[126]
For the Sappho which was taken away out of the town-hall affords you so reasonable
an excuse, that it may seem almost allowable and pardonable. That work of Silanion,
so perfect, so elegant, so elaborate, (I will not say what private man, but) what
nation could be so worthy to possess, as the most elegant and learned Verres?
Certainly, nothing will be said against it. If any one of us, who are not as happy,
who cannot be as refined as that man, should wish to behold anything of the sort,
let him go to the temple of Good Fortune, to the monument of Catulus, to the portico
of Metellus; let him take pains to get admittance into the Tusculan villa of any one
of those men; let him see the forum when decorated, if Verres is ever so kind as to
lend any of his treasures to the aediles. Shall Verres have all these things at
home? shall Verres have his house full of his villas crammed with, the ornaments of
temples and cities? Will you still, O judges, bear with the hobby, as he calls it,
and pleasures of this vile artisan? a man who was born in such a rank, educated in
such a way, and who is so formed both in mind and body, that he appears a much
fitter person to take down statues than to appropriate them.
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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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