15
Could I doubt when I was perfectly certain that Publius Lentulus would be consul the next year, who in the most dangerous crisis of the republic had been curule aedile when I was consul, and had been, as such, the partner of all my counsels and the sharer of all my dangers, that he would use the medicine which was within reach of a consul to restore me to safety who was suffering under wounds inflicted by a consul? Under his guidance, and while his colleague, a most merciful and excellent man, at first abstained from opposing him, and afterwards cordially cooperated with him, nearly all the rest of the magistrates were advocates of my safety and among them were those men of indomitable courage, of the most eminent virtue, authority, vigour, and resources, Titus Annius and Publius Sextus, who showed the greatest good-will and the most energetic zeal in my behalf; and when the same Publius Lentulus came forward as the prime mover of the bill, and his colleague agreed in the measure proposed, a most numerous senate, with only one dissenting voice, no one daring to intercede with his veto, did honour to my dignity in the most flattering language which it could find, and recommended my safety to you and to all the municipalities and colonies.
