[57]
The things which you carried off from the
holiest temples with wickedness, and like a robber, we cannot see, except in your
own houses, or in those of your friends. The statues and decorations which Publius
Servilius brought away from the cities of our enemies, taken by his courage and
valour, according to the laws of war and his own rights as commander-in-chief, he
brought home for the Roman people; he carried them in his triumph, and took care
that a description of them should be engraved on public tablets and hid up in the
treasury. You may learn from public documents the industry of that most honourable
man. Read—“The accounts delivered by Publius
Servilius.” You see not only the number of the statues, but the size, the
figure, and the condition of each one among them accurately described in writing.
Certainly, the delight arising from virtue and from victory is much greater than
that pleasure which is derived from licentiousness and covetousness. I say that
Servilius took much more care to have the booty of the Roman people noted and
described, than you took to have your plunder catalogued.
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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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