1But, you say, when he had two sons, he would not let the one leave his side, while he allowed the other to be in the country. 1I ask you, Erucius, to take this in good part; 1for I shall say it not by way of reproach but as a reminder. 46If fortune did not grant you to be born of a known father, from whom you could understand what a father's feeling towards his children is, at least nature surely granted you no small share of humanity; 46to this was added a love of learning, so that you are not a stranger even to literature. 46Does it really seem to you, to turn to the plays, that the old man in Caecilius values Eutychus, his son in the country, any less than the other, Chaerestratus?
46— for, I believe, that is his name — that he keeps the one with him in the city as an honour, and has banished the other to the country as a punishment? 47'Why do you stray off to such absurdities?' 47you will say. 47As if it were difficult for me to bring forward by name as many as you like, not to go further afield, of either my fellow tribesmen or my neighbours, who want the children they value most highly to be diligent farmers. 47But it is invidious to take well-known people, since it is uncertain whether they would wish to be named, and no one will be better known to you than this Eutychus is, and surely it makes no difference to the matter whether I name this young man from comedy or someone from the territory of Veii.
47For I think these things were invented by the poets so that we might see our own manners portrayed in other characters and a vivid image of everyday life. 48Come now, turn your mind, if you please, to reality, and consider, not only in Umbria and that neighbourhood but in these old towns, what pursuits are most praised by fathers of families; 48then surely you will realise that, for lack of charges, you have made what is the highest praise of Sextus Roscius into a vice and a fault.