utterances. The reader does not regret it.
Abuse makes better reading than praise, has a stronger vitality, and
seems, alas, to come more thoroughly from the heart! Those who think
that genuine invective has its charms would ill spare Piso and Gabinius.

He goes back to his eulogy, and names various Praetors and officers who
have worked on his behalf. Then he declares that by the view of the
present Consul, Lentulus, a decree has been passed in his favor more
glorious than has been awarded to any other single Roman citizen--namely
that from all Italy those who wished well to their country should be
collected together for the purpose of bringing him back from his
banishment--him, Cicero. There is much in this in praise of Lentulus,
but more in praise of Cicero. Throughout these orations we feel that
Cicero is put forward as the hero, whereas Piso and Gabinius are the
demons of the piece. "What could I leave as a richer legacy to my
posterity," he goes on to say, opening another clause of his speech,
"than that the Senate should have decreed that the citizen who had not
come forward in my defence was one regardless of the Republic." By these
boastings, though he was at the moment at the top of the ladder of
popularity, he was offending the self-importance of all around him. He
was offending especially Pompey, with whom it was his fate to have to
act.[4] But that was little to the offence he was giving to those who
were to come many centuries after him, who would not look into the
matter with sufficient accuracy to find that his vanity deserved
forgiveness because of his humanity and desire for progress. "O
Lentulus," he says, at the end of the oration, "since I am restored to
the Republic, as with me the Republic is itself restored, I will slacken
nothing in my efforts at liberty; but, if it may be possible, will add
something to my energy." In translating a word here and there as I have
done, I feel at every expression my incapacity. There is no such thing
as good translation. If you wish to drink the water, with its life and
vigor in it, you must go to the fountain and drink it there.

On the day following he made a similar speech to the people--if, indeed,
the speech we have was from his mouth or his pen--as to which it has
been remarked that in it he made no allusion to Clodius, though he was
as bitter as ever against the late Consuls. From this we may gather
that, though his audience was delighted to hear him, even