[51]
But the most
extraordinary conduct of all was this; when that painstaking and industrious praetor
had arrived at Haluntium, he would not himself go up into the town, because the
ascent was steep and difficult; but he ordered Archagathus of Haluntium, one of the
noblest men, not merely in his own city, but in all Sicily, to be summoned before him, and gave him a chance to take care
that all the chased silver that there was at Haluntium, and every specimen of
Corinthian work too, should be at once taken down from the town to the seaside.
Archagathus went up into the town. That noble man, as one who wished to be loved and
esteemed by his fellow citizens, was very indignant at having such an office imposed
upon him, and did not know what to do. He announces the commands he has received. He
orders every one to produce what they had. There was great consternation, for the
tyrant himself had not gone away to any distance; lying on a litter by the sea-side
below the town, he was waiting for Archagathus and the silver plate. What a
gathering of people do you suppose took place in the sown? what an uproar? what
weeping of women? they who saw it would have said that the Trojan horse had been
introduced, and that the city was taken.
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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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