And that month you were able to form an opinion as to what was the difference between me
 and my enemies. I abandoned my own safety, in order to save the republic from being (for my
 sake) stained with the blood of the citizens; they thought fit to hinder my return, not by the
 votes of the Roman people, but by a river of blood. Therefore, after those events, you gave no
 answers to the citizens, or the allies, or to kings; the judges gave no decisions; the people
 came to no vote on any matter; this body issued no declarations by its authority; you saw the
 forum silent the senate-house mute, the city dumb and dispirited. And then, too, when he had gone away, who, being authorized by you, had resisted murder and
 conflagration, you saw men rushing all over the city with sword and firebrand; you saw the
 houses of the magistrates attacked, the temples of the gods burnt, the faces of a most admirable man and illustrious consul burnt, the holy person of a
 most fearless and virtuous officer, a tribune of the people, not only laid hands on and
 insulted, but wounded with the sword and killed. And by that murder some magistrates were so
 alarmed, that partly out of fear of death, partly out of despair for the republic, they in
 some degree forsook my cause; but others remained behind, whom neither terror, nor violence,
 nor hope, nor fear, nor promises, nor threats, nor arms, nor firebrands, could influence so as
 to make them cease to stand by your authority, and the dignity of the Roman people, and my
 safety. The chief of those men was Publius Lentulus, the parent and god of my
 life, and fortune, and memory, and name. He thought that the best proof that he could give of
 his virtue, the best indication that he could afford of his disposition, the greatest ornament
 with which he could embellish his consulship would be the restoration of me to myself, to my
 friends, to you, and to the republic. And as soon as ever he was appointed consul elect he
 never hesitated to express an opinion concerning my safety worthy both of himself and of the
 republic. When the veto was interposed by the tribune of the people,—when that admirable
 clause was read: “That no one should make any motion before you that no one should propose any
 decree to you that no one should raise any discussion, or make any speech or take any vote or
 frame any law;” he thought all that as I have said before, a proscription and not a law, by
 which a citizen who had deserved well of the republic was by name and without any trial, taken
 from the senate and the republic at the same time. But as soon as he entered on his office, I
 will not say what did he do before, but what else did he do at all, except labour by my
 preservation to establish your authority and dignity on a firm basis for the
 future? O ye immortal gods! what great kindness do you appear to have shown me, in making Publius
 Lentulus consul this year. How much greater still would your bounty bare been, had he been so
 the preceding year; for I should not have been in want of such medicine as a consul could
 give, unless I had fallen by a wound inflicted by a consul. I had been often told by one of
 the wisest of men and one of the most virtuous of citizens, Quintus Catulus, that it was not
 often that there was one wicked consul, but that there had never been two at the same time
 since the foundation of Rome, except in that terrible time of Cinna. Wherefore, he used to say
 that my interest would always be firmly secured, as long as there was even one virtuous consul
 in the republic. And he would have spoken the truth, if that state of things with respect to
 consuls could have remained lasting and perpetual, that, as there never had been two bad ones
 in the republic, so there never should be. But if Quintus Metellus had been at that time
 consul, who was then my enemy, do you doubt what would have been his feelings with regard to
 my preservation, when you see that he was a mover and seconder of the measure proposed for my
 restoration? But at that time there were two consuls, whose minds, narrow, contemptible, mean,
 groveling, dark, and dirty, were unable to look properly at, or to uphold, or to support the
 mere name of the consulship, much less the splendour of that honour, and the importance of
 that authority. They were not consuls, but dealers in provinces, and sellers of your dignity.
 One of whom demanded back from me, in the hearing of many, Catiline, his lover; the other
 reclaimed Cethegus, his cousin;—the two most wicked men in the memory of man, who (I will not
 call them consuls, but robbers) not only deserted, in a cause in which, above all others, the
 welfare of the republic and the dignity of the consulship was concerned, but betrayed me, and
 opposed me, and wished to see me stripped of all aid, not only from themselves, but also from
 you and from the other orders of the state. One of them, however, deceived neither me nor any
 one else.