But on this day I have thought that it became me to return thanks especially to the
 different magistrates by name, and also to one private individual, who for the sake of my
 safety, had visited all the municipal towns and colonies, had as a suppliant addressed his
 entreaties to the Roman people, and had declared that opinion which you followed when you
 restored me to my dignities. You always distinguished me when I was prosperous; when I was in
 distress you defended me to the extent of your power, by the change of your garments, and your
 general mourning, There have been times within our own recollection when senators did not dare
 to change their robes even in their own personal dangers; but in my danger the whole senate
 changed its garments as far as it was allowed to do without interruption from the edicts of
 those men who wished to deprive me in my peril not only of all protection from them, but of
 even the benefit of your prayers in my behalf. And when I was in such circumstances as these, when I saw that I as a
 private individual had to contend with the same array which as consul I had defeated, using
 not arms but your authority, I deliberated much with myself. The consul had said that he would make the Roman knights pay for the
 scenes on the Capitoline Hill. Some were summoned by name, others were prosecuted, some were
 banished. All access to the temples was prevented, not merely by their being garrisoned or
 occupied with a strong force, but by their being demolished. The other consul, not content
 with only abandoning me and the republic, unless he could also betray us to the enemies of the
 republic, had bound those enemies to him by promising them the rewards which they coveted.
 There was another man at the gates with a command He means Julius
 Caesar, who had the command in Gaul as proconsul for five years. given to him for many
 years, and with a large army. I do not say that he was an enemy of mine, but I do know that he
 did nothing when he was stated to be my enemy. As there were thought to be two parties in the republic, the one was supposed, out of its
 enmity to me, to demand that I should be given up to it; the other, to defend me, but timidly
 out of fear of bloodshed. But those who seemed to require me to be given up to them increased
 the fear of a contest by their conduct as they never diminished the suspicions and anxieties
 of men by denying what they were suspected of. Wherefore, when I saw the senate deprived of
 leaders, and myself attacked by some of the magistrates, betrayed by some, and abandoned by
 others; when I saw that slaves were being enlisted by name under some pretence of forming
 guilds; “Clodius not only restored the old collegia or guilds, but formed some new ones of the very dregs of the city, and
 of the slaves; and this is alluded to in several of the subsequent orations.”—Manut. 
 that all the troops of Catiline were recalled to their original hopes of massacre and
 conflagration under almost the same leaders as before; that the Roman knights
 were under the same fear of proscription as before; that the municipal towns were in dread of
 being pillaged, and every one in fear of his life; I might—I might, I say, O conscript
 fathers, still have been able to defend myself by force of arms, and many wise and brave men
 advised me to do so; nor was I wanting in the same courage which I had shown before, and which
 was not unknown to you. But I saw that if I defeated my present enemy, I had still too many
 others behind who must also be defeated; that if I were beaten myself; many virtuous men would
 fall for my sake, and with me, and even after me; and that the avengers of the blood of the
 tribunes were present, but that all satisfaction for my death must he exacted by the slow
 progress of the law, and reserved for posterity. I did not choose, after I had as consul maintained the general safety
 of the state without having recourse to arms, to take arms as a private individual in my own
 cause; I preferred that virtuous men should grieve for my fortune rather than despair of their
 own; and if I were slain by myself; that I thought would be a shameful end for me; but if I
 were slain with many others, that I thought would be fatal to the republic. If I had supposed
 that eternal misery was before me, I would rather have endured death than everlasting agony.
 But I felt sure that I should not be absent from this city any longer than the constitution
 itself was, and, while that was banished, I thought it no longer desirable for myself that I
 should remain in it; and in accordance with my expectation, as soon as ever the constitution
 was restored, it brought me back in triumph as its companion. The laws were all banished as
 well as I, the courts of justice were banished as well as I; the prerogatives of the
 magistrates, the authority of the senate, the liberty of the citizens, even the fruitfulness
 of the land, all piety and all religion, whether it was with respect to men or gods, were all
 banished from the state when I was banished. And if they had been lost to you for ever, I
 should mourn over your fortunes rather than regret the loss of my home amongst you; but if
 they were ever restored, I was quite sure that I should be enabled to return with them. And of these feelings of mine, he who was the protector of my life is
 also my most indisputable witness, namely Cnaeus Plancius, who, disregarding all the
 distinctions and emoluments which might have been derived from a province, devoted his whole
 quaestorship to supporting and preserving me. If he had been my quaestor when I was
 commander-in-chief; he would have stood in the relation of a son to me; now he surely shall be
 looked upon by me as a parent, since he has been my quaestor, not while in authority, but in
 grief.