1But first I shall briefly lament Murena's fortune, a few points that have suddenly stirred my feelings. 1For though I have often before, judges, both from the miseries of others and from my own daily cares and labours, judged those men fortunate who, far removed from the pursuits of ambition, have followed a life of leisure and tranquillity, yet in these great and unforeseen dangers of Murena I am so affected that I cannot sufficiently pity either the common condition of all of us or this man's outcome and fortune. 1First, while he tried to climb one step of rank above the unbroken line of offices of his family and ancestors, he came into danger of losing both what was left to him and what he has gained himself; then, because of his eagerness for new distinction, he is brought into jeopardy even of his old fortune.
56Grievous as these things are, judges, this is the bitterest of all, that he has as accusers men who have come down not from the hatred of enmity to accusation, but from eagerness to accuse to enmity. 56For, to pass over Servius Sulpicius, who I understand was moved not by any wrong done him by Murena but by the contest for office, he is accused by a friend of his father's, Postumus, an old neighbour and close friend, as he says himself, who has brought forward several grounds of friendship but could mention no ground of quarrel. 56He is accused by Servius Sulpicius, the son of his old comrade, by whose talent all his father's friends ought to be the better protected.
56He is accused by Cato, who not only has never been estranged from Murena in anything, but was born among us in this state on such terms that his wealth and his talent ought to serve as a protection to many, even strangers, and as destruction to scarcely anyone, even an enemy. 57I shall reply first, then, to Postumus, who somehow seems to me, though a candidate for the praetorship, to be charging into the consular race like a trick rider into the course of the four-horse chariots. 57If his rivals did no wrong, he yielded to their merit when he gave up his candidacy; 57but if any of them gave bribes, he is a friend worth seeking, who would pursue another's wrong rather than his own.
57'On the charges of Postumus; on those of the young Servius.'