[78]
If at the time you, by
reason of your covetousness and audacity, did not, while in command, fear these
religious feelings of the population, do you not fear them now, at a time of such
peril to yourself and to your children? What man, against the will of the immortal
gods, or what god, when you so trample on all the religious reverence due to them,
do you think will come to your assistance? Has that Diana inspired you, while in
quiet and at leisure, with no religious awe;—she, who though she had seen
two cities, in which she was placed stormed and burnt, was yet twice preserved from
the flames and weapons of two wars; she who, though she changed her situation owing
to the victory of the Carthaginians, yet did not lose her holy character; and who,
by the valour of Publius Africanus afterwards recovered her old worship, together
with her old situation? And when this crime had been executed, as the pedestal was
empty, and the name of Publius Africanus carved on it, the affair appeared
scandalous and intolerable to every one, that not only was religion trampled on, but
also that Caius Verres had taken away the glory of the exploits, the memorial of the
virtues, the monument of the victory of Publius Africanus, that most gallant of men.
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