1You both remind me and ask me to take up the case of Corellia in her absence against Gaius Caecilius, consul-elect. 1For the reminder, I thank you; 1for the asking, I complain. 1For I ought to be reminded so that I know, but I ought not to be asked to do a thing which it would be most shameful for me not to do. 2Would I hesitate to defend the daughter of Corellius? 2It is true that I have a friendship with the man against whom you summon me, not a close one, but a friendship nonetheless. 3Add to this the man's standing and this very office for which he is designated, for which I must show all the more respect because I have already held it.
3For it is natural for a man to want the things he has himself attained to be thought as great as possible. 4But when I reflect that I shall be standing by the daughter of Corellius, all these considerations seem cold and empty. 4Before my eyes there hovers that man, than whom our age has produced no one more serious, more upright, more subtle, whom I had begun to love out of admiration, and, contrary to what usually happens, admired all the more once I had seen into him thoroughly. 5For I did see into him thoroughly: he kept nothing secret from me, nothing playful, nothing serious, nothing sad, nothing happy.
6I was a very young man, and already he showed me honour and even — I shall dare to say it — respect, as if I were his equal. 6When I sought office he was my supporter and witness, when I entered on it my escort and companion, while I held it my adviser and guide; in short, in all my duties, though he was both frail and elderly, he was seen at my side as if he were young and strong. 7How much he did to build up my reputation at home, in public, and even with the emperor! 8For when the conversation happened to turn to good young men in the presence of the emperor Nerva, and most of those present were praising me, he kept silent for a while, which added very great weight to his words; 8then, with that gravity you knew, he said: 'I must praise Secundus more sparingly, because he does nothing except on my advice.' 9By this remark he granted me what it would have been immodest even to pray for: that I did nothing that was not most wise, since I did everything on the advice of a most wise man.
9Moreover, when he was dying, he said to his daughter — she often tells of it herself —: 'I have acquired many friends for you, as in a longer life, but above all Secundus and Cornutus.' 10When I recall this, I understand that I must work hard not to seem in any respect to have failed this confidence in me of a most far-sighted man. 11So I shall indeed stand by Corellia most readily, and I shall not refuse to incur offence; 11although I believe that I shall win not only pardon but even praise from that very man by whom — as you say — a novel suit is being brought, perhaps because she is a woman, if I say these same things in my speech, more fully of course and more richly than the narrow limits of a letter allow, either by way of excuse or even of recommending myself.
11Farewell.