Conscript fathers,
It grieves me to see this irrational lust for war in the senate. What has come over you that has afflicted you all with bloodlust ? I sometimes feel like I am surrounded by the beserking Illyrians again, instead of optimates.
Nevertheless, I will say this once more.

The state is not ready for another war !

A massive conflict with Iberia and/or the Ptolemaic empire would be a disaster. Even if our armies in the East will be victorious, which I think they will, they can barely be resupplied from Rome. Any serious defeat could not be replaced in less than a year. The same goes for the West. The Iberians can bring forth massive amounts of troops, which will wither away our armies in Gaul due to sheer attrition no matter how brilliant they fight. It is not for nothing I send those legions all the troops I could spare already !
We do not have the troops to garrision any cities we might conquer. We would be forced to garrison them with very expensive mercenaries, which would be a terrible drain on our finances, and which will stunt our development. The first year and a half it was a struggle to build anything, as our powerful armies had conquered so much territory it was impossible to guard all of it without the heavy use of mercenaries. This made it virtually impossible to construct any large projects. Then the need for new legions stalled the recruitement of auxilia forces to replace the mercenary garrisons. There is virtually no roman or italian soldier in all of Greece, as they are all needed at the border, and we are still short of men ! I find this deplorable. All these cities should be garrisoned by local or italian auxilia troops. The very expensive mercenaries are of better use at our borders.
Furthermore, two legions, the I and the IV are pretty beat up and need reinforcements quickly. Soon we will have three Field Armies and they are now only at legion strength or less.
We also need another legion stationed in Southern Italy, one in Southern Greece, one near Aquileia and one in Macedonia. It takes quite a lot of money and time to recruit and train even a single legion. They don't grow on trees, you know !

When our troops are brought up to strength and when the road network is finished, we might be able to fight a protracted war with one of these powers without undue suffering to our continuing development. Fighting on two fronts will strain us even then. You all seem to forget that the Ptolemaic empire and the Iberians are allies now, if we get involved with a war with one of them we will be at war with both ! We must play for time and rebuild !

This clamoring for war is madness, senators ! Come to your senses !