1Servius here followed with us this city service of giving opinions, drafting documents and framing safeguards, full of anxiety and vexation; 1he learnt civil law, he kept long vigils, he laboured, he was at the service of many, he endured the folly of many, put up with their arrogance, swallowed their awkwardness; 1he lived at the bidding of others, not his own. 1It is a great merit, and one welcome to men, that one man should toil at a science which is to benefit many. 20What was Murena doing meanwhile? 20He was legate to a most brave and wise man, a supreme commander, Lucullus; 20in that legateship he led an army, joined battle, came to close quarters, routed great forces of the enemy, took cities partly by assault and partly by siege, travelled through that Asia of yours, so rich and so voluptuous, in such a way that he left in it no trace of greed or luxury, and conducted himself in a very great war in such a way that he did many great things without the commander, while the commander did nothing without him.
20And although I say this in the presence of Lucullus, still, so that we may not seem to have a licence for invention granted by him because of our danger, everything is attested in public dispatches, in which Lucullus bestowed as much praise as a commander who was neither self-seeking nor envious ought to grant to another in sharing out glory. 21In both men there is the highest honour, the highest standing; 21and I would place this on an equal and identical footing of praise, if Servius allowed me. 21But he does not allow it; 21he harps on military affairs, he attacks this whole legateship, he thinks the consulship belongs to constant attendance and to these daily labours.
21'You were with the army,' he says; 21'for so many years you did not set foot in the forum; 21you have been away so long, and, after coming back after a long interval, are you to compete in standing with those who have lived in the forum?' 21First, Servius, you do not know how much weariness, how much surfeit that constant presence of ours sometimes brings to people. 21For me, indeed, it was greatly advantageous that my popularity was set before people's eyes; 21but even so I overcame the surfeit of me with great labour on my part, and you perhaps did the same; 21but still, being missed would have done neither of us any harm.
22But to leave this aside and return to the comparison of pursuits and skills, how can it be doubted that for winning the consulship the glory of military achievement brings much more distinction than that of civil law? 22You keep vigil by night to give answers to your clients, he to reach in good time with his army the place he is making for; 22you are woken by the crowing of cocks, he by the sound of trumpets; 22you draw up a legal action, he draws up a battle line; 22you take care that your clients are not caught out, he that cities or camps are not captured; 22he knows and understands how to keep off the forces of the enemy, you how to keep off rainwater; 22he is practised in extending boundaries, and you in regulating them.