M. Tullius Cicero, For Plancius
C. D. Yonge, Ed.

And you keep crying out, O Laterensis, “How long are you going to keep on saying this? You did no good in the case of Cispius; people have got tired of your entreaties.” Will you object to me what I did in the case of Cispius, who had indeed deserved well of me, but whom I defended, having you for a witness in his favour, and at your especial request? And will you say “How long” to a man who you say was unable to obtain what he begged on behalf of Cispius? For to say “How long” to a man who exerted himself for one friend alone and who did not succeed in his object is rather like laughing at a person than reproving him, unless perhaps, I, above all other men, have behaved in such a manner in the courts of justice, have lived in such a manner with those men who are the judges and among them—unless I am such an advocate of defendants on their trial and unless I am, and always have been, such a citizen in the republic, as to deserve to he held up by you as the only person who never ought to obtain anything from the judges by my entreaties.