1O happy day! 1Called to the council of the prefect of the city, I heard two young men of the highest promise and the highest talent pleading on opposite sides, Fuscus Salinator and Ummidius Quadratus, an outstanding pair, who will be an ornament not only to our times but to literature itself. 2Both had wonderful integrity, firmness unimpaired, a seemly bearing, pure Latin speech, a manly voice, a retentive memory, great talent, equal judgement; 2each of these things gave me pleasure, and among them this, that they themselves looked to me as their guide, as their master, and seemed to those who were listening to be emulating me, to be treading in my footsteps.
3O day — for I shall say it again — happy, and to be marked by me with the whitest stone! 3For what could be happier for the state than that most distinguished young men should seek name and fame from oratory, or more desirable for me than that I should be set up as a kind of model to those who strive for what is right? 4That I may have this joy for ever I pray to the gods; 4of the same gods I ask, with you as witness, that all who will think it worth while to imitate me may wish to be better than I. 4Farewell.