1That piece of public business which, as I recently wrote, remained from the case of Marius Priscus, has been trimmed and pared away, whether sufficiently I do not know. 2Firminus, brought into the senate, replied to a charge that was well known. 2Differing proposals of the consuls-elect followed. 2Cornutus Tertullus proposed that he should be removed from the order, Acutius Nerva that he should not be considered in the allotment of a province. 2This proposal won as being milder, though it is in other respects harsher and grimmer. 3For what is more wretched than to be cut off and removed from the honours of a senator, yet not to be free of its toil and trouble?
3what is more grievous than, having been branded with such disgrace, not to hide in solitude, but to offer oneself to be seen and pointed at on this loftiest of watch-towers? 4Besides, what is less fitting or seemly for the state? 4That a man censured by the senate should sit in the senate, and be made equal to the very men by whom he was censured; 4that a man barred from a proconsulship because he had behaved disgracefully as a legate should sit in judgement on proconsuls, and that a man condemned for corruption should either condemn or acquit others! 5But this was the view of the majority. 5For votes are counted, not weighed; 5nor can anything else be done in a public council, in which nothing is so unequal as equality itself.
5For although wisdom is unequal, the right of all is equal. 6I have fulfilled my promise and discharged the pledge of my earlier letter, which, from the lapse of time, I gather you have already received; 6for I gave it to a courier both quick and careful, unless he met with some obstacle on the road. 7Now it is your part to repay first that letter and then this one with a letter as full as can come back from where you are. 7Farewell.