Very true, unless some other sounder opinion convinces you. That great
 Scipio was a man of this sort, who had no objection to do the same thing that you
 do; to keep a most learned man, a man of almost divine wisdom, in his house; by whose
 conversation and precepts, although they were the very same that you are so fond of; he was
 nevertheless not made more severe, but (as I have heard said by old men) he was rendered most
 merciful. And who was more mild in his manners than Caius Lucius? who was more agreeable than
 he? (devoted to the same studies as you;) who was more virtuous or more wise than he? I might
 say the same of Lucius Philus, and of Caius Gallus; but I will conduct you now into your own
 house. Do you think that there was any man more courteous, more agreeable; any one whose conduct
 was more completely regulated by every principle of virtue and politeness, than Cato, your
 great-grandfather? And when you were speaking with truth and dignity of his virtue, you said
 that you had a domestic example to imitate. That indeed is an example set up for your imitation
 in your own family; and the similarity of nature ought rather to influence you who are descended
 from him than any one of us; but still that example is as much an object for my imitation as for
 yours. But if you were to add his courtesy and affability to your own wisdom and impartiality, I
 will not say that those qualities which are now most excellent will be made intrinsically
 better, but they will certainly be more agreeably seasoned. 
 Wherefore, to return to the subject which I began to speak of; take away the name of Cato out
 of the cause; remove and leave out of the question all mention of authority, which in courts of
 justice ought either to have no influence at all, or only influence to contribute to someone's
 safety; and discuss with me the charges themselves. What do you accuse him of, Cato? What action
 of his is it that you bring before the court? What is your charge? Do you accuse him of bribery?
 I do not defend bribery. You blame me because you say I am defending the very conduct which I
 brought in a law to punish. I punished bribery, not innocence. And any real ease of bribery I
 will join you in prosecuting if you please. You have said that a resolution of the senate was
 passed, on my motion, “that if any men who had been bribed had gone to meet the candidates, if
 any hired men followed them, if places were given men to see the shows of gladiators according
 to their tribes, and also, if dinners were given to the common people, that appeared to be a
 violation of the Calpurnian law.” Therefore the senate decides that these things were done in
 violation of the Calpurnian law if they were done at all it decides what there is not the least
 occasion for out of complaisance for the candidates. For there is a great question whether such
 things have been done or not. That if they have been done, they were done in violation of the
 law, no one can doubt. It is, therefore ridiculous to leave
 that uncertain which was doubtful but to give a positive decision on that point which can be
 doubtful to no one. And that decree is passed at the request of all the candidates; in order
 that it might be quite impossible to make out from the resolution of the senate whose interests
 were consulted, or against whose interests it was passed. Prove, then, that these actions have
 been done by Lucius Murena and then I will grant to you that they have been done in violation of
 the law. 
 “Many men went to meet him as he was departing from his province, when he was a candidate for
 the consulship.” That is a very usual thing to do. Who is there whom people do not go out to
 meet on his return home? “What a number of people they were.” In the first place, if I am not
 able to give you any exact account of it what wonder is it if many men did go out to meet such a
 man on his arrival, being a candidate for the consulship? If they had not done so, it would have
 appeared much more strange. What then? Suppose I were even to
 add, what there would be nothing unusual in, that many had been asked to go? Would that be
 matter of accusation, or at all strange, that in a city in which we, when we are asked, often
 come to escort the sons of even the lowest rank, almost before the night is over, from the
 furthest part of the city, men should not mind going at the third hour into the Campus Martius,
 especially when they have been invited in the name of such a man as Murena? What then? What if
 all the societies had come to meet him, of which bodies many are sitting here as judges? What if
 many men of our own most honourable order had come? What then? What if the whole of that most
 officious body of candidates, which will not suffer any man to enter the city except in an
 honourable manner, had come, or even our prosecutor himself—if Postumius had come to meet him
 with a numerous crowd of his dependents? What is there strange in such a multitude? I say
 nothing of his clients, his neighbours, his tribesmen, or the whole army of Lucullus, which,
 just at that time, had come to Rome to his triumph; I say this, that that crowd,
 paying that gratuitous mark or respect was never backward in paying respect not only to the
 merit of any one, but even to his wishes. 
 “But a great many people followed him.” Prove that it was for hire, and I will admit that that
 was a crime: but if the fact of hire be absent, what is there that you object to? 
 “What need is there,” says he, “of an escort?” Are you asking me what is the need of that
 which we have always availed ourselves of? Men of the lower orders have only one opportunity of
 deserving kindness at the hands of our order, or of requiting services,—namely, this one
 attention of escorting us when we are candidates for offices. For it is neither possible, nor
 ought we or the Roman knights to require them to escort the candidates to whom they are attached
 for whole days together; but if our house is frequented by them, if we are sometimes escorted to
 the forum, if we are honoured by their attendance for the distance of one piazza, we then appear
 to be treated with all due observance and respect; and those are the attentions of our poorer
 friends who are not hindered by business, of whom numbers are not wont to desert virtuous and
 beneficent men.