14.
[40]
Come now, consider also what moderation he has displayed in other matters also. How was it,
do you suppose, that he was able to display that excessive rapidity, and to perform that
incredible voyage? For it was no unexampled number of rowers, no hitherto unknown skill in
navigation, no new winds, which bore him so swiftly to the most distant lands; but those
circumstances which are wont to delay other men did not delay him. No avarice turned him aside
from his intended route in pursuit of some plunder or other; no lust led him away in pursuit
of pleasure; no luxury allured him to seek its delights; the illustrious reputation of no city
tempted him to make its acquaintance; even labour did not turn him aside to seek rest. Lastly,
as for the statues, and pictures, and other embellishments of Greek cities, which other men
think worth carrying away, he did not think them worthy even of a visit from him. And,
therefore, every one in those countries looks upon Cnaeus Pompeius as some one descended from
heaven, not as some one sent out from this city.
[41]
Now they
begin to believe that there really were formerly Romans of the same moderation; which hitherto
has seemed to foreign nations a thing incredible, a false and ridiculous tradition. Now the
splendour of your dominion is really brilliant in the eyes of those nations. Now they
understand that it was not without reason that, when we had magistrates of the same
moderation, their ancestors preferred being subject to the Roman people to being themselves
lords of other nations. But now the access of all private individuals to him is so easy, their
complaints of the injuries received from others are so little checked, that he who in dignity
is superior to the noblest men, in affability seems to be on a par with the meanest.
[42]
How great his wisdom is, how great his authority and
fluency in speaking,—and that too is a quality in which the dignity of a general is
greatly concerned,—you, O Romans, have often experienced yourselves in this very
place. But how great do you think his good faith must have been towards your allies, when the
enemies of all nations have placed implicit confidence in it? His humanity is such that it is
difficult to say, whether the enemy feared his valour more when fighting against him, or loved
his mildness more when they had been conquered by him. And will any one doubt, that this
important war ought to be entrusted to him, who seems to have been born by some especial
design and favour of the gods for the express purpose of finishing all the wars which have
existed in their own recollection?
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