1'I know, citizens, that most men seek office from you and, once they have obtained it, exercise it by quite different methods: at first they are hard-working, humble and modest, then they pass their lives in idleness and arrogance. 1But to me it seems the opposite: for by as much as the whole commonwealth is worth more than the consulship or the praetorship, with so much the greater care ought it to be administered than these are sought. 3Nor am I unaware how much business I take on along with this very great favour of yours. 3To prepare for war and at the same time to spare the treasury, to force into military service men whom you would not wish to offend, to look after everything at home and abroad, and to do it among the envious, the obstructive and the factious, is harder, citizens, than one would think.
4Besides, if others have done wrong, their ancient nobility, the brave deeds of their ancestors, the wealth of their kinsmen and relations by marriage, their many clients, all these stand by to protect them; 4my hopes all rest in myself, and I must guard them by courage and integrity; 4for all else is weak. 5And this too I understand, citizens: that the eyes of all are turned on me, that fair-minded and good men favour me — since my good deeds benefit the commonwealth — and that the nobility is seeking an opening to attack. 6So I must strive all the harder, so that you are not deceived and they are thwarted.
7I have lived from boyhood to this time of life in such a way that I am accustomed to every toil and danger. 8What I did without reward before your favours, I have no intention, citizens, of abandoning now that I have received my pay. 9For those men it is hard to show restraint in power who have pretended to be honest for the sake of canvassing; 9for me, who have spent my whole life in the best pursuits, doing good has through habit now turned into nature. 10You ordered me to wage war with Jugurtha, a thing the nobility took very badly. 10Consider, I beg you, in your own minds, whether it would be better to change this, if you were to send on this or some other such task one of that clique of the nobility, a man of ancient lineage and many ancestral portraits, and of no campaigns: so that, of course, ignorant of everything in so great an affair, he may panic and hurry about, and take someone from the people as adviser in his duty.
11So it usually happens that the man you ordered to command looks for another commander for himself. 12And I know men, citizens, who after they were made consuls began to read both the deeds of their ancestors and the military precepts of the Greeks: preposterous men, for to act comes later in time than to be elected, but in substance and practice it comes first. 13Compare now, citizens, me, a new man, with the arrogance of those men. 13What they are accustomed to hear of or read, some of it I have seen, the rest I have done myself; 13what they have learned from books, I have learned by soldiering.
14Now judge for yourselves whether deeds or words are worth more. 14They despise my newness, I their idleness; 14against me my fortune is cast in my teeth, against them their disgraces. 15And yet I think that nature is one and common to all, but that the bravest man is the most nobly born. 16And if the fathers of Albinus or Bestia could now be asked whether they would rather have had me or those men as their sons, what do you believe they would answer, except that they wanted their children to be as good as possible? 17But if they rightly look down on me, let them do the same to their own ancestors, whose nobility, like mine, began with merit.
18They envy me my office: then let them envy my toil, my integrity, my dangers too, since it was through these that I won it. 19But men corrupted by arrogance pass their lives as if they despised your honours; 19they seek them as if they had lived honourably. 20Truly they are mistaken who expect at once things utterly different, the pleasure of idleness and the rewards of merit. 21And moreover, when they make speeches before you or in the senate, they spend most of their oratory extolling their ancestors: by recounting their brave deeds they think themselves more illustrious. 22The opposite is true. 22For the more glorious the life of those men was, the more shameful is the sloth of these.
23And truly the case is this: the glory of ancestors is like a light to their descendants, and lets neither their good nor their bad deeds stay hidden. 24Of this I confess my lack, citizens, but — what is far more glorious — I may speak of my own deeds. 25Now see how unfair they are. 25What they claim for themselves on the strength of another's merit, they do not grant to me on the strength of my own, because, of course, I have no ancestral portraits and because my nobility is new — which it is surely better to have created than to have corrupted when inherited. 26I am well aware, indeed, that if they chose to answer me now, they would have speech in abundance, eloquent and well arranged.
