This is an ancient speech by Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, and philosopher. During 66 B.C., people proposed that in addition to the command Pompey already maintained, he should be invested with absolute power in Bithynia, Pontus, and Armenia, to conduct the war against Mithridates. Cicero supported the measure in the following speech, which was the first that he ever addressed to the people. After this speech, the proposition was carried out.