1And you must not neglect, either, the point which I had set myself to treat last, when I was about to speak of the nature of the war, which concerns the property of many Roman citizens; 1and of them, citizens, you must, in keeping with your wisdom, take careful account. 1For the tax-farmers, most honourable and distinguished men, have transferred their business and their resources to that province, and their affairs and fortunes in themselves ought to be your concern. 1Indeed, if we have always held the revenues to be the sinews of the state, we shall surely be right to call the order which farms them the mainstay of the other orders.
18Next, of the other orders, active and industrious men are partly themselves doing business in Asia, and you ought to look after them in their absence, and partly have large sums of money invested in that province. 18It is a mark of your humanity, therefore, to keep a great number of citizens from disaster, and of your wisdom to see that the disaster of many citizens cannot be separated from the state. 18For in the first place it matters little that you recover the lost revenues for the tax-farmers afterwards by victory; 18for the same men will not have the means to contract for them again, because of their disaster, nor will others have the will, because of fear.
19Next, what this same Asia and this same Mithridates taught us at the beginning of the Asian war, that at least, having been taught by disaster, we ought surely to keep in memory. 19For at that time, when very many men lost large fortunes in Asia, we know that at Rome, as payments were halted, credit collapsed. 19For many people in a single state cannot lose their property and fortunes without dragging more along with them into the same disaster: protect the state from that danger. 19For — believe me in what you see for yourselves — this system of credit and finance which operates at Rome, in the forum, is bound up and interlocked with those Asian funds; 19those cannot fall without these being shaken by the same movement and collapsing.
19Consider, therefore, whether you ought to hesitate to throw all your energy into that war in which the glory of your name, the safety of your allies, your greatest revenues, and the fortunes of very many citizens, bound up with the state, are being defended.