[96]
The people of Assorum, gallant and loyal men, afterwards imitated this brave
conduct of the Agrigentines, though they did not come of so powerful or so
distinguished a city. There is a river called Chrysas, which flows through the
territories of Assorum. Chrysas, among that people, is considered a god, and is
worshipped with the greatest reverence. His temple is in the fields, near the road
which goes from Assorum to Enna. In it
there is an image of Chrysas, exquisitely made of marble. He did not dare to beg
that of the Assorians on account of the extraordinary sanctity of that temple; so he
entrusts the business to Tlepolemus and Hiero. They, having prepared and armed a
body of men, come by night; they break in the doors of the temple; the keepers of
the temple and the guardians hear them in time. A trumpet the signal of alarm well
known to all the neighbourhood, is sounded; men come in from the country, Tlepolemus
is turned out and put to fight; nor was anything missed out of the temple of Chrysas
except one very diminutive image of brass.
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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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