Such were the struggles made by Cicero himself; though there was present always to him an idea, with which, in truth, neither the demagogues nor the aristocrats sympathized, that the reform could be effected, not by depriving the Senate of its power, but by teaching the Senate to use it honestly.

We can sympathize with the idea, but we are driven to acknowledge that it was futile.
Though we know that this was so, the fragments of the speeches, though they have been made intelligible to us by the "argument" or story of them prefixed by Asconius in his notes, cannot be of interest to readers.

They were extant in the time of Quintilian, who speaks of them with the highest praise.[146] Cicero himself selects certain passages out of these speeches as examples of eloquence or rhythm,[147] thus showing the labor with which he composed them, polishing them by the exercise of his ear as well as by that of his intellect.

We know from Asconius that this trial was regarded at the time as one of vital interest.
We have two letters from Cicero written in the year after his Praetorship, both to Atticus, the first of which tells us of his probable competition for the Consulship; the second informs his friend that a son is born to him--he being then forty-two years old--and that he is thinking to undertake the defence of Catiline, who was to be accused of peculation as Propraetor in Africa.

"Should he be acquitted," says Cicero, "I should hope to have him on my side in the matter of my canvass.