[14]
Who then of you all is ignorant at how great a price these things are valued? Have
we not seen at an auction a brazen statue of no great size sold for a hundred and
twenty thousand sesterces? What if I were to choose to
name men who have bought similar things for no less a price, or even for a higher
one? Can I not do so? In truth, the only limit to the valuation of such things is
the desire which any one has for them, for it is difficult to set bounds to the
price unless you first set bounds to the wish. I see then that Heius was neither led
by his inclination, nor by any temporary difficulties, nor by the greatness of the
sum given, to sell these statues; and that you, under the presence of purchase which
you put forward, in reality seized and took away these things by force, through
fear, by your power and authority, from that man, whom, along with the rest of our
allies in that country, the Roman people had entrusted not only to your power, but
also to your upright exercise of 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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