John Maddox Roberts - [SPQR Roman Mysteries 8.5] - An Academic Question - Plot & Excerpts
That year my family wanted me out of Rome. I, in turn, did not want to go back to Caesar's army in Gaul. For once the family concurred, not because Gaul was so dangerous and unpleasant but because nobody was winning any glory there except Caesar. If you believed the dispatches he sent back for publication he was conquering the place all by himself. But to stand for higher office I needed more military time on my record. This is not to say that Gaul was the only area of Roman military operations that year. Cassius Longinus was fighting the Parthians in Syria, and Appius Claudius was, technically, still at war in Cilicia. But Syria was an ill-starred place since the defeat of Crassus at Carrhae and bad blood lay between my family and the Claudians. Fortuitously, a minor outbreak of piracy occurred in the waters around Cyprus and I was offered an equally minor naval command to deal with it. Like any sensible Roman I detest sea duty, but, upon consideration of the alternatives, I took it. The secret of handling such an assignment in those days was, simply: don't rush it.
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