evidence, showing, probably, that Clodius struck the first blow. Cicero
then addressed the judges with the object of gaining their favor for the
accused. In this he was successful, and Sextius was acquitted. As
regards Sextius and his quarrel with Clodius, the oration has but little
interest for us. There is not, indeed, much about Sextius in it. It is a
continuation of the paean which Cicero was still singing as to his own
return, but it is distinguished from his former utterances by finer
thought and finer language. The description of public virtue as
displayed by Cato has perhaps, in regard to melody of words and grandeur
of sentiment, never been beaten. I give the orator's words below in his
own language, because in no other way can any idea of the sound be
conveyed.[17] There is, too, a definition made very cleverly to suit his
own point of view between the conservatives and the liberals of the day.
"Optimates" is the name by which the former are known; the latter are
called "Populares."[18]

Attached to this speech for Sextius is a declamation against Vatinius,
who was one of the witnesses employed by the prosecutor. Instead of
examining this witness regularly, he talked him down by a separate
oration. We have no other instance of such a forensic manoeuvre either
in Cicero's practice or in our accounts of the doings of other Roman
advocates. This has reached us as a separate oration. It is a coarse
tirade of abuse against a man whom we believe to have been bad, but as
to whom we feel that we are not justified in supposing that we can get
his true character here. He was a creature of Caesar's, and Cicero was
able to say words as to Vatinius which he was unwilling to speak as to
Caesar and his doings. It must be added here that two years later Cicero
pleaded for this very Vatinius, at the joint request of Caesar and
Pompey, when Vatinius on leaving the Praetorship was accused of
corruption.

[Sidenote: B.C. 56, aetat. 51.]

The nature of the reward to which the aspiring oligarch of Rome always
turned his eyes has been sufficiently explained. He looked to be the
governor of a province. At this period of which we are speaking there
was no reticence in the matter. Syria, or Macedonia, or Hispania had
been the prize, or Sicily, or Sardinia. It was quite understood that an
aspiring oligarch went through the dust and danger and expense of
political life in order that at last he might fill his coffers with
provincial p