re staying at home and keeping quiet and in which the
beginning of the complaints arises from some embassy both need and
demand an enquiry into their nature and the introduction of a vote,
after which the consuls and praetors must be assigned to them and the
forces sent out: but all that come to light after persons have already
gone forth and taken the field are no longer to be brought up for
decision, but to be taken hold of in advance, before they increase, as
matters decreed and ratified by Necessity herself.

"Else for what reason did the people despatch you to this point, for
what reason did they send me immediately after my consulship? Why did
they, on the one hand, elect me to hold command for five years at one
time, as had never been done before, and on the other hand equip me with
four legions, unless they believed that we should certainly be required
to fight, besides? Surely it was not that we might be supported in
idleness or traveling about to allied cities and subject territory prove
a worse bane to them than an enemy. Not a man would make this assertion.
It was rather that we might keep our own land, ravage that of the enemy,
and accomplish something worthy both of our numbers and our
expenditures. Therefore with this understanding both this war and every
other whatsoever has been entrusted, has been delivered to us. They
acted very sensibly in leaving in our hands the decision as to whom we
should fight against, instead of voting for the war themselves. For they
would not have been able to understand thoroughly the affairs of our
allies, being at such a distance from them, and would not have taken
measures against known and prepared enemies at an equally fitting
moment. So we, to whom is left at once the decision and the execution of
the war, by turning our weapons immediately against foes that are
actually in the field shall not be acting in an unauthorized or unjust
or incautious manner.

[-42-] "But suppose some one of you interrupts me with the following
objection: 'What has Ariovistus done so far out of the way as to become
an enemy of ours in Place of a friend and ally?' Let any such man
consider the fact that one has to defend one's self against those who
are undertaking to do any wrong not only on the basis of what they do,
but also on the basis of what they intend, and has to check their growth
in advance, before suffering some hurt, instead of waiting to have some
real injury inflicted and the