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The roll of his great speeches is indeed continued after his return from exile; but even in the greatest, the Pro Sestio, the Pro Caelio, the De Provinciis Consularibus of 56, or the In Pisonem and Pro Plancio of 55 B.C., something of the old tone is missing; it is as though the same voice spoke on a smaller range of notes and with less flexibility of cadence.
MAELIUM: a rich plebeian, who distributed corn in time of famine and was charged with courting the people in order to make himself a king. Ahala summoned him before the dictator, and because he did not immediately obey, killed him with his own hand. For this, Ahala became one of the heroes of his nation. See Liv. 4, 13. Cicero often mentions him with praise. Cf. in Catil. I. 3; p. Sestio 143, etc.
In one passage Cicero writes of having seen him looking so wild and gesticulating so excitedly, that he seemed almost to have lost command of himself. In the description, already quoted from the speech pro Sestio, of the scene in the theatre before his recall from exile, he speaks of this "summus artifex" as delivering his allusions to the exile with infinite force and passion.
So too in a well-known passage of the speech pro Sestio he tells from hearsay how the great tragic actor Aesopus, acting in the Eurysaces of Accius, was again and again interrupted by applause as he cleverly adapted the words to the expected recall from exile of the orator, his personal friend.