Page:Loeb Classical Library L205N (1958).djvu/143

him so much that we should not need any further assistance.

All these points are in our favour—the active support of the loyalists, which his tribunate won for him, as I hope you understand, on account of his defence of my cause, the support of the man in the street, on account of the magnificence of his public shows and the generosity of his disposition, the support of the young citizens, and of men of influence in securing votes, due to his own outstanding popularity, or it may be his assiduity in that connexion, and lastly, my own electoral support, which, though not so powerful as the above, has at any rate been tested and is only right and no more than his due, and on those grounds perhaps not without influence.

⁴ What we want is a leader, and a man of moral weight, and a sort of controller and as it were a steersman to avail himself of those winds I have just described; and had we to choose one man in the wide world, we should have nobody we could compare with you.

And for that reason, if you can regard me (and you can) as being not unmindful or ungrateful for a kindness, and as an honest man, if only for my strenuous exertions on Milo's behalf, if in short you deem me worthy of your beneficence (and you do), well, then what I ask you to do is just this—to relieve my present anxiety, and to devote your zeal to the defence of my reputation, or, to speak more accurately, of what is almost my personal safety in the present crisis.

As regards T. Annius^[1] himself, I promise you this much, that you will find nobody of greater