good part. For I will speak with a disposition
most friendly to him; but I should not consider him himself a consul,
though a man with whom I am most intimate, unless he was such a consul
as to devote all his vigilance, and cares, and thoughts to the safety
of the republic.

Although long acquaintance, and habit, and a fellowship and
resemblance in the most honourable pursuits, has bound us together
from his first entrance into life; and his incredible diligence,
proved at the time of the most formidable dangers of the civil war,
showed that he was a favourer not only of my safety, but also of my
dignity; still, as I said before, if he were not such a consul as I
have described, I should venture to deny that he was a consul at all.
But now I call him not only a consul, but the most excellent and
virtuous consul within my recollection; not but that there have been
others of equal virtue and equal inclination, but still they have not
had an equal opportunity of displaying that virtue and inclination.
But the opportunity of a time of most formidable change has been
afforded to his magnanimity, and dignity, and wisdom. And that is the
time when the consulship is displayed to the greatest advantage, when
it governs the republic during a time which, if not desirable, is at
all events critical and momentous. And a more critical time than the
present, O conscript fathers, never was.

III. Therefore I, who have been at all times an adviser of peace,
and who, though all good men always considered peace, and especially
internal peace, desirable, have desired it more than all of them;--for
the whole of the career of my industry has been passed in the forum
and in the senate-house, and in warding off dangers from my friends;
it is by this course that I have arrived at the highest honours, at
moderate wealth, and at any dignity which we may be thought to have: I
therefore, a nursling of peace, as I may call myself, I who, whatever
I am, (for I arrogate nothing to myself,) should undoubtedly not have
been such without internal peace: I am speaking in peril: I shudder to
think how you will receive it, O conscript fathers: but still, out of
regard for my unceasing desire to support and increase your dignity, I
beg and entreat you, O conscript fathers, although it may be a bitter
thing to hear, or an incredible thing that it should be said by Marcus
Cicero, still to receive at first, without offence, what I am going
to say, and not to