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25“Such is the nature of the case whether we like it or not. If, now, it is not disfranchisement in itself or exile in itself that troubles you, but the fact that you have not only done your country no injury but have actually benefited her greatly, and yet you have been disfranchised and expelled, look at it in this way—that, when once it was destined for you to have such an experience, it has surely been the noblest and the best fortune that could befall you to be despitefully used without having committed any wrong. 2For you advised and carried out all that was proper for the citizens, not as an individual but as consul, not meddling officiously in a private capacity but obeying the decrees of the senate, which were not passed as party measures but for the best ends. 3This and that person, on the contrary, out of their superior power and insolence devised everything against you; hence they ought to have trouble and sorrow for their injustice, but for you it is noble as well as necessary to bear bravely what Heaven has determined. 4Surely you would not prefer to have joined with Catiline and conspired with Lentulus, to have given your country the exact opposite of useful counsel, to have performed none of the duties laid upon you by her, and thus remain at home as the reward of wickedness, instead of saving your country and being exiled. 5Accordingly, if you care at all about your reputation, it is far preferable, I am sure, for you to have been driven out, after doing no wrong, than to have remained at home by performing some base act; for, apart from other considerations, the shame attaches to those who have unjustly cast a man forth, rather than to the man who has been wantonly expelled.
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