1It is no longer this charge concerning Clodius that we fear, but your suspicions, Gnaeus Pompey — for I appeal to you, and in such a voice that you can hear me — your suspicions, I say, are what we dread. 1If you fear Milo, if you think that he is now wickedly plotting against your life or has at some time contrived something, if the levy of Italy, as some of your recruiting officers have kept saying, if these arms, if the cohorts on the Capitol, if the sentries, if the watches, if the picked young men who guard your person and your house have been armed against an attack by Milo, and all these have been set up, prepared and aimed against this one man, then surely great power and incredible spirit and more than one man's strength and resources are judged to be in him, since against him alone both the most outstanding general has been chosen and the whole state armed.
68But who does not understand that all the parts of the state that were sick and tottering were entrusted to you, so that you might heal and strengthen them with these arms? 68But if Milo had been given the opportunity, he would surely have proved to you yourself that no man had ever been dearer to another than you were to him; 68that he had never shunned any danger for the sake of your standing, and had very often contended for your glory against that most foul plague itself; 68that his tribunate had been steered by your counsels towards my restoration, which had been very dear to you; 68that he had afterwards been defended by you when his life was at stake, and helped in his candidacy for the praetorship; 68that he had hoped he would always have two very close friends: you, through your kindness, and me, through his own.
68If he could not prove this, if that suspicion had lodged in you so deeply that it could not be torn out by any means, if, in short, Italy would never rest from the levy, nor the city from arms, without Milo's ruin, then truly he would have left his country without hesitation, he who was so born and is so accustomed; 68but first he would call you to witness, Magnus, as he does even now.