assembly of the people; nor would you ever
have driven your designs on those rocks on which you had seen the ship of Sextus Titius dashed
to pieces, and the fortunes of Caius Decianus hopelessly wrecked. But in all these matters you
are erring out of ignorance. For you have undertaken the advocacy of a cause which is older
than your own recollections; a cause which was dead before you were born; that cause in which
you yourself would have been, if your age had allowed you to be so, you are bringing before
this court.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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