1But I have now said enough about the case, and outside the case perhaps even too much. 1What remains except for me to beg and implore you, judges, to grant to this bravest of men the pity which he himself does not implore, but which I, even against his will, both implore and demand? 1Do not, if amid the weeping of all of us you have seen not a tear of Milo's, if you see his face always the same, his voice and his speech steady and unchanged, spare him any the less on that account: I rather think he deserves to be helped all the more. 1For if in gladiatorial fights, and in the condition and fortune of men of the lowest kind, we are accustomed even to hate the timid and suppliant who beg to be allowed to live, but wish the brave and spirited who eagerly offer themselves to death to be saved, and we pity more those who do not seek our pity than those who demand it, how much more ought we to do this in the case of the bravest citizens!
93As for me, judges, I am stricken and slain by these words of Milo, which I hear constantly and in whose company I am every day. 93'Farewell,' he says, 'farewell, my fellow citizens; 93may they be safe, may they flourish, may they be happy; 93may this famous city stand, my country so dear to me, however it shall have treated me; 93may my fellow citizens, since I may not do so with them, enjoy the state in tranquillity without me, but still thanks to me. 93I shall withdraw and depart. 93If I may not enjoy a good state, at least I shall be spared a bad one, and as soon as I reach a well-ordered and free community, there I shall rest.' 93'O my labours undertaken in vain,' he says, 'O deceitful hopes, O empty plans of mine!
94When, as tribune of the plebs, with the state oppressed, I had devoted myself to the senate, which I had found extinguished, to the Roman knights, whose strength was feeble, to the good men, who had cast away all their authority before the arms of Clodius, should I ever have thought that the protection of good men would fail me? 94When I had restored you' — for he very often talks to me — 'to your country, should I have thought there would be no place in my country for me? 94Where now is the senate, which we followed, where are those Roman knights, those,' he says, 'of yours? 94where is the zeal of the towns, where the voices of Italy, where finally is your voice and defence, Marcus Tullius, which has been a help to so many?
94Can it be of no help to me alone, who have so often faced death for you?'