[93]
And since you find fault with me for this, that you assert that I am
accustomed to speak too boastfully of myself; I ask, who ever heard me speak
in this way, or speak of myself at all, except when I was compelled, and was
doing so of necessity? For if, when robberies, and bribery, and lust are
imputed to me, I am accustomed to reply that the country was saved by my
prudence, and labour, and personal danger, I ought not to be considered as
boasting of my own exploits, so much as refusing to confess what is imputed
to me. But if, before these most miserable periods of the republic, nothing
else was ever imputed to me, except the cruelty of my conduct at that time
when I warded off destruction from the republic, what will you say? Ought I
when accused in this manner, not to have replied at all, or to have replied
in an abject tone?
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. George Bell & Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1891.
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