What do you think ought to be the feelings of those who
 pay us tribute, or of those who get it in, and exact it, when two kings with very numerous
 armies are all but on the spot? when one inroad of cavalry may in a very short time carry off
 the revenue of a whole year? when the publicans think that they retain the large households of
 slaves which they have in the salt-works, in the fields, in the harbours, and custom-houses, at
 the greatest risk? Do you think that you can enjoy these advantages unless you preserve those
 men who are productive to you, free not only, as I said before, from calamity, but even from the
 dread of calamity? And even this must not be neglected by you, which I had proposed to myself as the last thing
 to be mentioned, when I was to speak of the kind of war, for it concerns the property of many
 Roman citizens; whom you, as becomes your wisdom, O Romans, must regard with the most careful
 solicitude. The publicans, It has been said before that the publicans were
 taken almost exclusively from the equestrian order. most honourable and accomplished
 men, have taken all their resources and all their wealth into that province; and their property
 and fortunes ought, by themselves, to be an object of your special care. In truth, if we have
 always considered the revenues as the sinews of the republic, certainly we shall be right if we
 call that order of men which collects them, the prop and support of all the other orders.
 In the next place, clever and industrious men, of all the
 other orders of the state, are some of them actually trading themselves in Asia , and you ought to show a regard for their interests in their
 absence; and others of them have large sums invested in that province. It will, therefore become
 your humanity to protect a large number of those citizens from misfortune; it will become your
 wisdom to perceive that the misfortune of many citizens cannot be separated from the misfortune
 of the republic. In truth, firstly, it is of but little consequence for you afterwards to
 recover for the publicans revenues which have been once lost; for the same men have not
 afterwards the same power of contracting for them, and others have not the inclination, through
 fear. In the next place, that which the same Asia , and that same Mithridates taught us, at the beginning of
 the Asiatic war that, at all events, we, having learnt by disaster, ought to keep in our
 recollection. For we know that then, when many had lost large fortunes in Asia , all credit failed at Rome , from payments being hindered. For it is not possible for many men to lose
 their property and fortunes in one city, without drawing many along with them into the same
 vortex of disaster. But do you now preserve the republic from this misfortune; and believe me,
 (you yourselves see that it is the case,) this credit, and this state of the money-market which
 exists at Rome and in the forum, is bound up with, and
 is inseparable from, those fortunes which are invested in Asia . Those fortunes cannot fall without credit here being undermined by the came
 blow, and perishing along with them. Consider, then, whether you ought to hesitate to apply
 yourselves with all zeal to that war, in which the glory of your name, the safety of your
 allies, your greatest revenues, and the fortunes of numbers of your citizens, will be protected
 at the same time as the republic. Since I have spoken of the description of war, I will now say a few words about its magnitude.
 For this may be said of it,—that it is a kind of war so necessary, that it must absolutely be
 waged, and yet not one of such magnitude as to be formidable. And in this we must take the
 greatest care that those things do not appear to you contemptible which require to be most
 diligently guarded against. And that all men may understand that I give Lucius Lucullus all the
 praise that is due to a gallant man, and most wise The Latin is, “ forti viro , et sapientissimo homini ,” and
 this opposition of vir and homo is not uncommon in Cicero's orations. “ Homo 
 is nearly synonymous with vir , but with this distinction, that
 homo is used of a man considered as an intellectual and moral
 being.—namely, where personal qualities are to be denoted; whereas vir signifies a man his relations to the state.”—Riddle, Lat. Dict. v. Homo . man, and to a most consummate general, I say that when he
 first arrived in Asia , the forces of Mithridates were
 most numerous, well appointed, and provided with every requisite; and that the finest city in
 Asia , and the one, too, that was most friendly to us,
 the city of Cyzicus , was besieged by the king in
 person, with an enormous army, and that the siege had been pressed most vigorously, when Lucius
 Lucullus, by his valour, and perseverance, and wisdom, relieved it from the most extreme danger.