[87]
There were many statues
of brass; among them a statue of Himera herself, of marvellous beauty, made in the
shape and dress of a woman, after the name of the town and of the river. There was
also a statue of the poet Stesichorus, aged, stooping,—made, as men think,
with the most exceeding skill,—who was, indeed, a citizen of Himera, but
who both was and is in the highest renown and estimation over all Greece for his genius. These things he coveted to a
degree of madness. There is also, which I had almost passed over, a certain she-goat
made, as even we who are skilled in these matters can judge, with wonderful skill
and beauty. These, and other works of art, Scipio had not thrown away like a fool,
in order that an intelligent man like Verres might have an opportunity of carrying
them away, but he had restored them to the people of Thermae; not that he himself
had not gardens, or a suburban villa, or some place or other where he could put
them; but, if he had taken them home, they would not long have been called Scipio's,
but theirs to whom they had come by his death. Now they are placed in such places
that it seems to me they will always seem to be Scipio's, and so they are called.
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