1And so that my speech may start from the point from which this whole case arises: a grave and dangerous war is being brought against your revenues and your allies by two very powerful kings, Mithridates and Tigranes, of whom the one, left unpursued, and the other, provoked, think that an opportunity has been offered them to seize Asia. 1Every day letters are brought from Asia to the Roman knights, most honourable men, whose large interests, invested in the farming of your revenues, are at stake; 1and they, because of the close ties I have with that order, have laid before me the cause of the state and the dangers to their own affairs: that in Bithynia, which is now your province, a good many villages have been burned down; that the kingdom of Ariobarzanes, which borders on your tributary lands, is wholly in the enemy's power; 5that Lucullus, after great achievements, is withdrawing from that war; 5that the man who has succeeded him is not sufficiently prepared to conduct so great a war; 5that one man is demanded and sought by all allies and citizens as commander for that war, and that this same one man is feared by the enemy, and no one else.
6You see what the case is; 6now consider for yourselves what is to be done. 6It seems to me that I must speak first about the nature of the war, then about its scale, and then about choosing a commander. 6The nature of the war is such as ought above all to rouse and inflame your hearts with eagerness to pursue it. 6In it is at stake the glory of the Roman people, which has been handed down to you by your ancestors, great in all things but greatest of all in warfare; 6at stake is the safety of allies and friends, for which your ancestors waged many great and serious wars; 6at stake are the surest and largest revenues of the Roman people, and if they are lost you will look in vain both for the adornments of peace and for the resources of war; 6at stake is the property of many citizens, whose interests you must protect both for their own sake and for the sake of the state.