course of Lucullus has had such influence
over you,--and it has been a wonderful exhibition of memory, accuracy, and
ingenuity,--I have nothing to say; nor do I think it my duty to try and
deter you from changing opinion if you choose. But I should not think it
well for you to be influenced merely by his authority. For he was all but
warning you, said he, jestingly, to take care that no worthless tribune of
the people, of whom you know what a number there will always be, seize
upon you, and ask of you in the public assembly how you are consistent
with yourself, when at one time you assert that nothing certain can be
discovered, and at another time affirm that you yourself have discovered
something. I entreat you, do not let him terrify you. But I would rather
have you disagree with him on the merits of the case itself. But if you
give in to him, I shall not be greatly surprised; for I recollect that
Antiochus himself, after he had entertained such opinions for many years,
abandoned them as soon as he thought it desirable. When Catulus had said
this, they all began to fix their eyes on me.

XX. Then I, being no less agitated than I usually am when pleading
important causes, began to speak something after this fashion:--

The discourse of Lucullus, O Catulus, on the matter itself, moved me a
good deal, being the discourse of a learned and ingenious and quick-witted
man, and of one who passes over nothing which can be said for his side;
but still I am not afraid but that I may be able to answer him. But no
doubt such authority as his would have influenced me a good deal, if you
had not opposed your own to it, which is of equal weight. I will
endeavour, therefore, to reply to him after I have said a few words in
defence of my own reputation, as it were.

If it is by any desire of display, or any zeal for contentious disputes,
that I have been chiefly led to rank myself as an adherent of this school
of philosophy, I should think not only my folly, but also my disposition
and nature deserving of severe censure; for if obstinacy is found fault
with in the most trifling matters, and if also calumny is repressed,
should I choose to contend with others in a quarrelsome manner about the
general condition and conduct of my whole life, or to deceive others and
also my own self? Therefore, if I did not think it foolish in such a
discussion to do what, when one is discussing affairs of state, is
sometimes done, I would swear by Jupit