2.
But in this I am forced to comply with the wishes not only of
Cornelius, whose desires I cannot possibly thwart in this his hour of
danger, but also with those of Cnaeus Pompeius, who has wished me the
panegyrist of and the assistant in this action, and this determination, and
this kindness of his, as I lately was in another cause which was pleaded
before you, O judges.
[5]
And it appears to me that this is what the
defendant himself deserves, that this is what the unexampled renown of this
excellent man deserves, that this is what essentially belongs to the
discharge of your duty, and that this is due to the cause itself, that, what
it is quite notorious that Cnaeus Pompeius did, all men should allow he had
a lawful right to do. For there is nothing more true than that which he
himself said yesterday, that Lucius Cornelius had now all his fortunes at
stake, without being accused of any single crime of any description. For he
is not said to have stolen the rights of a citizen, nor to have given any
false account of his family, nor to have proceeded in an underhand manner by
any shameless falsehood, nor to have crept fraudulently into the register.
One thing alone is imputed to him, that he was born at Gades; a fact which no one denies. All the
rest the prosecutor admits. He admits that he served in Spain, in a most severe war, with Quintus
Metellus, with Caius Memmius; that he served both in the fleet and in the
army; and, when Pompeius came into Spain and began to have Memmius for his quaestor, that he
never left Memmius; that he went to take possession of Carthage; that he was present at
those two hardly contested and most important battles of Sucro and the
Durius; that he remained with
Pompeius to the end of the war.
[6]
These are
the battles of Cornelius. Such were his exertions; such was his industry;
such were his dangers encountered on behalf of our republic; such was his
valour, worthy of a general; while his hopes were hopes of a reward in
proportion to his dangers. The rewards themselves are not the actions of him
who obtained them, but of him who conferred them.
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