[48]
That Latona, after a long wandering and persecution, pregnant, and now
near bringing forth, when her time was come, fled to Delos, and there brought forth Apollo and Diana; from which belief of
men that island is considered sacred to those gods; and such is and always has been
the influence of that religious belief, that not even the Persians, when they waged
war on all Greece, on gods and men, and
when they had put in with a fleet of a thousand ships at Delos, attempted to violate, or even to touch
anything. Did you, O most wicked, O most insane of men, attempt to plunder this
temple? Was any covetousness of such power as to extinguish such solemn religious
belief? And if you did not think of this at that time, do you not recollect even now
that there is no evil so great as not to have been long since due to you for your
wicked actions?
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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