Political Speeches (Oxford World's Classics) (26 page)

[14] So if our ancestors fought wars against Antiochus, Philip, the Aetolians, and the Carthaginians
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purely for their allies’ sake, having received no injury themselves, just think how eager you ought to be to defend the safety of your allies and the prestige of your empire when you
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been injured—and especially when your most important revenues are at stake! The revenues of the other provinces, citizens, are scarcely large enough to make it worth our while governing those provinces; but Asia, on the other hand, is so rich and fertile that it easily surpasses all other territories in the productiveness of its soil, the variety of its crops, the extent of its pasturage, and the size of its exports. Therefore, citizens, if you wish to hold on to something that is useful in time of war and desirable in time of peace, you must defend this province not just from disaster but also from the fear of disaster. [15] In other areas of life, loss occurs only when a disaster actually takes place; but in the case of revenues, it is not just the occurrence of some evil but the actual fear of it that brings disaster. For when an enemy army is not far away, even if there has as yet been no incursion, the livestock is abandoned, the soil is no longer cultivated, and merchant shipping comes to a halt. As a result, the harbour duty, the tithes, and the grazing tax
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produce no revenue; and so a single rumour of danger, a single foreboding of war, can often cause the loss of an entire year’s income. [16] What,
then, do you suppose are the feelings of those who pay us the revenues or those who farm and collect them, when two kings are nearby with enormous armies, when a single cavalry raid can in an instant carry off an entire year’s revenue, and when the tax-farmers conclude that it is extremely dangerous to keep on the large staffs that they maintain in the salt-works, in the fields, in the harbours, and in the guard-posts?
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Do you really think you can continue to enjoy these benefits without keeping those who procure them for you free not only, as I have just said, from disaster, but also from the fear of disaster?

[17] There is another point you must not overlook, one I left until last when I started to discuss the character of the war. This relates to the property owned by many Roman citizens—whose interests, citizens, you in your wisdom must take carefully into account. First of all, those honourable and distinguished gentlemen, the tax-farmers, have moved their business and their funds to that province, and their property and interests ought in themselves to be a concern of yours. For if we have always believed that our revenues are the sinews of the state, then we certainly ought to describe the order which farms those revenues as the mainstay of the other orders. [18] Secondly, there are energetic and industrious people from the other orders, some of whom do business in Asia in person—and you ought to protect their interests while they are away—while others have large sums invested in the province. It will therefore be a mark of your humanity to save this large number of citizens from ruin, and a mark of your wisdom to appreciate that the national interest would be affected by the ruin of so many of them.

In the first place, you should not imagine that a military victory at a later date will enable you to recover the revenues that the tax-farmers have lost: because of the disaster they have suffered, they are in no position to bid for a fresh contract, and new bidders, in view of what has happened, will be deterred from coming forward. [19] In the second place, we should remember the lesson that this same Asia and this same Mithridates taught us at the beginning of our hostilities with him,
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since we learned it the hard way. What happened was that a great many people lost large sums in Asia, and their resulting inability to meet their financial obligations caused a collapse of credit at Rome. It is in fact impossible for many people in the same country to lose their fortunes without dragging still more
people down with them, and you should take action to protect the state from this danger. Believe me, and believe the evidence of your own eyes! This whole system of credit and finance which operates here at Rome, here in this very forum, is tied up with and inseparable from the money invested in Asia: if that is lost, then our finances here are inevitably involved in the same general collapse.

Decide, therefore, whether you should hold back from pursuing this war with all possible vigour—a war to defend the honour of your name, the safety of your allies, your most important revenues, and the fortunes of a great many citizens, fortunes inseparable from those of the state.

[20] Now that I have spoken about the character of the war, I want to say a few words about its scale. For some people might argue that while the war is necessary and must be fought, nevertheless it is not so serious that we need be unduly alarmed by it. On this point my main concern is to prevent the possibility of your making light of matters about which you ought in fact to be taking the most careful precautions. Furthermore, I would like everyone to understand that I attribute to Lucius Lucullus all the praise that is due to a valiant soldier, a man of wisdom, and a great commander. I would therefore stress that at the time he arrived in Asia the forces of Mithridates were enormous, and equipped and supplied with everything they could possibly require; that Mithridates himself was besieging Cyzicus, the most famous city in Asia and the one most friendly to us, with a vast army, and had attacked it with terrible ferocity; and that Lucius Lucullus, by his courage, persistence, and intelligence, succeeded in liberating that city from the siege and all its attendant dangers. [21] A large and well-equipped fleet, puffed up with fanatical hatred, captained by men from Sertorius’ forces, and making for Italy at top speed, was defeated and sunk by this same commander.
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Moreover, in numerous battles he destroyed vast enemy hordes, and so opened up Pontus to our legions, when previously it had been closed to the Roman people from every side. Sinope and Amisus, which contained royal residences supplied and stuffed with every kind of provision, together with a great many other cities in Pontus and Cappadocia, were taken at the very moment of his approach and arrival.
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The king, stripped of the territories ruled by his father and grandfather before him, was forced to take refuge as a suppliant with other kings in other countries;
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and
while all these achievements were being carried out, the allies of the Roman people were kept safe and their revenues intact. I trust that this is praise enough, and I am sure you will agree, citizens, that none of those who oppose this law and course of action have praised Lucius Lucullus as highly as I have from this platform.

