15.
[43]
And since authority has great weight in conducting wars,
and in discharging the duties of military command, it certainly is not doubtful to any one
that in that point this same general is especially preeminent. And who is ignorant that it is
of great importance in the conduct of wars, what opinion the enemy, and what opinion the
allies have of your generals, when we know that men are not less influenced in such serious
affairs, to despise, or fear, or hate, or love a man by common opinion and common report, than
by sure grounds and principles? What name, then, in the whole world has ever been more
illustrious than his? whose achievements have ever been equal to his? And, what gives
authority in the highest degree, concerning whom have you ever passed such numerous and such
honourable resolutions?
[44]
Do you believe that there is
anywhere in the whole world any place so desert that the renown of that day has not reached
it, when the whole Roman people, the forum being crowded, and all the adjacent temples from
which this place can be seen being completely filled,—the whole Roman people, I say,
demanded Cnaeus Pompeius alone as their general in the war in which the common interests of
all nations were at stake? Therefore, not to say more on the subject, nor to confirm what I
say by instances of others as to the influence which authority has in war, all our instances
of splendid exploits in war must be taken from this same Cnaeus Pompeius. The very day that he
was appointed by you commander-in-chief of the maritime war, in a moment such a cheapness of
provisions ensued, (though previously there had been a great scarcity of corn, and the price
had been exceedingly high,) owing to the hope conceived of one single man, and his high
reputation, as could scarcely have been produced by a most productive harvest after a long
period of peace.
[45]
Now, too, after the disaster which befell
us in Pontus, from the result of that battle, of
which, sorely against my will, I just now reminded you, when our allies were in a state of
alarm, when the power and spirits of our enemies had risen, and the province was in a very
insufficient state of defence, you would have entirely lost Asia, O Romans, if the fortune of the Roman people had not, by some divine
interposition, brought Cnaeus Pompeius at that particular moment into those regions. His
arrival both checked Mithridates, elated with his unusual victory, and delayed Tigranes, who
was threatening Asia with a formidable army. And can
any one doubt what he will accomplish by his valour, when he did so much by his authority and
reputation? or how easily he will preserve our allies and our revenues by his power and his
army, when he defended them by the mere, terror of his name?
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