1I had written that Varenus had won the right to call witnesses on his own behalf; 1this seemed fair to most, unfair to some, and stubbornly so, above all to Licinius Nepos, who at the next meeting of the senate, when other business was being put, spoke about the latest decree of the senate and reopened a case that was closed. 2He added further that the consuls should be asked to put a motion, on the model of the law on electoral bribery, regarding the law on extortion, whether it was agreed that a clause should be added to that law for the future, that just as accusers had under it the power of making inquiries and summoning witnesses, so should defendants too.
3There were some whom this speech of his displeased as late, untimely and out of order, since, having let pass the time for speaking against it, it was finding fault with a decision already made, which it could have opposed. 4Juventius Celsus the praetor indeed rebuked him at length and vehemently, as a would-be corrector of the senate. 4Nepos replied, and Celsus again; 4neither refrained from insults. 5I do not wish to repeat what I was distressed to hear them say. 5All the more did I disapprove of some of our number, who kept running, now to Celsus, now to Nepos, as one or the other was speaking, in their eagerness to hear, and now, as if egging them on and inflaming them, now, as if reconciling and composing them, kept praying that Caesar might be gracious, more often to one of them, sometimes to both, as if at some show.
6To me indeed this too was most bitter, that each had been told what the other was preparing. 6For Celsus answered Nepos from a written paper, and Nepos Celsus from his notebook. 7So great was the talkativeness of their friends that men about to quarrel knew beforehand each what the other would say, as though it had been agreed. 7Farewell.