1What then? 1the charges heaped on him afterwards, which would have struck down the conscience even of men guilty of moderate offences — how he bore them, immortal gods! 1Bore them? 1No, rather how he despised them and counted them as nothing — charges which neither a guilty man, however great his spirit, nor an innocent man, unless he were the bravest of men, could have ignored! 1It was alleged that a mass of shields, swords, javelins and even bridles could be discovered; 1they said that there was no street, no alley in the city in which a house had not been rented for Milo; 1arms brought down the Tiber to his villa at Ocriculum, a house on the Capitoline slope crammed with shields, every place full of fire-darts prepared for burning the city: these things were not only reported but almost believed, and were not rejected until they had been investigated.
65I used to praise, indeed, the incredible diligence of Gnaeus Pompey, but I shall say what I feel, judges. 65Those to whom the whole state has been entrusted are forced to listen to too many things, and cannot do otherwise. 65Why, even a certain Licinius, a sacrificial attendant from the Circus Maximus, had to be heard, alleging that Milo's slaves, having got drunk at his house, had confessed to him that they had conspired to kill Gnaeus Pompey, and that afterwards he had been struck with a sword by one of them so that he should not inform. 65The news is brought to Pompey at his gardens; 65I am summoned among the first; 65on the advice of his friends he refers the matter to the senate.
65I could not help being stricken with fear at so great a suspicion touching that guardian of myself and of my country, but still I wondered that a sacrificial attendant was believed, that the confession of slaves was listened to, that a wound in the side which looked like the prick of a needle was accepted as the blow of a gladiator. 66But, as I understand it, Pompey was taking precautions rather than feeling fear, not only against the things that were to be feared, but against everything, so that you should fear nothing. 66It was reported that the house of Gaius Caesar, a most distinguished and courageous man, had been under attack for many hours of the night: no one in so busy a place had heard it, no one had noticed it; 66yet the report was listened to.
66I could not suspect Gnaeus Pompey, a man of outstanding courage, of timidity; 66I thought no diligence undertaken on behalf of the whole state excessive. 66Recently, at a very full meeting of the senate on the Capitol, a senator was found to say that Milo was carrying a weapon. 66He stripped himself in that most sacred temple, since the life of such a citizen and man did not win belief, so that, while he kept silent, the facts might speak for themselves. 66All of it was found to have been falsely and spitefully invented: and yet Milo is still feared even now.