[122]
There is a temple of Minerva in the island, of which I have already spoken, which
Marcellus did not touch, which he left full of its treasures and ornaments, but
which was so stripped and plundered by Verres, that it seems to have been in the
hands, not of any enemy,—for enemies, even in war, respect the rites of
religion, and the customs of the country,—but of some barbarian pirates.
There was a cavalry battle of their king Agathocles, exquisitely painted in a series
of pictures, and with these pictures the inside walls of the temple were covered.
Nothing could be more noble than those paintings; there was nothing at Syracuse that was thought more worthy going to
see. These pictures, Marcus Marcellus, though by that victory of his he had divested
everything of its sacred inviolability of character, still, out of respect for
religion, never touched; Verres, though, in consequence of the long peace, and the
loyalty of the Syracusan people, he had received them as sacred and under the
protection of religion, took away all those pictures, and left naked and unsightly
those walls whose decorations had remained inviolate for so many ages, and had
escaped so many wars:
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