And the whole Mithridatic war, great and difficult as
 it was, and carried on with so much diversity of fortune by land and sea, has been related at
 length by him; and the books in which that is sung of, not only make illustrious Lucius
 Lucullus, that most gallant and celebrated man, but they do honour also to the Roman people.
 For, while Lucullus was general, the Roman people opened Pontus, though it was defended both by
 the resources of the king and by the character of the country itself. Under the same general the
 army of the Roman people, with no very great numbers, routed the countless hosts of the
 Armenians. It is the glory of the Roman people that, by the wisdom of that same general, the
 city of the Cyzicenes, most friendly to us, was delivered and preserved from all the attacks of
 the kind, and from the very jaws as it were of the whole war. Ours is the glory which will be
 for ever celebrated, which is derived from the fleet of the enemy which was sunk after its
 admirals had been slain, and from the marvellous naval battle off Tenedos: those trophies belong
 to us, those monuments are ours, those triumphs are ours. Therefore, I say that the men by whose
 genius these exploits are celebrated, make illustrious at the same time the glory of the Roman
 people. Our countryman, Ennius, was dear to the elder
 Africanus; and even on the tomb of the Scipios his effigy is believed to be visible, carved in
 the marble. But undoubtedly it is not only the men who are themselves praised who are done
 honour to by those praises, but the name of the Roman people also is adorned by them. Cato, the
 ancestor of this Cato, is extolled to the skies. Great honour is paid to the exploits of the
 Roman people. Lastly, all those great men, the Maximi, the Marcelli, and the Fulvii, are done
 honour to, not without all of us having also a share in the panegyric. 
 Therefore our ancestors received the man who was the cause of all this, a man of Rudiae, into
 their city as a citizen; and shall we reject from our city a man of Heraclea, a man sought by
 many cities, and made a citizen of ours by these very laws? For if any one thinks that there is a smaller gain of glory
 derived from Greek verses than from Latin ones, he is greatly mistaken, because Greek poetry is
 read among all nations, Latin is confined to its own natural limits, which are narrow enough.
 Wherefore, if those achievements which we have performed are limited only by the bounds of the
 whole world, we ought to desire that, wherever our vigour and our arms have penetrated, our
 glory and our fame should likewise extend. Because, as this is always an ample reward for those
 people whose achievements are the subject of writings, so especially is it the greatest
 inducement to encounter labours and dangers to all men who fight for themselves for the sake of
 glory. How many historians of his exploits is Alexander the
 Great said to have had with him; and he, when standing on Cape Sigeum at the grave of Achilles,
 said—“O happy youth, to find Homer as the panegyrist of your glory!” And he said the truth; for,
 if the Iliad had not existed, the same tomb which covered his body would have
 also buried his renown. What, did not our own Magnus, whose valour has been equal to his
 fortune, present Theophanes the Mitylenaean, a relater of his actions, with the freedom of the
 city in an assembly of the soldiers? And those brave men, our
 countrymen, soldiers and country bred men as they were, still being moved by the sweetness of
 glory, as if they were to some extent partakers of the same renown, showed their approbation of
 that action with a great shout. Therefore, I suppose, if Archias were not a Roman citizen
 according to the laws, he could not have contrived to get presented with the freedom of the city
 by some general! Sulla, when he was giving it to the Spaniards and Gauls, would, I suppose, have
 refused him if he had asked for it! a man whom we ourselves saw in the public assembly, when a
 bad poet of the common people had put a book in his hand, because he had made an epigram on him
 with every other verse too long, immediately ordered some of the things which he was selling at
 the moment to be given him as a reward, on condition of not writing anything more about him for
 the future. Would not he who thought the industry of a bad poet still worthy of
 some reward, have sought out the genius, and excellence, and copiousness in writing of this man?