[NUMERIUS AUREOLUS]: Legate Mamillus, do not worry, your qualities are not overlooked by all who serve the Republic.

Senators, I believe now is the time to discuss Rome's future direction. The Consul has done a superb job bringing down Carthage. She now stands as an empty shell of her former self, her generals skulking in barren desert provinces while Roman civilisation begins to take root in her great cities.

Where now should Rome look for the next challenge? Senators, I believe we face a clear choice: east or west?

There are some here, I fear the Consul himself is among them, who believe the right direction is west. There are calls here to prepare for war against Iberia. I support those calls. Those who wish for peace should prepare for war. Strengthening our western defences is only prudent.

But I emphatically do not support the demand that we start a war of aggression. It would be reckless and bloodthirsty to start a new war with Iberia. Have we forgotten that we are still engaged in four other bloody wars - with Seleucia, Ptolemy, Thrace and Carthage? Only this season, Praetor Coruncanius had to fend off a Consular sized army of Thracians. Senators, we have enough fighting on our hands already! Senators, a war of aggression is not the Roman way. We do not start wars - we finish them! To spill the blood of Romans and innocents for mere conquest and greed is dishonorable. But there is no greater honour than to fight to defend our homeland and to end war.

Senators, it may be that the day will come when we must strike Iberia. If, like Gaul under the reign of Consul Lucius Aemillus, she marches into our lands and clearly intends to strike at us, then a pre-emptive move would be justified. Indeed, the constitution allows such a strike without a Senate vote for a declaration of war. But that day has not yet come. Iberian armies do sometimes wander deep into our lands. But successive Consuls have shown great restraint and the wandering Iberians have done no harm to us. Iberia does not intend to attack us at this time.

This has been proved beyond all doubt by the current Consul. His stunning and bold Viberi maneouvre, which I opposed, showed beyond all doubt that Iberia is not presently interested in taking our settlements - even if offered up undefended. She is fixed on her war with Germania and for as long as that continues, we may be able to avoid war with her. I say we let sleeping dogs lie. Indeed, we should support our ally Germania, with gifts of gold, to keep this conflict running for as long as possible.

Instead of launching a great conflagration in the west, I say this: let us use this window of opportunity to settle old scores in the east. Seleucia and Ptolemy are still great powers, with vast hinterland resources. Only this season, we have seen Prusa - a settlement well within our borders - stand against us, as rebels loyal to Seleucia. Let us move decisively against these vile Successor states. Do not forget their unprovoked attacks on us. Do not forget the Co-Consul, my mentor, Publis Pansa, lying dead on the field at Maronia. Do not forget their armies ranging deep into Thrace, forcing Lucius Aemilius to adopt scorched earth tactics while we scrambled to muster the men needed to stop them. Let us not let them regain their former strength. If pitiful Thrace can summon up a Consular army to try to breach our frontier, how many such armies do we think Seleucia and Ptolemy can produce in the next six years? No, passivity in the face of such potential, such danger, is folly.

Senators, after the next election, I plead with you: unleash me. Let Legio V and the other armies of the east march. Let us march, yes, right down to Antioch. But then further - to the Nile and to destroy Ptolemy. Let us seize the western cities of Seleucia - rip out her heart and let Parthia and the other eastern factions feast on her dying corpse. Our future must not be a war without end. We must impose a Pax Romana and allow our citizens to enjoy the fruits of their labours, without the burden of endless military campaigns.

Senators, we have sat on the defensive in the east for too long. It offers vastly richer pickings than Gaul and Iberia. It houses our real enemies - factions of great power. The east is where we must go. Turning west would only needlessly create new enemies and deliver a few barbarian villages.

In the past, I have been accused of warmongering, of recklessly pressing for expansion in the east. Those charges were false, baseless lies. I started no wars, but merely worked hard to end two: with Macedon and Greece. This I achieved: my men slew the last King of Macedon and the last King of Greece. I say - let us provide the same service to the oppressed peoples of the Kingdoms of Seleucia and Ptolemy.

The lies told against me were malliciously spun by a vast Aemilli conspiracy seeking to set up myself and Praetor Coruncanius in order to advance the political ambitions of my late step-father, Augustus Verginius and Marcellus Aemillius. Unforeseen events frustrated that coalition but I fear it is on the march again. My step-father may rest in the earth, perhaps roaming the underworld in search of more Gauls to slay. But Marcellus still stands, frustrated but powerful - the de facto ruler of Afrika. I have no doubt he regards as his right the Consulship, which was his to claim four years ago but which he fumbled. He is resentful of his nephew assuming power before him and will stop at little to secure what he considers rightly his.

But this time things are different from when the lies were first told against me. Now we are indisputably at war in east and it is my rivals, not me, who stand as the warmongers. And it is expansion in the west that is reckless, while an advance eastwards is only prudent. I say we move east and I intend to stand for Consul on that platform. Who will stand behind me?