V. Let us come to instances nearer our own time.  The senate entrusted the defence of the republic to Caius Marius and Lucius Valerius, the consuls; Lucius Saturninus, a tribune of the people, and Caius Glaucia the praetor, were slain.  On that day, all the Scauri, and Metelli, and Claudii, and Catuli, and Scaevolae, and Crassi took arms.  Do you think either those consuls or those other most illustrious men deserving of blame?  I myself wished Catiline to perish.  Did you who wish every one to be safe, wish Catiline to be safe?  There is this difference, O Calenus, between my opinion and yours.  I wish no citizen to commit such crimes as deserve to be punished with death.  You think that, even if he has committed them, still he ought to be saved.  If there is anything in our own body which is injurious to the rest of the body, we allow that to be burnt and cut out, in order that a limb may be lost in preference to the whole body.  And so in the body of the republic, whatever is rotten must be cut off in order that the whole may be saved.  Harsh language!  This is much more harsh, “Let the worthless, and wicked and impious be saved, let the innocent, the honourable, the virtuous, the whole republic be destroyed.”  In the case of one individual, O Quintus Fufius, I confess that you saw more than I did.  I thought Publius Clodius a mischievous, wicked, lustful, impious, audacious, criminal citizen.  You, on the other hand, called him religious, temperate, innocent, modest; a citizen to be preserved and desired.  In this one particular I admit that you had great discernment, and that I made a great mistake.  For as for your saying that I am in the habit of arguing against you with ill-temper, that is not the case.  I confess that I argue with vehemence, but not with ill-temper.  I am not in the habit of getting angry with my friends every now and then, not even if they deserve it.  Therefore, I can differ from you without using any insulting language, though not without feeling the greatest grief of mind.  For is the dissension between you and me a trifling one, or on a trifling subject?  Is it merely a case of my favouring this man, and you that man?  Yes; I indeed favour Decimus Brutus, you favour Marcus Antonius; I wish a colony of the Roman people to be preserved, you are anxious that it should be stormed and destroyed.

Vi.  Can you deny this, when you interpose every sort of delay calculated to weaken Brutus, and to improve the position of Antonius?  For how long will you keep on saying that you are desirous of peace?  Matters are progressing rapidly; the works have been carried on; severe battles are taking place.  We sent three chief men of the city to interpose.  Antonius has despised, rejected, and repudiated them.  And still you continue a persevering defender of Antonius.  And Calenus, indeed, in order that he may appear a more conscientious senator, says that he ought not to be a friend to him; since, though Antonius was under great obligations to him, he still had acted against him.  See how great is his affection for his country.  Though he is angry with the individual, still he defends Antonius for the sake of his country.