his province "What is it
that is required of you as a governor?"[245] asks Cicero. "That men
should not be frightened by your journeys hither and thither--that they
should not be eaten up by your extravagance--that they should not be
disturbed by your coming among them--that there should be joy at your
approach; when each city should think that its guardian angel, not a
cruel master, had come upon it--when each house should feel that it
entertained not a robber but a friend. Practice has made you perfect in
this. But it is not enough that you should exercise those good offices
yourself, but that you should take care that every one of those who come
with you should seem to do his best for the inhabitants of the province,
for the citizen of Rome, and for the Republic." I wish that I could give
the letter entire--both in English, that all readers might know how
grand are the precepts taught, and in Latin, that they who understand
the language might appreciate the beauty of the words--but I do not dare
to fill my pages at such length. A little farther on he gives his idea
of the duty of all those who have power over others--even over the dumb
animals.[246] "To me it seems that the duty of those in authority over
others consists in making those who are under them as happy as the
nature of things will allow. Every one knows that you have acted on this
principle since you first went to Asia." This, I fear, must be taken as
flattery, intended to gild the pill which comes afterward "This is not
only his duty who has under him allies and citizens, but is also that of
the man who has slaves under his control, and even dumb cattle, that he
should study the welfare of all over whom he stands in the position of
master!" Let the reader look into this, and ask himself what precepts of
Christianity have ever surpassed it.

Then he points out that which he describes as the one great difficulty
in the career of a Roman Provincial Governor.[247] The collectors of
taxes, or "publicani," were of the equestrian order. This business of
farming the taxes had been their rich privilege for at any rate more
than a century, and as Cicero says, farther on in his letter, it was
impossible not to know with what hardship the Greek allies would be
treated by them when so many stories were current of their cruelty even
in Italy. Were Quintus to take a part against these tax-gatherers, he
would make them hostile not only to the Republic but to himself als