1But, you say, in the contest for the praetorship Servius was declared elected first. 1Are you going on to deal with the people as if under a written bond, so that whatever place in office it has once given to someone, it owes him the same place in all the remaining offices? 1For what strait, what Euripus, do you think has so many movements, such great and such varied surges and shifts of the waves, as there are upheavals and tides in the workings of the elections? 1A single day's interval or the coming of one night often throws everything into confusion, and sometimes a slight breath of rumour changes the whole of opinion.
1Often, too, without any evident cause, something happens other than you had expected, so that sometimes even the people itself wonders that it happened so, as if it had not done it itself. 36Nothing is more uncertain than the crowd, nothing more obscure than men's inclinations, nothing more deceptive than the whole workings of the elections. 36Who thought that Philippus, with his supreme talent, effort, influence and nobility, could be beaten by Herennius? 36who thought that Catulus, outstanding in culture, wisdom and integrity, could be beaten by Mallius? 36who thought that Scaurus, a man of the greatest weight, an excellent citizen, a most courageous senator, could be beaten by Maximus?
36Not only was none of these outcomes expected, but even when it had happened, no one could understand why it had happened so. 36For just as storms are often stirred up by some definite sign in the sky, but often arise unexpectedly, for no definite reason, from some obscure cause, so in this popular storm of the elections you may often understand by what sign it was stirred, but often its cause is so obscure that it seems to have been roused by chance.