1The Bithynians again: a short time after Julius Bassus, they have also prosecuted the proconsul Rufus Varenus, the same Varenus whom they had recently both asked for and been granted as their advocate against Bassus. 1Brought into the senate, they asked leave to conduct an inquiry. 2Varenus asked that he too might be allowed to summon witnesses for his defence; 2when the Bithynians objected, a hearing was held. 2I pleaded for Varenus, not without success; 2for whether well or badly, the published speech will show. 3For in the delivery of speeches fortune holds sway in both directions: memory, voice, gesture, the occasion itself, and finally either love or hatred for the defendant, take away much from their effect, or add much; 3a book is free of offence, free of favour, free of both lucky and unlucky chances.
4Fonteius Magnus, one of the Bithynians, replied to me, with a great many words and very few facts. 4Most Greeks, like him, have fluency instead of fullness: they whirl out such long and such frigid periods in one breath, as if in a torrent. 5And so Julius Candidus has a neat way of saying that eloquence is one thing and loquacity another. 5For eloquence has fallen to scarcely one or two, or rather — if we believe Marcus Antonius — to no one, but this which Candidus calls loquacity has fallen to many, and most of all to the most shameless. 6On the next day Homullus spoke for Varenus, shrewdly, keenly and elegantly, and against him Nigrinus, concisely, weightily and with ornament.
6Acilius Rufus, the consul-elect, proposed that the Bithynians be granted their inquiry, and passed over Varenus' request in silence. 7This was a form of refusal. 7Cornelius Priscus, a man of consular rank, granted both the accusers and the defendant what they asked, and won by numbers. 7We obtained something neither covered by law nor customary enough, but nevertheless just. 8Why just, I am not going to explain in a letter, so that you may want to see the speech. 8For if that line of Homer is true, 'for men praise more that song which comes newest to the ears of those who listen', I must take care not to pluck off, by the chattiness of a letter, the charm and bloom of novelty which most of all commends that little speech.
8Farewell.