[6] Possibly someone may say “My dear sir, after deciding to accuse a man you have stated no charge but come out with a long string of praises. Are you out of your senses and gone quite mad?” No, my friend, I have not gone mad and I am not a silly person who cannot see what the sequence of an argument demands.

[7] I praise Flaccus not because I thought it right to laud an enemy but to show his villainy in a clearer light. For to one who sins through ignorance of a better course pardon may be given, but a wrongdoer who has knowledge has no defence but stands already convicted at the bar of his conscience.