[44]
Do you believe that there is
anywhere in the whole world any place so desert that the renown of that day has not reached
it, when the whole Roman people, the forum being crowded, and all the adjacent temples from
which this place can be seen being completely filled,—the whole Roman people, I say,
demanded Cnaeus Pompeius alone as their general in the war in which the common interests of
all nations were at stake? Therefore, not to say more on the subject, nor to confirm what I
say by instances of others as to the influence which authority has in war, all our instances
of splendid exploits in war must be taken from this same Cnaeus Pompeius. The very day that he
was appointed by you commander-in-chief of the maritime war, in a moment such a cheapness of
provisions ensued, (though previously there had been a great scarcity of corn, and the price
had been exceedingly high,) owing to the hope conceived of one single man, and his high
reputation, as could scarcely have been produced by a most productive harvest after a long
period of peace.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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