1One class alone is hostile and inimical to us: those whom the madness of Publius Clodius fed on plunder and arson and every kind of public ruin; 1who were stirred up at yesterday's assembly too, to dictate to you aloud what verdict you should give. 1If any shouting of theirs should chance to arise, it ought to warn you to keep that citizen who has always disregarded that class of men and their loudest shouts in comparison with your safety. 4Therefore pay close attention, judges, and lay aside your fear, if you have any. 4For if ever you had the power of judging concerning good and brave men, if ever concerning well-deserving citizens, if, finally, an opportunity was ever given to chosen men of the most distinguished orders to declare by deed and by verdict their devotion to brave and good citizens, which they had often shown by look and word, at this moment surely you hold all that power, to decide whether we who have always been devoted to your authority are to mourn in misery for ever, or, after being long harassed by the most abandoned citizens, are at last to be restored through you and through your good faith, courage and wisdom.
5For what can be said or imagined, judges, more full of toil, more anxious, more harried than the two of us, who, drawn into public life by the hope of the most splendid rewards, cannot be free from the fear of the cruellest punishments? 5For my part, I always thought that Milo would have to undergo other storms and tempests, at least amid those waves of the public assemblies, because he had always taken the side of the good against the wicked; but in a court, and in that council in which the most distinguished men of the united orders were to give judgement, I never thought that Milo's enemies would have any hope, through such men, not only of destroying his safety but even of impairing his glory.
6And yet in this case, judges, we shall not exploit the tribunate of Titus Annius and all his deeds for the safety of the state in order to defend him against this charge. 6Unless you see with your own eyes that an ambush was laid for Milo by Clodius, we shall neither beg you to pardon us this crime on account of our many splendid services to the state, nor demand that, because the death of Publius Clodius was your salvation, you should for that reason ascribe it to Milo's courage rather than to the good fortune of the Roman people. 6But if his ambush proves clearer than this daylight, then at last I shall beg and implore you, judges, that, if we have lost everything else, this at least may be left to us: that we may defend our life against the audacity and weapons of our enemies without being punished.