s what you are doing; that is what you are
especially striving at, but still no man can I will not say do two
things, especially two most important things, at one time but he
cannot even do entire justice to them both in his thoughts. It is our
duty rather to spur on and inflame that excellent eagerness of yours,
and not to transfer any portion of it to another object of care in a
different direction.

X. Add to these considerations the way men talk, the way in which they
nourish suspicion, the way in which they take dislikes. Imitate
me whom you have always praised; for I rejected a province fully
appointed and provided by the senate, for the purpose of discarding
all other thoughts, and devoting all my efforts to extinguishing the
conflagration that threatened to consume my country. There was no one
except me alone, to whom, indeed, you would, in consideration of our
intimacy, have been sure to communicate anything which concerned your
interests, who would believe that the province had been decreed to you
against your will. I entreat you, check, as is due to your eminent
wisdom, this report, and do not seem to be desirous of that which you
do not in reality care about. And you should take the more care of
this point, because your colleague, a most illustrious man, cannot
fall under the same suspicion. He knows nothing of all that is going
on here, he suspects nothing, he is conducting the war, he is standing
in battle array, he is fighting for his blood and for his life, he
will hear of the province being decreed to him before he could imagine
that there had been time for such a proceeding. I am afraid that our
armies too, which have devoted themselves to the republic, not from
any compulsory levy, but of their own voluntary zeal, will be checked
in their ardour, if they suppose that we are thinking of anything but
instant war.

But if provinces appear to the consuls as things to be desired, as
they often have been desired by many illustrious men, first restore us
Brutus, the light and glory of the state, whom we ought to preserve
like that statue which fell from heaven, and is guarded by the
protection of Vesta, which, as long as it is safe, ensures our safety
also. Then we will raise you, if it be possible, even to heaven on
our shoulders, unquestionably we will select for you the most worthy
provinces. But at present let us apply ourselves to the business
before us. And the question is, whether we will live as fr