26But since, after this very great favour of yours, they tear both me and you to pieces with abuse in every place, I did not see fit to keep silent, lest anyone should take my restraint for a guilty conscience. 26For no speech, in my own heartfelt opinion, can hurt me: if it is true, it must speak well of me; if false, my life and character refute it. 28But since it is your judgement that is being attacked, who laid upon me the highest office and the greatest task, consider again and again whether you ought to regret it. 29I cannot, to win your trust, display the portraits or the triumphs or consulships of my ancestors, but, if the matter should require it, I can show spears, a banner, medals, other military decorations, and besides, scars on the front of my body.
30These are my portraits, this my nobility, not left me by inheritance, as theirs was to them, but won by my own countless toils and dangers. 31My words are not well arranged: I care little for that. 32Merit shows itself well enough; 32it is they who need artifice, to cover shameful deeds with oratory, nor have I learned Greek letters: I had little wish to learn them, since they had done nothing for the virtue of their teachers. 33But I have been taught those things which are by far the best for the commonwealth: to strike the enemy, to keep watch at outposts, to fear nothing but disgrace, to endure winter and summer alike, to sleep on the ground, to bear want and toil at the same time.
34With these precepts I shall encourage the soldiers, and I shall not treat them stingily and myself lavishly, nor make their toil my glory. 35This is useful command, this is command fit for citizens. 35For when you yourself live in softness, to coerce an army with punishment is to be a master, not a commander. 36By doing these things and others like them your ancestors brought renown to themselves and to the commonwealth. 37Relying on them, the nobility, though itself unlike them in character, despises us who emulate them, and demands every office from you not on merit but as if it were owed. 38But these most arrogant of men are far astray.
38Their ancestors left them all that they could: wealth, portraits, a glorious memory of themselves; 38merit they did not leave them, nor could they: it alone is neither given as a gift nor received as one. 39They call me vulgar and uncouth in my manners, because I furnish a dinner party with too little taste and keep no actor, nor a cook who cost more than my farm manager. 40This I am glad to admit, citizens. 40For from my father and other upright men I learned that elegance suits women, toil suits men, and that all good men ought to have more glory than riches; 40that arms, not furniture, are an honour.
41Well then, let them always do what pleases them, what they hold dear: let them love, let them drink; 41where they spent their youth, there let them spend their old age, at dinner parties, given over to their belly and the most shameful part of the body; 41let them leave sweat, dust and other such things to us, for whom these are more delightful than feasts. 42But it is not so. 42For when these most shameful men have disgraced themselves with their vices, they go to snatch away the rewards of the good. 43Thus, most unjustly, luxury and idleness, the worst of practices, do no harm to those who have cultivated them, but bring ruin on the innocent commonwealth.
44Now, since I have answered them as far as my own character, not their disgraces, demanded, I shall say a few words about public affairs. 45First of all, citizens, be of good heart about Numidia. 45For you have removed everything that has protected Jugurtha up to this time: greed, inexperience and arrogance; 45next, there is an army there that knows the country, but, by Hercules, more vigorous than fortunate, for a great part of it has been worn down by the greed or rashness of its commanders. 47Therefore you who are of military age, strive with me and take up the cause of the commonwealth, and let no fear seize anyone because of the disaster of others or the arrogance of commanders.
47I myself, on the march or in battle, shall be at your side, both your adviser and the sharer of your danger, and I shall treat you and myself alike in all things. 48And truly, with the help of the gods, everything is ripe: victory, booty, glory. 48Even if these were doubtful or far off, it would still befit all good men to come to the aid of the commonwealth. 49For no one has become immortal through cowardice, nor has any parent prayed that his children should live for ever, but rather that they should pass their lives as good and honourable men. 50I would say more, citizens, if words added courage to the timid; 50for to the brave I think enough has been said.'