1Therefore, if our ancestors, though not themselves provoked by any wrong, waged wars on behalf of their allies with Antiochus, with Philip, with the Aetolians, with the Carthaginians, how much more eagerly ought you, provoked by wrongs, to defend the safety of your allies together with the dignity of your empire, especially when your greatest revenues are at stake? 1For the revenues of the other provinces, citizens, are such that we can scarcely be content with them for the defence of those provinces themselves, but Asia is so rich and fertile that in the productiveness of its fields, the variety of its crops, the extent of its pasture and the quantity of goods exported it easily surpasses all lands.
1And so this province, citizens, if you wish to retain both the advantages of war and the dignity of peace, must be defended not only from disaster but even from the fear of disaster. 15For in other matters, it is when disaster comes that loss is suffered; 15but in the case of revenues, not only the arrival of trouble but even the fear of it brings disaster. 15For when enemy forces are not far away, even if no incursion has been made, flocks are nonetheless abandoned, farming is deserted, and merchants' sailing comes to a standstill. 15Thus no revenue can be maintained from harbour dues, from tithes or from grazing tax; 15and so often the produce of a whole year is lost through a single rumour of danger and a single alarm of war.
16In what state of mind, then, do you suppose either those who pay us the revenues, or those who farm and collect them, to be, when two kings with very large forces are close by, when a single raid of cavalry can carry off a whole year's revenue in a very short time, when the tax-farmers think that they keep at great risk the large households of slaves they have in the salt-works, in the fields, in the harbours and at the guard-posts? 16Do you think that you can enjoy those benefits unless you preserve those who are a source of profit to you, freed, as I said before, not only from disaster but even from the dread of disaster?