Although, O Romans, your numerous assembly has always seemed to me the most agreeable body
 that any one can address, and this place, which is most honourable to plead in, has also seemed
 always the most distinguished place for delivering an oration in, still I have been prevented
 from trying this road to glory, which has at all times been entirely open to every virtuous man,
 not indeed by my own will, but by the system of life which I have adopted from my earliest
 years. For as hitherto I have not dared, on account of my youth, to intrude upon the authority
 of this place, and as I considered that no arguments ought to be brought to this place except
 such as were the fruit of great ability, and worked up with the greatest industry, I have
 thought it fit to devote all my time to the necessities of my friends. And accordingly, this place has never been unoccupied by men who were
 defending your cause, and my industry, which has been virtuously and honestly employed about the
 dangers of private individuals, has received its most honourable reward in your approbation. For
 when, on account of the adjournment of the comitia, I was three times elected the first praetor
 by all the centuries, I easily perceived, O Romans, what your opinion of me was, and what
 conduct you enjoined to others. Now, when there is that authority in me which you, by conferring
 honours on me, have chosen that there should be, and all that facility in pleading which almost
 daily practice in speaking can give a vigilant man who has habituated himself to the forum, at
 all events, if I have any authority, I will employ it before those who have given it to me; and
 if I can accomplish anything by speaking, I will display it to those men above all others, who
 have thought fit, by their decision, to confer honours on that qualification. And, above all things, I see that I have reason to rejoice on this account,
 that, since I am speaking in this place, to which I am so entirely unaccustomed, I have a cause
 to advocate in which eloquence can hardly fail any one; for I have to speak of the eminent and
 extraordinary virtue of Cnaeus Pompey; and it is harder for me to find out how to end a
 discourse on such a subject, than how to begin one. So that what I have to seek for is not so
 much a variety of arguments, as moderation in employing them. And, that my oration may take its origin from the same source from which all this cause is to
 be maintained; an important war, and one perilous to your revenues and to your allies, is being
 waged against you by two most powerful kings, Mithridates and Tigranes. One of these having been
 left to himself, and the other having been attacked, thinks that an opportunity offers itself to
 him to occupy all Asia . Letters are brought from
 Asia every day to Roman knights, most honourable men,
 who have great property at stake, which is all employed in the collection of your revenues; and
 they, in consequence of the intimate connection which I have with their order, have come to me
 and entrusted me with the task of pleading the cause of the republic, and warding off danger
 from their private fortunes. They say that many of the
 villages of Bithynia , which is at present a province
 belonging to you, have been burnt; that the kingdom of Ariobarzanes, which borders on those
 districts from which you derive a revenue, is wholly in the power of the enemy; that Lucullus,
 after having performed great exploits, is departing from that war; that it is not enough that
 whoever succeeds him should be prepared for the conduct of so important a war; that one general
 is demanded and required by all men, both allies and citizens, for that war; that he alone is
 feared by the enemy, and that no one else is.