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I shall therefore reply to the earlier letter first—the letter in which you tell of your acquittal on the charge of maiestas.^[1] It is true that I had been informed about it long before in letters and messages and lastly by the general talk about it, for nothing could have been less of a secret—not that anybody could have thought it would have turned out otherwise, but as generally happens, no announcement affecting men of conspicuously high reputation can be kept dark—but anyhow your letter added to the pleasure which all that news had given me, not only because it spoke more distinctly and in richer detail than the ordinary gossip one hears, but because I thought my congratulations were better justified when I listened to you telling me your own story.

² Well then, far away as you were, I threw my arms around you in thought, and I really did kiss the letter, and then I congratulated myself too; for any tribute paid by the whole people, the Senate and the jurors to capacity, hard work, and integrity—though perhaps I flatter myself in imagining such virtues are to be found in me—I consider any such tribute is paid also to myself. But I was not so much surprised at the glorious result of your trial as at the distorted mental vision of your enemies. But you will say "bribery and corruption" or maiestas—what is the difference? None that really matters;^[2] for you never touched the one, and the latter,^[3] you have enhanced. But as a matter of fact maiestas (although Sulla never meant it to be so, lest the public denunciation of any man should be allowed to