[7]
Should I, when Publius Lentulus the consul, who had conferred the greatest
benefits on me and on the republic,—when Quintus Metellus, your
brother, O Metellus, who, though he had been my enemy, had still preferred
my safety and dignity to any desire to keep alive our quarrel, and to your
entreaties that he would do so, sent for me to the senate,—when
that great multitude of citizens, who had lately shown such zeal in my
behalf, entreated me by name to show my gratitude to them,—should
I, I say, have declined to come forward, especially when it was notorious
that you with your band of runaway slaves had already left the place? Have
you dared to call me—me, the guardian and defender of the Capitol
and of every temple—the enemy of the Capitol, because, when the
two consuls were holding the senate in the Capitol, I came thither? Is there
any time at which it can be discreditable to have attended the senate? or
was that business which was then being transacted of such a nature that I
was bound to repudiate the affair itself, and to condemn those who were
promoting it?
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