O Jupiter Capitolinus, to You I pray, I entreat You, who the Roman people have named Optimus after Your kindness and Maximus after Your great power. And to You, O Juno Regina, Guardian of the City of Rome. O Minerva, You have always come to my aid with Your counsels, witness to the existence of my works; And most especially to You, Penates, who most of all has called me back, gods of my fathers and my family, recalling me for the sake of your stations; And You who preside over the City of Rome and the Republic, You I call to witness, You from whose temple precincts and shrines did I repel the heinous and destructive flames of impious duplicity; You also, Mother Vesta, I pray to You, whose most chaste Vestals I have defended against pillage and desecration by demented men; for their eternal flame I could not allow to pass, extinguished in the blood of citizens, or Your pure flame be intermingled with a conflagration sweeping the entire city.

To all of You I pray, if in that time near fatal to the Republic, if I exposed my head for Your sacred precincts and Your ceremonies against the furor and arms of the most desperate citizens, and this repeatedly did I do, while in my struggle was sought the ruin of all good citizens, I call You as witnesses, I place myself and my family in Your hands, in these struggles I devoted myself and my life, during my conselship and before, without regard for my own interests, or for profit, but strove in all my actions and thoughts with vigilance for the safety and health of all my fellow citizens, then, that someday I might bid to enjoy seeing the Republic restored at last. But if my counsel had not benefited my country, then in perpetual misery would I suffer, departed from my family, friends and all sustenance. When by Your favor my home is restored to me, may I at long last be allowed to consider it demonstrated that this devotion of my life has met with the approval of the Gods.

~ Cicero, De Domo sua ad Pontifices 144-5