2.
[3]
And, that it may not appear marvellous to any one of you, that I, in a formal proceeding
like this, and in a regular court of justice, when an action is being tried before a praetor
of the Roman people, a most eminent man, and before most impartial judges, before such an
assembly and multitude of people as I see around me, employ this style of speaking, which is
at variance, not only with the ordinary usages of courts of justice, but with the general
style of forensic pleading; I entreat you in this cause to grant me this indulgence, suitable
to this defendant, and as I trust not disagreeable to you,—the indulgence, namely,
of allowing me, when speaking in defence of a most sublime poet and most learned man, before
this concourse of highly-educated citizens, before this most polite and accomplished assembly,
and before such a praetor as him who is presiding at this trial, to enlarge with a little more
freedom than usual on the study of polite literature and refined arts, and, speaking in the
character of such a man as that, who, owing to the tranquillity of his life and the studies to
which he has devoted himself, has but little experience of the dangers of a court of justice,
to employ a new and unusual style of oratory.
[4]
And if I feel
that that indulgence is given and allowed me by you, I will soon cause you to think that this
Aulus Licinius is a man who not only, now that he is a citizen, does not deserve to be
expunged from the list of citizens, but that he is worthy, even if he were not one, of being
now made a citizen.
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