[22] At this point someone may perhaps ask how, if this is how things stand, there could be much of a war left still to fight. I will tell you, citizens, since it seems a reasonable question. In the first place, Mithridates fled from his kingdom in just the same way as the famous Medea
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is said to have once fled from that same kingdom of Pontus. As she was making her escape, the story goes, she scattered her brother’s limbs along the route where her father would follow her, so that he would lose time as he stopped in his pursuit to collect the scattered remains and grieve over them. Similarly, Mithridates, making his escape, left behind in Pontus the whole of his vast store of gold, silver, and treasures of every description which he had either inherited from his forefathers or else plundered from all over Asia in the earlier war
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and amassed in his own kingdom. While our men were collecting all these rather too carefully, the king himself slipped through their hands. Medea’s father was held up in his pursuit by grief; but our people were held up by joy.

[23] The terrified Mithridates took refuge with Tigranes, the king of Armenia, who comforted him in his despair, raised his shattered spirits, and rescued him from his disaster. Lucius Lucullus then entered that country with his army, whereupon still more peoples rose against our commander. Nations which the Roman people had never had any thought of attacking or provoking took fright; and there was also a damaging and strongly held belief which had taken hold among the barbarian peoples that our army had come to that region specifically for the purpose of plundering a certain extremely wealthy and much venerated temple.
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As a result, many large nations were stirred up by this alarming new threat. Our own troops, despite their capture of one city from Tigranes’ kingdom
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and their other successes in battle, became concerned at how far they were from home and from their loved ones. [24] At this point I will say no more; for the way it turned out was that our troops were more eager for an early return from that region than for a march deeper into it.

Mithridates meanwhile had built up his forces once again, and in addition numerous kings and nations helped him by providing
strong reinforcements from abroad. Indeed, this is what we find normally happens: kings who are in trouble have no difficulty obtaining help and sympathy from many quarters, particularly from other kings or from people who live as subjects of a king, since to them the name of king is something great and venerated.
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[25] The result was that Mithridates, after his defeat, was in a position to achieve things he never dared hope for before it. He returned to his kingdom, and then, not content with merely setting foot in the land he had been driven out of and never thought he would see again, launched an attack on our renowned and victorious army. Allow me, citizens, to do at this point what poets who write about Roman history do, and pass over our disaster
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—a disaster so terrible that the commander received news of it not from any survivor of the battle, but from the circulating rumour.

[26] At this point, in the hour of disaster and at the worst setback of the war, Lucius Lucullus, who might perhaps have been capable of recovering the situation to some degree, was ordered by yourselves—since you wanted to follow tradition and set some limit to the tenure of his command—to disband those of his troops who had completed their service, and hand over the remainder to Manius Glabrio. I am passing over a great deal on purpose; but please try to supply the omission for yourselves by contemplating the significance of a war in which powerful kings join forces, nations are roused to renew hostilities, peoples not previously involved flock to the cause, and a new commander of ours is appointed after the former army’s defeat.

[27] I think I have said enough about why the character of this war makes it necessary, and its scale dangerous. It remains, I think, to speak about the choice of a commander, and his appointment to this major undertaking. I only wish, citizens, that you had so many brave men of spotless reputation at your disposal that you would find it difficult to decide which of them you would prefer to put in charge of such a major undertaking, and such a great war! But as it is, Gnaeus Pompeius, and he alone, has by his own merit surpassed in glory not only everyone who is alive today, but also all the great figures of the past. In this case, then, is there anything that could possibly make any of you hesitate?

[28] To my way of thinking, there are four qualities that a great commander must possess: military knowledge, ability, authority, and
luck. Who, then, has there ever been who had, or potentially had, greater military knowledge than he? This is a man who went straight from school and from his childhood education to his father’s army and to military training in a major war against formidable enemies;
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who at the end of his childhood served as a soldier in the army of a great commander,
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and at the beginning of his youth was himself the commander of a great army;
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who fought the enemy more often than anyone else has quarrelled with any personal opponent, has fought more wars than others have read about, and has carried out more commissions than others have coveted; and whose youth was trained in military knowledge not by the teaching of others but by personal experience of command, not by setbacks in war but by victories, and not by periods of service but by triumphs. In short, what type of war can there be in which the fortune of the state has not made use of him? Civil, African, Transalpine, Spanish (a war involving both citizens and exceptionally warlike tribes), slave, and naval wars,
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wars and enemies different in character and locality, wars not only undertaken by this one man but also completed by him—all these demonstrate that there is no aspect of military experience which can escape the knowledge of this man.

[29] As regards the ability of Gnaeus Pompeius, what speech could possibly do justice to it? What could anyone say that would not be unworthy of him, already known to you, or familiar to everyone? For the attributes of a great general do not consist only of those that are commonly thought of as such: dedication in one’s duties, courage in danger, thoroughness in undertaking the task in hand, speed in accomplishing it, foresight in planning—qualities that are as evident in this single man as in all the other commanders, put together, that we have ever seen or heard of. [30] Italy is witness to it—which the victorious Lucius Sulla himself conceded owed its liberation to Pompeius’ ability and the assistance he provided. Sicily is witness to it—which he rescued from the many dangers which surrounded it not by the terrors of war but by the speed of his strategy. Africa is witness to it—which had been crushed by the large enemy forces and was overflowing with their blood. Gaul is witness to it—through which, by a massacre of Gauls, a route was opened for our legions to march on to Spain. Spain is witness to it—which repeatedly saw countless enemies defeated by him and laid low. Italy again and again is witness to it—which, when it was being threatened by the terrible
danger of the slave war, looked to him in his absence for help: the expectation of his arrival reduced the war and scaled it down, and his arrival itself left it dead and buried. [31] And now every shore is witness to it, every land, every people, every nation, and finally every sea—both the open seas and every inlet and harbour on every individual coast.