I'd wanted to keep it brief and to the point, but to do this in the senate is to risk being ignored. So after almost fifteen minutes of exhortations, I finally wound down:

"Senators, a great and powerful man, one whose accomplishments were an ornament to Rome, has already been lost to Parthia's desert. I was there to see it, and it was a shameful and tragic moment. Let us not repeat the shame, and lose these others who have so much to give to our Republic."

I took a moment to breathe, and to glare fiercely around the room. Though I was schooled in rhetoric by the best of teachers, my small frame has always proved something of a handicap to me-- I am easily winded.

"I will understand, senators, if you do not wish to bestir yourselves from your comfortable lives in Rome," I continued, with the tiniest hint of a sneer. "Since this is your position, I am sure you will be thankful to me for offering to spare you the burden and undertake the task myself.

"I do not know the strategic situation yet, save that our friends are under siege, and that their desperate position has allowed them no better communication. So for this present time I humbly entreat, senators, that you let me go to Parthia with however many troops seem necessary. You should know already that I am both qualified and eager to serve the interests of Rome, in this case particularly. I am well acquainted with the Parthian savages, their devious strategems, and the lay of the land. I have faced them before and can do so again with perfect confidence.

"It cannot be too much to ask, senators-- I want to save Rome and her army from disaster a second time. That is all."

I took my seat to await the senate's decision.