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might almost say, from under my very roof; for having previously arranged a day with me[1] he was my guest at a dinner I gave at the country seat of my son-in-law Crassipes.
And that is the reason (as indeed you write that you have been told) why on his[2] earnest recommendation I undertook to support Crassus's cause, and did so support it in the Senate, as I was in honour bound to do.
21 You have now heard by what considerations I have been led, in supporting each measure and each case, and also what my exact position is in politics so far as I have any part in them. And on that point I should like you to be firmly convinced of this—that those are precisely the sentiments I should have entertained had I been entirely uncommitted and had a free hand; for I should still have been of opinion that no resistance should be offered to powers so invincible, that the established preeminence of our highest citizens should not, even if that were possible, be abolished, and that we should not persist in holding to an unvarying opinion when the circumstances have entirely altered and the political inclinations of honest men have undergone a corresponding change, but that we should move with the times. For never has an undeviating persistence in one opinion been reckoned as a merit in those distinguished men who have steered the ship of state. But just as in sailing it shows nautical skill to run before the wind in a gale, even if you fail thereby to make your port; whereas when you can get there just as well by slanting your yards,[3] it is sheer folly to court disaster by keeping your original course, rather than change it and still