[20]
Since I have spoken of the description of war, I will now say a few words about its
magnitude. For this may be said of it,—that it is a kind of war so necessary, that
it must absolutely be waged, and yet not one of such magnitude as to be formidable. And in
this we must take the greatest care that those things do not appear to you contemptible which
require to be most diligently guarded against. And that all men may understand that I give
Lucius Lucullus all the praise that is due to a gallant man, and most wise 1 man, and to a most consummate general, I say that when he first
arrived in Asia, the forces of Mithridates were most
numerous, well appointed, and provided with every requisite; and that the finest city in
Asia, and the one, too, that was most friendly to
us, the city of Cyzicus, was besieged by the king
in person, with an enormous army, and that the siege had been pressed most vigorously, when
Lucius Lucullus, by his valour, and perseverance, and wisdom, relieved it from the most
extreme danger.
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1 The Latin is, “forti viro, et sapientissimo homini,” and this opposition of vir and homo is not uncommon in Cicero's orations. “Homo is nearly synonymous with vir, but with this distinction, that homo is used of a man considered as an intellectual and moral being.—namely, where personal qualities are to be denoted; whereas vir signifies a man his relations to the state.”—Riddle, Lat. Dict. v. Homo.
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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