Cicero

He became also one of the priests whom the Romans call Augurs, in place of the younger Crassus, who had died among the Parthians.[*](In 53 B.C. See the Crassus, chapter xxv. ) Then the lot gave him Cilicia as his province, with an army of twelve thousand men-at-arms and twenty-six hundred horsemen, and he set sail,[*](In 51 B.C.) with instructions to keep Cappadocia friendly and obedient to King Ariobarzanes.

This he accomplished and arranged satisfactorily without war, and seeing that the Cilicians, in view of the Parthian disaster to the Romans and the uprising in Syria, were in an agitated state, he pacified them by his mild government. Gifts he would not receive, not even when the kings offered them, and he relieved the provincials from the expense of entertainments; but he himself daily received men of pleasing accomplishments at banquets which were not expensive, although generous.

His house, too, had no door-keeper, nor did anyone ever see him lying a-bed, but early in the morning he would stand or walk in front of his chamber and receive those who came to pay him their respects. It is said, moreover, that he never ordered any man to be chastised with rods or to have his raiment torn from him, and that he never inflicted angry abuse or contumelious punishments.

He discovered that much of the public property had been embezzled, and by restoring it he made the cities well-to-do, and men who made restitution he maintained in their civil rights without further penalties. He engaged in war, too, and routed the robbers who made their homes on Mount Amanus;[*](Cf. Cicero, ad fam. ii. 10, 2 f. ) and for this he was actually saluted by his soldiers as Imperator.