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

[128] Was I to regret such a recall as this, which was so honourable to me that I am almost afraid of seeming to have left the city from a covetousness of glory, in order to return in such a manner? For what citizen except me did the senate ever recommend to the protection of foreign nations? For whose safety except mine did the senate ever publicly return thanks to the allies of the Roman people? I am the only person concerning whom the conscript fathers ever decreed that whoever went in command to any of the provinces, whoever were quaestors or lieutenants, were to take care of my safety and my life. Mine is the only cause since the foundation of the city in which every one who had any regard for the safety of the republic was summoned to Rome from every part of Italy, by letters written by the consuls in obedience to a resolution of the senate. That which the senate never once decreed at a time of peril to the entire republic, they thought it necessary to decree for the preservation of my individual safety. Who was ever more regretted in the senate house? who was ever more lamented in the forum? who was ever so much missed in the courts of justice? At, and in consequence of my departure, every place immediately became deserted, melancholy, mute, full of grief and lamentation. What spot is there in all Italy in which there is not imprinted on the public monuments some proof of the zeal of the people for my safety, some testimony to my worth?