[144]
But suddenly, O judges, while speaking of the dignity and renown of those
valiant and most illustrious citizens, and while I was preparing to say
still more on that subject, I have been checked in the onward progress of my
speech by the sight of these men. I see Publius Sestius the defender and
upholder and chief maintainer of my safety and of your authority, and of the
cause of the commonwealth on his trial as a criminal; I see his young son
present here before you, gazing on me with tearful eyes, I see Milo the vindicator of your liberty, the
guardian of my safety the support and defence of the afflicted republic, the
extinguisher of the piratical attempts of our domestic enemies, the
repressor of daily bloodshed, the defender alike of the temples of the gods
and of the houses of individuals the bulwark of the senate-house, in
mourning apparel, and under a prosecution. I see Publius Lentulus, to whose
father I pay my salutations as the protecting deity and parent of my fortune
and my name, and of my brother, and of all my hopes and property in the
miserable garb and squalid condition of an impeached man: I see the man who
in the course of last year received the robe of manhood by the will of his
father, and the purple robe by the deliberate choice1 of the people, now, in this year, in
the same robe seeking to avert by his entreaties the sudden infliction of
this most iniquitous decree, supplicating you on behalf of his
most gallant father, and your most illustrious citizen.
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1 Publius Lentulus had been named one of the college of augurs, in spite of his youth, which was a legal disqualification for such an office, in compliment to his father.
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