1Let there be, then, two skills which can place men in the highest rank of dignity, one that of a general, the other that of a good orator. 1For by the latter the ornaments of peace are preserved, by the former the dangers of war are driven back. 1Still, the other virtues in themselves count for much, justice, good faith, modesty, self-restraint; 1and in these, Servius, everyone understands that you excel. 1But I am now discussing pursuits suited to winning office, not each man's innate virtue. 1All those pursuits of ours are knocked out of our hands as soon as some new commotion has begun to sound the call to war.
1Indeed, as a clever poet and a very good authority says, 'when battles are proclaimed, driven from the midst' is not only that verbose pretence of wisdom of yours, but even that mistress of affairs herself, 'wisdom; 1matters are conducted by force, the orator is spurned,' not only the tiresome and talkative one in speaking, but even 'the good one; 1the rough soldier is loved,' while your pursuit lies utterly prostrate. 1'Not by joining hands in lawful contest, but rather with the sword,' he says, 'they seek redress.' 1But if this is so, let the forum, I think, Sulpicius, give way to the camp, leisure to military service, the pen to the sword, the shade to the sun; 1let that, in short, be first in the state on account of which the state itself is the first of all.
31But Cato argues that we make these things too great with our words, and that we have forgotten that the whole of that Mithridatic war was waged against mere women. 31I think far otherwise, judges; 31and on this point I shall say a few words; 31for the case does not rest on it. 31For if all the wars we have waged with the Greeks are to be despised, then let ridicule be poured on the triumph of Curius over King Pyrrhus, of Flamininus over Philip, of Fulvius over the Aetolians, of Paulus over King Perses, of Metellus over the false Philip, of Mummius over the Corinthians. 31But if these wars were most serious and the victories in them most welcome, why are the Asiatic nations and that enemy despised by you?
31And yet from the records of past events I see that the Roman people waged perhaps its greatest war with Antiochus; 31the victor in that war, Scipio, having won glory equal to that of his brother Publius, took for himself from the name of Asia the same distinction which his brother displayed in his very surname after crushing Africa. 32In that war indeed the outstanding valour of Cato, your great-grandfather, shone forth; 32and he, since he was, as I judge, such a man as I see you to be, would never have set out with Scipio, if he had thought that war was to be waged with mere women. 32Nor would the senate have prevailed on Africanus to go out as legate to his brother, when he himself shortly before, having driven Hannibal out of Italy, expelled him from Africa and crushed Carthage, had freed the state from the greatest dangers, unless that war were thought serious and fierce.