[6]
In truth, to return to myself, it is from such beginnings as his that I
myself have risen to credit among men; and this forensic labour of mine, and
the system of conduct which I have adopted, has made its way to the
favourable opinion of men, by means of the extended commendation and
favourable opinion of my own relations and friends. For as to the attacks
which have been made on him on the score of chastity, which has been harped
upon by all the accusers, not by regular charges, but by outcry and abuse;
Marcus Caelius will never be indignant at that, so far as to repent of not
being ugly. For those sort of reproaches are habitually heaped upon every
one, whose person and appearance in youth is at all gentlemanly. But to
vituperate is one thing, and to accuse is another. An accusation requires a
crime in order to define the matter, to bind the man, to prove its charges
by argument, and to confirm them by witnesses. But vituperation has no
settled object except insult and if any one is attacked in that way with
ill-temper it is called abuse; but if it is done with some sort of wit and
mirth, it is then styled bantering.
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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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