[163]
But the result has been the very opposite; for if I had turned out to be worthless and had excelled in nothing, no one would have made trouble for me;1 nay, I might have been a flagrant offender and yet lived secure—from the sycophants, at any rate. But now, instead of the acclaim which I expected, I have been rewarded with trials and perils and envy and calumny.
1 See 8, note.