IV. 8 The chief of those men was Publius Lentulus, the parent and god of my
life, and fortune, and memory, and name. He thought that the best proof that he
could give of his virtue, the best indication that he could afford of his
disposition, the greatest ornament with which he could
embellish his consulship would be the restoration of me to myself, to my
friends, to you, and to the republic. And as soon as ever he was appointed
consul elect he never hesitated to express an opinion concerning my safety
worthy both of himself and of the republic. When the
veto was interposed by the tribune of the people,—when that admirable clause
was read: “That no one should make any motion before you that no one should
propose any decree to you that no one should raise any discussion, or make any
speech or take any vote or frame any law;” he thought all that as I have said
before, a proscription and not a law, by which a citizen who had deserved well
of the republic was by name and without any trial, taken from the senate and
the republic at the same time. But as soon as he entered on his office, I will
not say what did he do before, but what else did he do at all, except labour by
my preservation to establish your authority and dignity on a firm basis for the
future? 9 O ye immortal gods! what great kindness do you appear to have shown me, in
making Publius Lentulus consul this year. How much greater still would your
bounty bare been, had he been so the preceding year; for I should not have been
in want of such medicine as a consul could give, unless I had fallen by a wound
inflicted by a consul. I had been often told by one of the wisest of men and
one of the most virtuous of citizens, Quintus Catulus, that it was not often
that there was one wicked consul, but that there had never been two at the same
time since the foundation of Rome, except in that terrible time of Cinna. Wherefore,
he used to say that my interest would always be firmly secured, as long as
there was even one virtuous consul in the republic. And he would have spoken
the truth, if that state of things with respect to consuls could have remained
lasting and perpetual, that, as there never had been two bad ones in the
republic, so there never should be. But if Quintus Metellus had been at that
time consul, who was then my enemy, do you doubt what would have been his
feelings with regard to my preservation, when you see that he was a mover and
seconder of the measure proposed for my restoration? 10 But at that time there were two
consuls, whose minds, narrow, contemptible, mean, groveling, dark, and dirty,
were unable to look properly at, or to uphold, or to support the mere name of
the consulship, much less the splendour of that honour, and the importance of
that authority. They were not consuls, but dealers in provinces, and sellers of
your dignity. One of whom demanded back from me, in the hearing of many,
Catiline, his lover; the other reclaimed Cethegus, his cousin;—the two most
wicked men in the memory of man, who (I will not call them consuls, but
robbers) not only deserted, in a cause in which, above all others, the welfare
of the republic and the dignity of the consulship was concerned, but betrayed
me, and opposed me, and wished to see me stripped of all aid, not only from
themselves, but also from you and from the other orders of the state. One of
them, however, deceived neither me nor any one else.
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