[49]
But when the greatest honours of your family were at stake, that is to say, the consulship
of your father that wise man your father was not angry with his most intimate friends for
defending and praising Sulla. He was aware that this was a principle handed down to us from
our ancestors that we were not to be hindered by our friendship for any one from warding off
dangers from others. And yet that contest was far from resembling this trial. Then, if Publius
Sulla could he put down, the consulship would be procured for your father as it was procured,
it was a contest of honour you were crying out, that you were seeking to recover what had been
taken from you, in order that, having been defeated in the Campus Martius, you might succeed
in the forum. Then those who were contending against you for Sulla's safety your greatest
friends, with whom you were not angry. On, that account, deprived you of the consulship,
resisted your acquisition of honour; and yet they did so without any rupture of your mutual
friendship, without violating any duty according to ancient precedent and the established
principles of every good man.
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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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