And if the consideration of the provinces has more weight with you than that of your own
 interests, I not only do not object, but I even demand that you should be influenced by the
 authority of the provinces. In truth, we will oppose to the province of Asia first of all a
 great part of the same province, which has sent deputies and panegyrists to stand up and defend
 this man from danger; in the next place we will set against it the province of Gaul, the
 province of Cilicia, the province of Spain, and the province of Crete; and against Greeks,
 whether they be Lydians, Mysians, or Phrygians, shall be set the men of Massilia, the Rhodians,
 the Lacedaemonians, the Athenians, and all Achaia, Thessaly, and Boeotia. Septimius and Caelius,
 the witnesses for them, shall be balanced by Publius Servilius and Quintus Metellus, as
 witnesses of this man's moderation and integrity. The Asiatic jurisdiction shall be replied to
 by the jurisdiction of the city; and the whole conduct and entire life of Lucius Flaccus shall
 defend him from accusations brought against him, all relying on the transactions of a single
 year. And if, O judges, it ought to avail Lucius Flaccus that, as
 tribune of the soldiers, as quaestor, as lieutenant to the most illustrious generals, he has
 behaved among the most distinguished armies, and in the most important provinces, in a manner
 worthy of his ancestors; let it also avail him, that before your own eyes, at a time of general
 danger to you all, he united his fate to mine, and shared my danger; let the panegyrics of most
 honourable municipalities and colonies avail him; let the most glorious and genuine praise of
 the Roman senate and Roman people avail him. Oh that night, that night which nearly brought eternal darkness on this city, when the Gauls
 were invited to war, when Catiline was invited into the city, when the conspirators were invited
 to bring fire and sword upon us all; when I, O Flaccus, invoking heaven and night, was with
 tears entreating your aid, and you in tears were listening to me; when I commended to your
 honest and well-proved loyalty the safety of the city and of the citizens. You, O Flaccus, being
 at that time praetor, took the messengers of the general destruction; it was you who arrested
 that plague He refers to the ambassadors of the Allobroges, and to the
 letters from Lentulus, etc., which were found in their possession. See the Arguments to the
 Catilinarian orations. of the republic which was contained in letters;
 you brought the proofs of our danger, you brought the aid that was to secure our safety to me
 and to the senate. What thanks were then given you by me! how did the senate, how did all good
 men thank you! Who would then have thought that any good man would ever refuse to Caius
 Pomptinus, that bravest of men, or to you, I will not say safety, but any imaginable honour?
 Oh those nones of December; what a time was that when I was consul! a day that I may fairly
 call the birthday of this city, or at all events its day of salvation. Oh that night which that day followed!
 happy was it for this city; but, wretched man that I am, I fear it may still prove disastrous
 to me myself. What spirit was then shown by Lucius Flaccus! (for I will say nothing about
 myself,) what devotion to his country, what virtue, what firmness! But why do I speak of
 those things which then, at the time that they happened, were extolled to the skies by the
 cordial agreement of all men, by the unanimous voice of the Roman people, by the testimony in
 their favour of the whole world? Now I fear, not only that they may be no advantage to my
 client, but that they may even be some injury to him. Indeed, I sometimes fancy that the
 memory of bad men is much more lively than that of good men. It is I, if any disaster happens
 to you, O Flaccus, it is I who shall have betrayed you; it is that pledge of mine which will
 be in fault, that promise of mine, that undertaking of mine, when I promised, that if we by
 our joint efforts could preserve the republic, you, as long as you lived, should not only be
 defended, but also honoured by the espousal of your cause by all virtuous men. I did think, O
 judges, I did hope that, even if our honour appeared to you a consideration of no importance
 at all events you would take care of our safety. But if,
 O judges, this terrible injury should overwhelm Lucius Flaccus (may the immortal gods avert
 the omen!) still he will never repent of having provided for your safety, of having consulted
 the interests of you, and of your wives, and of your children, and your entire welfare. It
 will always be his feeling that he owed such sentiments to the nobleness of his race, and to
 his religion, and to his country; you, O judges, take care that you have no cause to repent
 of not having spared such a citizen. For how few are they who adopt these principles in the
 republic; who desire only to please you and men like you; who think the authority of every
 virtuous and honourable man and body of men of the greatest weight, seeing that that path is
 both the one which leads most easily to honours and everything which they desire. But let everything else belong to our adversaries: let them
 keep to themselves power, and honours, and all the best opportunities of attaining all other
 advantages let it be allowed to those men who have striven to preserve all these things, to
 be at least safe themselves.