ROME (JUNE)
I GLADLY obey the call of the state and of our friendship,in rejoicing that your virtue,integrity,and energy,already known at home in a most important crisis,when you were a civilian,should be maintained abroad with the same painstaking care now that you have military command.Therefore what I could conscientiously do in setting forth in laudatory terms that the province had been defended by your wisdom;that the kingdom of Ariobarzanes,as well as the king,himself,had been preserved;and that the feelings of the allies had been won back to loyalty to our empire--that Ihave done by speech and vote.That a thanksgiving was decreed Iam glad,if you prefer our thanking the gods rather than giving you the credit for a success which has been in no respect left to chance,but has been secured for the Republic by your own eminent prudence and self-control.But if you think a thanksgiving to be a presumption in favour of a triumph,and therefore prefer fortune having the credit rather than yourself,let me remind you that a triumph does not always follow a thanksgiving;and that it is an honour much more brilliant than a triumph for the senate to declare its opinion,that a province has been retained rather by the uprightness and mildness of its governor,than by the strength of an army or the favour of heaven:and that is what I meant to express by my vote.And I write this to you at greater length than I usually do write,because I wish above all things that you should think of mc as taking pains to convince you,both that I have wished for you what I believed to be for your highest honour,and am glad that you have got what you preferred to it.Farewell:continue to love me;and by the way you conduct your home-journey,secure to the allies and the Republic the advantages of your integrity and energy.
