[26]
And the first allegation was one
which affected me least, namely,—that Caius had been intimate with
my own intimate friend Bestia; that he had supped with him, had been in the
habit of visiting him, had aided him when he was a candidate for the
praetorship. These things do not move me at all, for they are notoriously
false. In fact he is stating that those men supped together who are either
in different places, or
* * *
* * *
Nor am I moved by that assertion either, that he said that Caelius had been a
comrade of his own in the Lupercal games. No doubt, it is a savage and
purely pastoral and uncivilized sort of companionship,1 that of the Lupercal comrades, whose
sylvan companies were established before the institution of civilization and
of laws. Since these companions not only prosecute one another, but even in
the accusation speak of the companionship as a crime,
* * * so
that they seem to be afraid, lest any one should be ignorant of it.
