Ab urbe condita

I am Marcus Valerius Corvus, soldiers, a patrician it is true, but my nobility has shown itself in benefits to you, not in wrongs; I have never been the author of any law bearing harshly on you or of any oppressive enactment of the senate; in all my commands I have been stricter with myself than with you.

If noble birth, if personal merit, if high office, if distinguished service could make any man proud, I venture to say that such is my descent, such the proof I have given of myself, such the age at which I obtained the consulship, being only twenty-three, that I had it in my power to show myself harsh and overbearing not only to the plebs but even to the patricians.