And you are to appear in just this state of preparation, that you have to make friends
 of those men who are utter strangers to you, for the purpose of obtaining their
 assistance. But I will not do these men so much honour as to answer what they have said
 in any regular order, or to give a separate answer to each; but since I have come to
 mention them not intentionally, but by chance, I will briefly, as I pass, satisfy them
 all in a few words. 
 Do I seem to you to be in such
 exceeding want of friends that I must have an assistant given me, chosen not out of the
 men whom I have brought down to court with me, but out of the people at large? And are
 you suffering under such a dearth of defendants, that you endeavour to filch this cause
 from me rather than look for some defendants of your own class at the pillar of Maenius?
 Maenius had sold his house to Cato and Valerius Flaccus when
 they were censors, and they had built the Porcian Piazza on the spot, but he had
 reserved for himself one pillar for him and his heirs to have a view of the
 gladiatorial contests from it; and near this column the triumviricapitates held their court, before whose tribunal it was chiefly
 the lower sort of criminals who were brought, and as a general rule the advocates who
 practised in these courts were of a lower class than those who confined themselves to
 more respectable clients, and to civil actions. Appoint me, says he, to watch Tullius. What? How many watchers shall I have need of, if
 I once allow you to meddle with my bag? as you will have to be watched not only to
 prevent your betraying anything, but to prevent your removing anything. But for the
 whole matter of that watchman I will answer you thus in the briefest manner possible;
 that these honest judges will never permit any assistant to force himself against my
 consent into so important a cause, when it has been undertaken by me, and is entrusted
 to me. In truth, my integrity rejects an overlooker; my diligence is afraid of a spy. But to
 return to you, O Caecilius, you see how many qualities are wanting to you; how many
 belong to you which a guilty defendant would wish to belong to his prosecutor, you are
 well aware. What can be said to this? For I do not ask what you will say yourself, I see
 that it is not you who will answer me, but this book which your prompter has in his
 hand; who, if he be inclined to prompt you rightly, will advise you to depart from this
 place and not to answer me one word. For what can you say? That which you are constantly
 repeating, that Verres has done you an injury? I have no doubt he has, for it would not
 be probable, when he was doing injuries to all the Sicilians, that you alone should be
 so important in his eyes that he should take care of your interests.