Brutus, or On Eminent Orators Passage 160

defendit postea Liciniam virginem, cum annos xxvii natus esset. In ea ipsa causa fuit eloquentissimus orationisque eius scriptas quasdam partis reliquit. Voluit adulescens in colonia Narbonensi causae popularis aliquid adtingere eamque coloniam, ut fecit, ipse deducere; exstat in eam legem senior, ut ita dicam, quam aetas illa ferebat oratio. Multae deinde causae; sed ita tacitus tribunatus ut, nisi in eo magistratu cenavisset apud praeconem Granium idque nobis bis narravisset Lucilius, tribunum plebis nesciremus fuisse.

Later, when twenty-seven years old, he defended the Vestal Licinia. In that very case he was most eloquent, and he left certain portions of his speech in writing. As a young man he wished to take some part in the popular cause concerning the colony at Narbo and personally to establish that colony, as he did. His speech on that law survives, more mature, if I may say so, than his age would generally allow. Many cases followed, but his tribunate was so silent that, had he not dined during that magistracy at the house of Granius the auctioneer, and had Lucilius not told us the story twice, we should not know that he had been tribune of the plebs.

Il défendit ensuite la vestale Licinia à l’âge de vingt-sept ans. Dans cette cause même, il fut d’une suprême éloquence et laissa par écrit certaines parties de son discours. Jeune encore, il voulut toucher quelque peu à la cause populaire dans la colonie de Narbonne et conduire lui-même, comme il le fit, l’établissement de cette colonie. Il subsiste en faveur de cette loi un discours plus mûr, si je puis dire, que ne le comportait ordinairement cet âge. Il plaida ensuite beaucoup de causes; mais son tribunat fut si silencieux que, s’il n’avait pas dîné durant cette magistrature chez le crieur public Granius, et si Lucilius ne nous avait pas raconté deux fois cet épisode, nous ignorerions qu’il avait été tribun de la plèbe.