r; and men of praetorian rank,
Philadelphus Annius, and that innocent Gallius; and men of aedilitian
rank, he on whom I have spent so much of my lungs and voice,
Bestia, and that patron of good faith and cheater of his creditors,
Trebellius, and that bankrupt and ruined man Quintus Caelius, and that
support of the friends of Antonius Cotyla Varius, whom Antonius for
his amusement caused at a banquet to be flogged with thongs by the
public slaves. Men of septemviral rank, Lento and Nucula, and then
that delight and darling of the Roman people, Lucius Antonius. And for
tribunes, first of all two tribunes elect, Tullus Hostilius, who was
so full of his privileges as to write up his name on the gate of Rome;
and who, when he found himself unable to betray his general, deserted
him. The other tribune elect is a man of the name of Viseius; I know
nothing about him; but I hear that he is (as they say) a bold robber;
who, however, they say was once a bathing man at Pisaurum, and a
very good hand at mixing the water. Then there are others too, of
tribunitian rank: in the first place, Titus Plancus; a man who, if
he had had any affection for the senate, would never have burnt the
senate-house. Having been condemned for which wickedness, he returned
to that city by force of arms from which he was driven by the power of
the law. But, however, this is a case common to him and to many others
who are very unlike him. But this is quite true which men are in the
habit of saying of this Plancus in a proverbial way, that it is quite
impossible for him to die unless his legs are broken.[50] They are
broken, and still he lives. But this, like many others, is a service
that has been done us by Aquila.

XIII. There is also in that camp Decius, descended, as I believe, from
the great Decius Mus; accordingly he gained[51] the gifts of Caesar.
And so after a long interval the recollection of the Decii is renewed
by this illustrious man. And how can I pass over Saxa Decidius, a
fellow imported from the most distant nations, in order that we might
see that man tribune of the people whom we had never beheld as a
citizen? There is also one of the Sasernae; but all of them have such
a resemblance to one another, that I may make a mistake as to their
first names. Nor must I omit Exitius, the brother of Philadelphus the
quaestor; lest, if I were to be silent about that most illustrious
young man, I should seem to be envying Antonius. There is also a
g