[101]
For what is it that you ask, O Verres?
What do you hope for? What do you expect? What god or man do you think will come to
your assistance? Did you send slaves to that place to plunder a temple, where it was
not lawful for free citizens to go, not even for the purpose of praying? Did you not
hesitate to lay violent hands on those things from which the laws of religion
enjoined you to keep even your eyes? Although it was not even because you were
charmed by the eye that you were led into this wicked and nefarious conduct; for you
coveted what you had never seen. You took a violent fancy, I say, to that which you
had not previously beheld. From your ears did you conceive this covetousness, so
violent that no fear, no religious scruple, no power of the gods, no regard for the
opinion of men could restrain it.
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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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