[123]
Marcellus, who had vowed
that if he took Syracuse he would
erect two temples at Rome, was unwilling
to adorn the temple which he was going to build with these treasures which were his
by right of capture; Verres, who was bound by no vows to Honour or Virtue, as
Marcellus was, but only to Venus and to Cupid, attempted to plunder the temple of
Minerva. The one was unwilling to adorn gods in the spoil taken from gods, the other
transferred the decorations of the virgin Minerva to the house of a prostitute.
Besides this, he took away out of the same temple twenty-seven more pictures
beautifully painted; among which were likenesses of the kings and tyrants of
Sicily, which delighted one, not only by
the skill of the painter, but also by reminding us of the men, and by enabling us to
recognise their persons. And see now, how much worse a tyrant this man proved to the
Syracusans than any of the old ones, as they, cruel as they were, still adorned the
temples of the immortal gods, while this man took away the monuments and ornaments
from the gods.
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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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