1But I have, judges, a great and old friendship with Murena, which in a struggle for his civic life will not be overwhelmed by Servius Sulpicius merely because it was beaten by the same man in the contest for office. 1Even if there were not this reason, still either the man's standing or the eminence of the office he has won would have branded me with the deepest disgrace for arrogance and cruelty, if I had refused the case of a man so distinguished by his own honours and those of the Roman people, when he was in such great danger. 1For it is no longer permitted to me, nor am I free, to withhold my labour from relieving men in danger.
1For since rewards have been given me for this diligence such as no one had before, I hold that to lay aside, once you have won your goal, the labours you took on in your candidature is the mark of a man both crafty and ungrateful. 9But if I may leave off, if I can do so on your authority, if no disgrace for idleness, no shame for arrogance, no charge of inhumanity is incurred, then indeed I gladly leave off. 9But if shirking labour convicts a man of laziness, rejecting suppliants of arrogance, and neglecting friends of dishonesty, then this case is surely of such a kind that no one who is diligent, merciful or dutiful could abandon it.
9And you may very easily form a judgement of this from your own practice, Servius. 9For if you think it necessary to give legal opinions even to the opponents of your friends when they consult you, and if you think it shameful that the very man against whom you have appeared as counsel should lose his case, do not be so unjust as to think that, while your springs are open even to your enemies, ours ought to be closed even to our friends. 10Indeed, if my friendship with you had kept me from this case, and if the same thing had happened to Hortensius and Crassus, most distinguished men, and likewise to the others by whom I understand your favour is highly valued, a consul-elect would have no defender in that state in which our ancestors wished that no one, even the lowest, should ever lack an advocate.
10But I, judges, should think myself wicked if I had failed a friend, cruel if I had failed one in distress, arrogant if I had failed a consul. 10Therefore what must be given to friendship will be given by me generously, so that I shall deal with you, Servius, just as if my brother, who is dearest to me, were in your place; 10what must be granted to duty, to good faith, to conscience, I shall so regulate as to remember that I am speaking against a friend's zeal to save a friend in danger.