1At this point I can say what that most distinguished man Marcus Crassus said a little while ago, when complaining of the arrival of King Ptolemy: 'Would that never in the Pelian grove —' And indeed I could weave this poem further: 'For never then would a wandering mistress cause us this trouble, Medea, sick at heart, wounded by cruel love.' 1For so, gentlemen, you will find, as I shall show when I come to that point, that this Medea of the Palatine and this change of residence were the cause for the young man either of all his troubles or rather of all the gossip. 19Therefore, relying on your good sense, gentlemen, I have no fear of the things which I perceived from the prosecutors' speech were already being prepared in advance and invented.
19For they said there would be a senator as a witness who would declare that he had been beaten by Caelius at the pontifical elections. 19I shall ask him, if he comes forward, first why he took no action at once; then, if he preferred complaining to taking action, why he preferred to complain when brought forward by you rather than on his own account, so long afterwards rather than immediately. 19If he answers me shrewdly and cleverly on these points, then at last I shall ask from what source this senator springs. 19For if he rises and is born of himself, perhaps I shall be moved, as I usually am; 19but if he is a rivulet drawn and channelled from the very fountainhead of your accusation, I shall rejoice that, although your accusation relies on such great influence and such great resources, only one single senator has been found who was willing to oblige you.
19'On the witness Fufius.' 20Nor, however, do I dread that other kind of witnesses, the nocturnal ones. 20For they have said there would be men to declare that their wives, returning from dinner, had been molested by Caelius. 20Weighty men they will be who dare to say this on oath, since they must admit that they never began to seek redress for such great wrongs even by a private meeting by appointment.