I ask
 you yourself; I say, O Labienus,—when the consuls, in pursuance of the resolution of the senate,
 had summoned the citizens to arms; when Marcus Aemilius, the chief of the senate, stood in arms
 in the assembly; who, though he could scarcely walk, thought the lameness of his feet not an
 impediment to his pursuit of enemies, but only to his flight from them; when, lastly, Quintus
 Scaevola, worn out as he was with old age, enfeebled by disease, lame, and crippled, and
 powerless in all his limbs, leaning on his spear, displayed at the same time the vigour of his
 mind and the weakness of his body; when Lucius Metellus, Sergius Galba, Caius Serranus, Publius
 Rutilius, Caius Fimbria, Quintus Catulus, and all the men of consular rank who were then in
 existence, had taken arms in defence of the common safety; when all the praetors, all the nobles
 and youth of the city, united together, Cnaeus and Lucius Domitius, Lucius Crassus, Quintus
 Mucius, Caius Claudius, Marcus Drusus; when all the Octavii, Metelli, Julii, Cassii, Catos and
 Pompeii ; when Lucius Philippus, Lucius Scipio,
 when Marcus Lepidus, when Decimus Brutus, when this very man himself; Servilius, under whom you,
 O Labienus, have served as your general; when this Quintus Catulus, whom we see here, then a
 very young man; when this Caius Curio; when, in short, every illustrious man in the city was
 with the consuls;—what then did it become Caius Rabirius to do? Was he to lie hid, shut up, and
 concealed in some dark place, and to hide his cowardice under the protection of darkness and
 walls? Or was he to go into the Capitol, and there join himself to your uncle, and with the rest
 of those who were fleeing to death, on account of the infamy of their lives? Or was he to unite
 with Marius, Scarius, Catulus, Metellus, Scaevola,—in short, with all virtuous men, in a
 community not only of safety, but also of danger? Even you yourself; O Labienus, what would you do in such a crisis? When your general system of
 indolence was compelling you to flight and lurking-places, while the villainy and frenzy of
 Lucius Saturninus was inviting you to the Capitol, while the consuls were summoning you to
 uphold the safety and liberty of your country; which authority, which invitation, which party
 would you prefer to follow, whose command would you select to obey? My uncle says he was with
 Saturninus. What if he was? Whom was your father with?—What if he was? Where were your
 relations, Roman knights?—What if he was? What was the conduct of all your prefecture, and
 district, and neighbourhood?—What if he was? What was the conduct of the whole Picene district;
 did they follow the frenzy of the tribune, or the authority of the consul? In truth, I affirm this; that that which you confess of your uncle, no man has
 ever yet confessed with respect to himself. No one, I say, has been found so profligate, so
 abandoned, so entirely destitute, not only of all honesty, but of every resemblance of and
 pretence to honesty, as to confess that he was in the Capitol with Saturninus. But your uncle
 was. Let him have been; and let him have been, though not compelled by the desperate condition
 of his own affairs, or by airy domestic distresses and embarrassments. Suppose it was his
 intimacy with Lucius Saturninus that induced him to prefer his friendship to his country,—was
 that a reason for Caius Rabirius also deserting the republic? for his not appearing in that
 armed multitude of good men? for his refusing obedience to the invitation and command of the
 consul? But we see that in the nature of things he must have
 adopted one of these three lines of conduct: he must either have been with Saturninus, or with
 the good men, or he must have been lying in bed—to lie hid was a state equal to the most
 infamous death; to be with Saturninus was the act of insanity and wickedness. Virtue, and
 honour, and shame, compelled him to range himself on the side of the consuls. Do you, therefore,
 accuse Caius Rabirius on this account, that he was with those men whom he would have been
 utterly mad to have opposed, utterly infamous if he had deserted them? 
 But Caius Decianus, whom you often mention, was condemned, because, when he was accusing, with
 the earnest approval of all good men, a man notorious for every description of infamy, Publius
 Furius, he dared to complain in the assembly of the death of Saturninus. And Sextus Titius was
 condemned for having an image of Lucius Saturninus in his house. The Roman knights laid it down
 by that decision that that man was a worthless citizen, and one who ought not to be allowed to
 remain in the state, who either by keeping his image sought, to do credit to the death of a man
 who was seditious to such a degree as to become an enemy to the republic, or who sought by pity
 to excite the regrets of ignorant men, or who showed his own inclination to imitate such
 villainy. Therefore it does seem a marvellous thing to me,
 where you, O Labienus, found thus image which you have. For after Sextus Titius was condemned,
 no one could be found who would dare to have it in his possession. But if you had heard of that,
 or if, from your age, you could have known it, you certainly would never have brought that
 image, which, even when concealed in his house, had brought ruin and exile on Sextus Titius,
 into the rostrum, and into the assembly of the people; nor would you ever have driven your
 designs on those rocks on which you had seen the ship of Sextus Titius dashed to pieces, and the
 fortunes of Caius Decianus hopelessly wrecked. But in all these matters you are erring out of
 ignorance. For you have undertaken the advocacy of a cause which is older than your own
 recollections; a cause which was dead before you were born; that cause in which you yourself
 would have been, if your age had allowed you to be so, you are bringing before this court.