They think
 that you are going to deliver a decision, not about the fortunes of one of their citizens, but
 about the condition, and the dignity, and all the advantages of the whole municipality. For the
 industry of that man in the common service of the municipality is extreme, O judges; his
 kindness to each individual citizen, and his justice and good faith towards all men, are of the
 highest order. Besides, he so preserves his high rank among his countrymen, and the position
 which he has inherited from his ancestors, that he equals the gravity, and wisdom, and
 popularity, and character for liberality of his ancestors. Therefore they give their public
 testimony in his favour, in words which signify not only their opinion of, and their esteem for
 him, but also their own anxiety of mind and grief. And while their panegyric is being read, I
 beg of you, who have brought it hither, to rise up. [ The panegyric on Cluentius, in pursuance
 of the resolution of the senators of Larinum , is
 read.] From the tears of these men, you, O judges, may
 easily imagine that the senators did not pass these resolutions without tears. Come now, how
 great is the zeal of his neighbours in his behalf, how incredible their good-will towards him,
 how great their anxiety for him. They have not, indeed, sent resolutions drawn up in papers of
 panegyric, but they have chosen their most honourable men, whom we are all acquainted with, to
 come hither in numbers, and to give their personal evidence in his favour. The Frentani are
 present, most noble men. The Marrucini a tribe of equal dignity, are present too. You see Roman
 knights, most honourable men, come to praise him from Teanum in Apulia , and from Luceria. Most honourable panegyrics have been sent from
 Bovianum , and from the whole of Samnium, and also
 the most honourable and noble men of these states have come too. As for those men who have farms in the district of Larinum , or business as merchants, or flocks and herds,
 honourable men and of the highest character, it is impossible to say how eager and anxious they
 are. It seems to me that there are not many men so beloved by a single individual as he is by
 all these nations. 
 How I wish that Lucius Volusienus were not absent from my client's trial, a man of the
 greatest virtue and most exalted character! How I wish that I could say that Publius Helvidius
 Rufus was present, the most accomplished of all the Roman knights! who, while, in this man's
 cause, he was kept awake night and day, and while he was instructing me in many of the facts of
 this case, has been stricken with a severe and dangerous illness; but even while in this state
 of suffering, he is not less anxious for the acquittal of Cluentius than for his own recovery.
 You shall witness the equal zeal of Cnaeus Tudicius, a senator, a most virtuous and honour able
 man, shown both in giving evidence and in uttering an encomium on him. We speak with the same
 hope, but with more diffidence, of you, O Publius Volumnius, since you are one of the judges of
 Aulus Cluentius. In short, we assert to you that the
 good-will of all his neighbours towards this man is unequalled. His mother alone opposes the
 zeal of all these men, and their anxiety and diligence in his behalf, and my labour, who,
 according to the rules of old times, have pleaded the whole of this cause by myself, and also
 your equity, O judges, and your merciful dispositions. But what a mother! One whom you see
 hurried on, blinded by cruelty and wickedness,—whose desires no amount of infamy has ever
 restrained,—who, by the vices of her mind, has perverted all the laws of men to the foulest
 purposes,—whose folly is such, that no one can call her a human being,—whose violence is such,
 that no one can call her a woman,—whose barbarity is such, that no one can call her a mother.
 And she has changed even the names of relationships, and not only the name and laws of nature:
 the wife of her son-in-law, the mother-in-law of her son, the invader of her daughter's bed! she
 has come to such a pitch, that she has no resemblance, except in form, to a human creature. 
 Wherefore, O judges, if you hate wickedness, prevent the
 approach of a mother to a son's blood; inflict on the parent this incredible misery, of the
 victory and safety of her children; allow the mother (that she may not rejoice at being deprived
 of her son) to depart defeated rather by your equity. But if, as your nature requires, you love
 modesty, and beneficence, and virtue, then at last raise up this your suppliant, O judges, who
 has been exposed for so many years to undeserved odium and danger,—who now for the first time,
 since the beginning of that fire kindled by the actions and fanned by the desires of others, has
 begun to raise his spirits from the hope of your equity, and to breathe awhile after the alarms
 he has suffered,—all whose hopes depend on you,—whom many, indeed, wish to be saved, but whom
 you alone have the power to save.