Natural History

NAT. HIST. PRAEF.

Furthermore, there is a certain public rejection even by the learned. Marcus Tullius uses it, placed outside every risk of genius, and, what we should admire, he is defended by an advocate: I do not want even the most learned to read these things for Manius Persius, I want them for Iunius Congius. But if Lucilius, who first established this style, thought it should be said, and Cicero had to borrow it, especially when he was writing about the Republic, how much more excusably are we defended by some judge? But I have now removed these protections for myself by this dedication, since it matters a great deal whether one obtains a judge by chance or chooses one, and it matters a great deal to have a guest invited or one who is offered. When candidates were depositing their money before Cato—that enemy of bribery, who rejoiced in the rejection of honors as if they were unbought—during the burning elections, they were professing to do this, which at that time, for the sake of innocence, was the highest thing out of human affairs. Hence that noble sigh of M. Cicero: "O happy you, M. Porcius, from whom no one dares to seek a shameful thing!" When L. Scipio Asiaticus appealed to the tribunes, among whom was Gracchus, he was testifying that he was approved even by an enemy judge.