[99]
Listen also, O judges, to the man's singular covetousness, audacity and madness,
especially in polluting those sacred things, which not only may not be touched with
the hands, but which may not be violated even in thought. There is a shrine of
Ceres among the Catenans of the same holy
nature as the one at home, and worshipped as the goddess is worshipped among foreign
nations, and in almost every country in the world. In the inmost part of that shrine
there was an extremely ancient statue of Ceres, as to which men were not only ignorant of what sort it was,
but even of its existence. For the entrance into that shrine does not belong to men,
the sacred ceremonies are accustomed to be performed by women and virgins. Verres's
slaves stole this statue by night out of that most holy and most ancient temple. The
next day the priestesses of Ceres, and the
female attendants of that temple, women of great age, noble and of proved virtue,
report the affair to their magistrates. It appeared to all a most bitter, and
scandalous, and miserable business.
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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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