Man. 20.1Reliquum est ut dē Catulī auctōritāte et sententiā dīcendum esse videātur.It remains, it seems, to speak of the authority and opinion of Catulus. Man. 20.1Quī cum ex vōbīs quaereret, sī in ūnō Pompeiō omnia pōnerētis, sī quid eō factum esset, in quō spem essētis habitūrī, cēpit magnum suae virtūtis frūctum ac dignitātis, cum omnēs ūnā prope vōce in eō ipsō vōs spem habitūrōs esse dīxistis.When he asked you in whom you would place your hope, if you put everything in Pompey alone and anything happened to him, he reaped a great reward for his merit and dignity, when with almost one voice you all said that you would place your hope in him himself. Man. 20.1Etenim tālis est vir ut nūlla rēs tanta sit ac tam difficilis quam ille nōn et cōnsiliō regere et integritāte tuērī et virtūte cōnficere possit.Indeed, he is such a man that there is no task so great and so difficult that he could not direct it by his counsel, guard it by his integrity and complete it by his merit. Man. 20.1Sed in hōc ipsō ab eō vehementissimē dissentiō, quod quō minus certa est hominum ac minus diūturna vīta, hōc magis rēs pūblica, dum per deōs immortālīs licet, fruī dēbet summī virī vītā atque virtūte.But on this very point I disagree with him most strongly, because the less certain and the less lasting the life of men is, the more the state ought, while the immortal gods allow, to enjoy the life and merit of a supreme man.
Man. 20.60At enim nē quid novī fīat contrā exempla atque īnstitūta maiōrum.But, they say, let nothing new be done contrary to the precedents and principles of our ancestors. Man. 20.60Nōn dīcam hōc locō maiōrēs nostrōs semper in pāce cōnsuētūdinī, in bellō ūtilitātī pāruisse, semper ad novōs cāsūs temporum novōrum cōnsiliōrum ratiōnēs accommodāsse, nōn dīcam duo bella maxima, Pūnicum atque Hispāniēnse, ab ūnō imperātōre esse cōnfecta duāsque urbīs potentissimās quae huic imperiō maximē minitābantur, Carthāginem atque Numantiam, ab eōdem Scīpiōne esse dēlētās, nōn commemorābō nūper ita vōbīs patribusque vestrīs esse vīsum ut in ūnō Mariō spēs imperī pōnerētur, ut īdem cum Iugurthā, īdem cum Cimbrīs, īdem cum Teutonīs bellum administrāret;I shall not say here that our ancestors always deferred to custom in peace and to expediency in war, that they always adapted new plans to the new circumstances of the times; I shall not say that two very great wars, the Punic and the Spanish, were finished by one commander, and that two very powerful cities which most threatened this empire, Carthage and Numantia, were destroyed by the same Scipio; I shall not mention that lately you and your fathers decided that the hope of the empire should rest on Marius alone, so that the same man should conduct the war against Jugurtha, against the Cimbri and against the Teutones; Man. 20.60in ipsō Pompeiō in quō novī cōnstituī nihil volt Catulus quam multa sint nova summā Catulī voluntāte cōnstitūta recordāminī.in the case of Pompey himself, for whom Catulus wants nothing new to be established, recall how many new things have been established with Catulus' full consent.