the reign of one born a slave, frequently numbers of men descended from ancestors of no rank, have both lived as men of merit, and have been distinguished by the greatest honors:  [while] on the other hand Laevinus, the descendant of that famous Valerius, by whose means Tarquinius Superbus was expelled from his kingdom, was not a farthing more esteemed [on account of his family, even] in the judgment of the people, with whose disposition you are well acquainted; who often foolishly bestow honors on the unworthy, and are from their stupidity slaves to a name:  who are struck with admiration by inscriptions and statues.  What is it fitting for us to do, who are far, very far removed from the vulgar [in our sentiments]?  For grant it, that the people had rather confer a dignity on Laevinus than on Decius, who is a new man; and the censor Appius would expel me [the senate-house], because I was not sprung from a sire of distinction:  and that too deservedly, inasmuch as I rested not content in my own condition.  But glory drags in her dazzling car the obscure as closely fettered as those of nobler birth.  What did it profit you, O Tullius, to resume the robe that you [were forced] to lay aside, and become a tribune [again]?  Envy increased upon you, which had been less, it you had remained in a private station.  For when any crazy fellow has laced the middle of his leg with the sable buskins, and has let flow the purple robe from his breast, he immediately hears:  “Who is this man?  Whose son is he?” Just as if there be any one, who labors under the same distemper as Barrus does, so that he is ambitious of being reckoned handsome; let him go where he will, he excites curiosity among the girls of inquiring into particulars; as what sort of face, leg, foot, teeth, hair, he has.  Thus he who engages to his citizens to take care of the city, the empire, and Italy, and the sanctuaries of the gods, forces every mortal to be solicitous, and to ask from what sire he is descended, or whether he is base by the obscurity of his mother.  What? do you, the son of a Syrus, a Dana, or a Dionysius, dare to cast down the citizens of Rome from the [Tarpeian] rock, or deliver them up to Cadmus [the executioner]?  But, [you may say,] my colleague Novius sits below me by one degree:  for he is only what my father was.  And therefore do you esteem yourself a Paulus or a Messala?  But he (Novius), if two hundred carriages and three funerals were to meet in the forum, could make noise enough to drown all their horns and trumpets:  this [kind of merit] at least has its weight with us.

Now I return to myself, who am descended from a freed-man; whom every body nibbles at, as being descended from a freed-man.  Now, because, Maecenas, I am a constant guest of yours; but formerly, because a Roman legion was under my command, as being a military tribune.  This latter case is different from the former:  for, though any person perhaps might justly envy me that post of honor, yet could he not do so with regard