M. Tullius Cicero, For Sestius
C. D. Yonge, Ed.

For why should I mention those resolutions of the senate, of more than human kindness towards me? Either that which was passed in the temple of the all-good and all-powerful Jupiter, when that man, who has marked by three triumphs that he has added himself three countries and nations to this empire, read a long written speech in support of his opinion, and bore his testimony to the fact that I alone had preserved the country; and the senate in the fullest possible house adopted his opinion so entirely that only one enemy of mine dissented from it, and the decree as supported by Pompeius was recorded in the public registers for the eternal recollection of posterity? Or that which was passed the next day in the senate house, at the suggestion of the Roman people themselves, and of those men who had come up from the municipal towns to the effect that no one was to observe the heavens that no one was to cause any delay whatever, that if any one did so, he should be considered at once as one who wished to overturn the republic, and the senate would be very much offended, and that a motion should be immediately made respecting his conduct? And when the senate, meeting in great numbers, had checked the wickedness and audacity of some of those men by its authority and dignity, it added this clause, moreover; that if within the next five days in which my affairs could be discussed, they were not brought to a termination, I was to return to my country and be restored to all my former dignities.