CCLXV (F XV, 5)
M. PORCIUS CATO TO CICERO (IN
CILICIA)
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 I have done by speech and
vote. That a thanksgiving was decreed I am 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 me 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.
ROME (JUNE)
