[45]
However,
by these means, some one will say, he gave that inheritance to the Syracusan people.
In the first place, even if I were disposed to grant that, still you must condemn
him; for it is not permitted to us with impunity to rob one man for the purpose of
giving to another. But you will find that he despoiled that inheritance himself
without making much secret of his proceedings; that the Syracusan people, indeed,
had a great deal of the odium, a great deal of the infamy, but that another had the
profit; that a few Syracusans, those who now say that they have come in obedience to
the public command of their city, to bear testimony in his favour, were then sharers
in the plunder, and are come hither now, not for the purpose of speaking in his
favour, but to assist in the valuation of the damages which they claim from him.
After he was condemned in his absence, possession is given to the palaestra of the
Syracusans,—that is, to the Syracusan people,—not only of that
inheritance which was in question, and which was of the value of three millions of
sesterces, but also of all Heraclius's own paternal
property, which was of equal amount.
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