[20]
And, on the same principle, I could not endure to see Publius Sulla coming
to me as a suppliant, or these same Marcelli in tears at his danger nor could I resist the
entreaties of Marcus Messala, whom you see in court, a most intimate friend of my own. For
neither was his cause disagreeable to my natural disposition nor had the man or the facts
anything in them at variance with my feelings of clemency his name had never been mentioned,
there was no trace whatever of him in the conspiracy; no information had touched him, no
suspicion had been breathed of him. I undertook his cause, O Torquatus; I undertook it, and I
did so willingly, in order that, while good men had always, as I hope, thought
me virtuous and firm, not even bad men might he able to call me cruel.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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