In
 all these later years what province have you had free from pirates? what revenue has been safe?
 what ally have you been able to protect? to whom have your fleets been any defence? How many
 islands do you suppose have been deserted? how many cities of the allies do you think have been
 either abandoned out of fear of the pirates, or have been taken by them? 
 But why do I speak of distant events? It was—it was, indeed, formerly—a characteristic of the
 Roman people to carry on its wars at a distance from home, and to defend by the bulwarks of its
 power not its own homes, but the fortunes of its allies. Need I say, that the sea has during all
 these latter years been closed against your allies, when even our own armies never ventured to
 cross over from Brundusium , except in the depth
 of winter? Need I complain that men who were coming to you from foreign nations were taken
 prisoners, when even the ambassadors of the Roman people were forced to be ransomed? Need I say,
 that the sea was not safe for merchants, when twelve axes The Scholiast
 says that a consul named Milienus (whose name, however, does not appear in the Fasti) was taken
 prisoner by the pirates, and sold with his ensigns of office. The axes mean his faces . came into the power of the pirates?