1And so your speech slipped from abuse about unchastity to stirring up ill will over the conspiracy. 1For you alleged — and that hesitantly and in passing — that he had been a party to the conspiracy because of his friendship with Catiline; 1and here not only did the charge not stick, but the eloquent young man's speech scarcely held together. 1For what such madness was there in Caelius, what wound so great either in his character and nature or in his affairs and fortune? 1where, in short, was Caelius' name ever heard in connection with that suspicion? 1I am saying too much about a matter not in the least doubtful; 1yet this I do say.
1Not only if he had been an accomplice in the conspiracy, but unless he had been the bitterest enemy of that crime, he would never have chosen to commend his youth above all by an accusation concerning the conspiracy. 16And I am inclined to think that the same answer should be given about bribery and those charges about clubs and agents, since I have come upon that subject. 16For Caelius would never have been so mad that, if he had stained himself with that boundless bribery, he would accuse another of bribery, or seek to cast suspicion on another for a deed which he wished to be free to do himself for ever, or, if he thought he would once have to face the danger of a bribery charge, would himself prosecute another for bribery a second time.
16And although he does this neither wisely nor with my approval, yet his eagerness is of such a kind that he seems rather to be hounding another's innocence than to be thinking timidly about himself. 17As for the charges of debt, the criticism of his expenses, the demand for his account books, see how briefly I reply. 17A man who is in his father's power keeps no accounts. 17He has never taken out any loan at all to pay off a debt. 17Expenditure of one kind has been charged against him, on his lodging; 17you said that he paid thirty thousand in rent. 17Now at last I understand that Publius Clodius' apartment block is for sale, in some little rooms of which he lives for ten thousand, I believe.
17But you, in your wish to please him, have suited your lie to his convenience. 18You found fault with him for moving away from his father. 18That, indeed, is not at all to be faulted at his age. 18When he had already won a victory in a public case, unwelcome indeed to me but glorious for himself, and was old enough to stand for magistracies, he moved away from his father not only with his permission but even at his urging; and since his father's house was far from the forum, so that he might more easily visit our houses and be courted by his own friends, he rented a house on the Palatine at no great price.