Lucullus, second livre des Académiques Passage 64

Haec cum dixisset Catulus, me omnes intueri. tum ego non minus conmotus quam soleo in causis maioribus huius modi quadam oratione sum exorsus. Me Catule oratio Luculli de ipsa re ita movit ut docti hominis et copiosi et parati et nihil praetereuntis eorum quae pro illa causa dici possent, non tamen ut ei respondere posse diffiderem; auctoritas autem tanta plane me movebat, nisi tu opposuisses non, minorem tuam. adgrediar igitur, si pauca ante quasi de fama mea dixero.

When Catulus had said this, everyone looked at me. Then, no less stirred than I usually am in major cases, I began with a speech of approximately this kind: “Catulus, Lucullus’s argument on the subject itself affected me as the discourse of a learned, eloquent, and well-prepared man who omitted nothing that could be said for his case. Yet it did not make me despair of being able to answer him. His great authority, however, would plainly have moved me if you had not set against it your own, which is no less. I shall therefore begin, after first saying a few words, as it were, about my reputation.”

Lorsque Catulus eut parlé ainsi, tous tournèrent les yeux vers moi. Alors, non moins ému que je ne le suis d’ordinaire dans les grandes causes, je commençai à peu près en ces termes : « Catulus, le discours de Lucullus m’a ému sur le fond comme celui d’un homme savant, abondant, préparé, qui n’a rien omis de ce qui pouvait être dit en faveur de sa cause. Il ne m’a pourtant pas conduit à désespérer de pouvoir lui répondre. Son autorité si grande m’aurait profondément ébranlé si tu ne lui avais opposé la tienne, qui n’est pas moindre. Je vais donc commencer, après avoir dit quelques mots, pour ainsi dire, sur ma réputation.