[12] Yes, he did support [him], after he had spent a number of years in the forum,  Caelius that is- just as many others did, from every class and of every age.

For [he] had, as I am sure you remember, a great many indications of the highest qualities- not fully developed, mind you; but sketched in outline. He mixed with numerous individuals of bad character;  

yet he pretended to be devoted to the best of men.

He had the effect of degrading those around him;

yet he could also stimulate them to effort and hard work.

The fires of passion burned within him;

yet he was a keen student of military affairs.

For my part

I do not think the world has ever seen a creature made up of such contrary,

divergent,

and mutually incompatible interests and appetites.

[13] Who was more, agreeable, at one particular time,

to men of high rank,

and who more intimate with scoundrels?

Who at one time more patriotic citizen,

and who a more loathsome enemy of this country?

Who more corrupt in his pleasures,

and who more able to endure hard work?

Who more avaricious in rapacity,

and who more lavish in generosity?

That man, iudices, had many features that were paradoxical.

He had a wide circle of friends;

and he looked after them well.

What he had, he shared with everyone.

He helped all his friends in times of need with money,

influence,

physical exertion,

even, if necessary, with recklessness and crime.

He could adapt and control the way he was to suit the occasion,

and twist and turn his nature this way and that.

He could be stern with the serious,

relaxed with the free-and easy,

grave with the old,

affable with the young,

daring with criminals,

and dissolute with the depraved.

[14] And so this complex, ever-changing character,

even when he had collected all the wicked traitors from far and wide,

still held many loyal, brave men in his grasp by a sort of pretended semblance of virtue.

Indeed, that dastardly attempt to destroy this imperium could never have come  into being

had not that monstrous concentration of so many vices

been rooted in certain qualities of skill and endurance.

Therefore, iudices,

you should reject the prosecution's argument,

and refuse to allow my client's association with [him] to count against Caelius:

this is something he has in common with many other people,

including some fine patriots.

I, I myself, I tell you, was almost taken in by him on one occasion,

when I took him to be a loyal citizen,

eager to be on good terms with all the best people,

and a dependable and faithful friend.

I did not believe his crimes 

until I came upon them with my eyes,

or suspect them

until I had laid my hands on them.

If Caelius was also among his wide circle of friends,

it is better that he should be angry with himself at his own mistake

(just as I sometimes am about my own misjudgement of him)

than that he should have to fear a charge of having been a friend of his.

Cicero, pro Caelio 12-14 

(Adapted from D.H. Berry, Cicero: Defence Speeches, Oxford University Press, 2000, pp.133-134.)