Roman History, 36.28

Cassius Dio  translated by Earnest Cary

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28“Or do you think that this Pompey who in his boyhood could make campaigns, lead armies, increase your possessions, preserve those of your allies, and acquire those of your adversaries, could not now, in the prime of life, when every man is at his best, and with a great fund of added experience gained from wars, prove most useful to you? 2Will you reject, now that he has reached man’s estate, him whom as a youth you chose as leader? Will you not confide this campaign to the man, now become a member of the senate, to whom while still a knight you committed those wars? 3Will you not, now that you have most amply tested him, entrust the present emergency, no less pressing than the former ones, to him for whom alone you asked in the face of those urgent dangers, even before you had carefully tested him? Will you not send out against the pirates one, now an ex-consul, whom, before he could yet properly hold office, you chose against Sertorius? 4Nay, do not think of adopting any other course; and as for you, Pompey, do you heed me and your country. For her you were born, for her you were reared. You must serve her interests, shrinking from no hardship or danger to secure them; and should it become necessary for you to lose your life, you must in that case not await your appointed day but meet whatever death comes to you.

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